NT Server for Indenets
So what's this idea got to do with Windows NT? NT Server is a good candidate
for running the indenet application servers. On the indenet provider's intranet,
each indenet subscriber can share or be allocated its own discrete application
server for security and performance reasons. The indenet provider and indenet
customer can use NT-based Internet connectivity and security servers. This idea
naturally makes one think the indenet is an ideal business for Microsoft. Think
of the revenue potential of a Microsoft-managed indenet running, say, SAP's
accounting applications. It would be a multibillion-dollar service market.
IBM, of course, might argue that an indenet is an ideal paradigm for
mainframes or AS/400s. This argument has many advantages, but an NT solution
lets the indenet provider start small, using inexpensive commodity hardware and
software, and build up. Consequently, business application vendors (such as
accounting or sales automation vendors) could pilot indenets quickly and test
the concept's business potential with relatively little expense.
NT Server is an interesting vehicle for an indenet provider's intranet, but
this solution may discourage the indenet customer's use of NT Workstation: The
indenet business model is better suited for the network computer (NC) as the
indenet customer's primary desktop, because users need only a Web browser to
interact with the indenet applications. The NC is a cheaper and easier way to
deliver indenet connectivity. This approach would benefit the NC concept's
non-Microsoft backers, such as Oracle and Sun Microsystems. But in the end,
users will access the indenet with whatever is already on the corporate
desktop--the well-entrenched PC.
Of course, indenet providers and customers would depend on a core
infrastructure, the Internet, that is not wholly in their control. But as
standards emerge for transaction security, data encryption and compression, and
point-to-point tunneling techniques, this dependence may not be such a problem.
The real problem may be persuading businesses to adopt the indenet model and go
back to the future with a new type of outsourcing.
Still, I predict that the first vendors who package viable indenet services
will lead the way toward morphing client/ server computing into a new way of
managing corporate business applications. This new way combines the benefits of
outsourcing application maintenance with complete internal control of the
business data asset.