April 08, 1996, Issue: 574
Section: Cover Story
By Bruce Caldwell
In the government offices of santa clara County, Calif., client-server systems grow like weeds along the freeway. The county, home to a good chunk of Silicon Valley, spends an estimated $1 billion a year to support nearly 50 versions of client-server technology used by as many local agencies. The county's client-server effort was built without standards, without a central technology organization, without communications links between departments, and without enough user support.
Unfortunately, that's typical. Even EDS Corp., which has grown into
a $12.4 billion empire by installing and managing other companies' computer systems, can't get client-server right. Its 90,000 employees work on heterogeneous client-server systems, all designed for different business needs. "We've got a big problem," admits Todd Carlson, CIO at the Plano, Texas, systems integrator. "Like most companies, we've got a kludge of standards and platforms that aren't as efficient as we'd like."
Client-server, the hot technology of the early '90s, is now openly declared a disappointment. The Standish Group, a consulting firm in Dennis, Mass., recently found that only 16% of IS managers say their client-server projects were on time and on budget. "People are asking, 'Is client-server dead?' " says Jim Allchin, senior VP at Microsoft. Though the answer is clearly No, the technology is being transformed. The model is being changed by the Internet and corporate intranets.
Client-server grew out of a desire to push computing power and decision-making down to the user. It flourished because users were frustrated with the slow pace of centralized, mainframe development. As the corporate world downsized, restructured, and reengineered itself, networked PCs controlled distributed data and applications, and client-server swept the country.
But as the technology grew, so did its problems. Because client-server systems are distributed, costs became nearly impossible to track, and administration and management difficulties multiplied. The total cost of owning a client-server system is in general a staggering three to six times greater than it is for a comparable mainframe system, according to Bill Keyworth, research director for network and systems management services at Gartner Group, the Stamford, Conn., advisory firm. Software tools for managing and administering client-server
cost two-and-a-half times more than mainframe tools, Gartner finds.
Also, while client-server has been called the true manifestation of open systems, reality has fallen far short. The middleware that was supposed to glue together disparate systems turned out to be a patchwork of technologies that focused on linking the same types of systems or particular vendor offerings.
That adds up to a lot of user disappointment. One
in four respondents to an InformationWeek survey of 225 top IS managers conducted in late March indicated that client-server has failed to live up to expecta-tions. Only two-fifths called the architecture "a worthwhile investment" (see chart, p. 36)
As a result, corporate intranets, the Internet, and network-centric computing in general have become the new focus of corporate IS departments determined to get over the heartbreak of client-server. "The migration of Web technology into the organization is the direction that things are headed," says Dean Linebarger, a project manager charged with linking disparate systems within Santa Clara County's offices.
That's why Carlson of EDS took out global licenses last month for Microsoft's Exchange groupware product and Netscape's Navigator Web browser to solve his client-server problems. Allchin of Microsoft, who oversees the software giant's networking and enterprise products, believes that client-server is on the brink of metamorphosing into a new form of distributed computing based on the Internet. Don Brett, assistant VP and CIO at utility Detroit Edison, calls the Internet a "complementary technology, fitting within our client-server environment."
If the past is any indicator, network-centric or Internet-based computing will no more displace mainframe and client-server technology than credit cards replaced checks and paper currency. Santa Clara County, for example, is building Claranet, a $4.3 million wide area network to tie together its client-server islands, rather than throw out more than 100 LANs. The new network will combine TCP/IP, Apple-Talk, Novell's IPX, and encapsulated SNA protocols to open communications gateways among heterogeneous systems and the Internet. The common communications backbone will support E-mail, remote systems operations, file transfer, and, most important, a platform-independent architecture that should cut development costs and reduce demand for user support, says project manager Linebarger.
New Ways To Manage
EDS plans to use Web browsers to access legacy systems. In the process, says CIO Carlson, the systems integrator may avoid deploying SAP R/3 applications at its U.S. operations. The trend portends a radically different way to manage many business systems.
Peter Tarrant, IBM's VP of client-server marketing, says client-server isn't dead, but is a "stepping stone to network-centric computing." James Cannavino, president and chief operating officer of Perot Systems Corp. and a former IBM strategist, says that "those who say network-centric is just an extension of client-server, the way client-server was an extension of mainframe computing, are missing the boat."
With network-centric computing, Cannavino asserts, businesses will stop buying prepackaged software and move instead to a subscription model in which computing is a utility and companies pay fees to vendors based on actual usage.
Also, Internet-based computing provides "new opportunities for integration and synthesis between what's inside the company and what's outside," says Martin Haeberli, director of technology at Netscape Communications Corp. in Mountain View, Calif. Intranets, Haeberli adds, "can easily be opened up, with proper security precautions, to overseas divisions, suppliers, customers, and distributors."
But the greatest potential may be in making client-server truly open. "The average desktop PC today has seven to 15 applications-50 to 100 software components-each of which has different versions," notes Haeberli. "With the single universal Web client, you don't have to worry which of 20,000 desktops are configured with drivers for Oracle6 and which for Oracle7."
Sounds great. But is it possible to put too much faith in intranets as a cure-all for client-server? Yes, says Gerry Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders, a vendor of data-access tools and middleware in New York. "Nobody's going to do their corporate accounting using an Internet connection," he says. "The real production kind of stuff that's going on today in client-server has no fear of the Internet."
Manny Fernandez, chairman and CEO of the Gartner Group, notes that intranets have become the focus of much corporate experimentation, but he too worries that intranet solutions are being over-promised. Fernandez points out that there have been a lot of mistakes in the client-server world. He wonders, "Are we about to do the same thing with the Internet? Any time you overheat something, there is a settling down, as there was with client-server and will be with intranets."
Overheat is the right word. Worldwide corporate spend-ing on Internet technologies and services more than tripled between 1994 and 1995, reaching $12 billion, according to Input, a market research firm in Mountain View, Calif. By 2000, Input projects, total worldwide spending on the Net will hit $208 billion.
The market momentum and hype mean that IS executives will have to exercise caution. The reason: Web-based technology can be installed by users, and that can lead to out-of-control situations that mimic the explosive history of client-server.
At Dow Chemical Co., for example, more than 40 internal Web sites run in the company's Midland, Mich., headquarters. "There's a lot of overlap across quite a few of those sites," says David Yoo, manager of Dow's electronic commerce application center. To solve the problem, the chemical company has begun replacing a patchwork of 30,000 PCs of various makes with standard Pentium machines. Dow has also obtained global licenses for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system and Office applications suite, Timbuktu's collaboration tools, and Netscape's Navigator. "Our focus is getting the infrastructure in place and understanding costs," Yoo says. "The stuff is not free, even though everyone thinks it is."
Maybe not free, but certainly less costly. A business doesn't need to standardize desktops and operating systems for Internet technology to work. An existing client-server infrastructure can serve as the backbone to an intranet. Also, with free or low-cost application development tools available on the Net, the creation of systems can be cheaper than in the client-server world.
At Silicon Graphics, where users with browsers turned 700 PCs into Web servers over the past year, a staff of five people within an IS organization of 350 handles Silicon Junction, the company's intranet. "Bringing up Web pages can easily be taught to a non-programmer," says Ken Coleman, senior VP of corporate administration.
Coleman says the Web "definitely does reduce cost and time for development and training." While Silicon Graphics' IS budget has not been reduced, the new setup "allows me to get more done with the budget I have," he adds. Silicon Graphics, of course, is becom-ing a major supplier of Internet technology, introducing on March 18 WebForce Intranet, which integrates hardware and software to create and manage Web sites on intranets.
"It's not about ripping out old systems," says Julie Farris, manager of Webforce. "The investments made in legacy and client-server systems and applications are preserved." That's true, in part, because a browser delivers a single window to all data. "Today's Web provides document-access service to anyone with a browser," says Robert Frankenberg, CEO of Novell. Tomorrow's Web, he predicts, "will provide other network services." These will include messaging, transaction processing, and security, he adds.
Intranet Everywhere
Client-server tools and applications are already changing to embrace the Internet. Remote access provider Shiva Corp. in Bedford, Mass., for example, introduced WebRover in February. WebRover provides remote access to corporate LANs, intranets, and the Internet. Woody Benson, Shiva's senior VP of sales and marketing, says that LAN-access tools eventually will be replaced by modified remote-access Web browsers.
Packaged software companies see potential in the new, expanded client-server model. Dun & Bradstreet Software said on March 25 that it will build SmartStream Web Series, Java-based enterprise applications designed for use on intranets. An initial application will allow local and remote users to download, fill out, and file purchase requisitions for a manager's approval. The application, to be built with help from Sun Microsystems and scheduled for release in May, will be followed later this year by a series of human resources applets en-abling employees to check their benefits, change exemptions, and adjust 401(k) plans on an intranet. "Rather than install a full-blown client, all a company will need is a browser," says Jeff Scherb, Dun & Bradstreet's chief technology officer in Atlanta. "Users can download the code from a Web page and create their own purchase requisitions."
Other enterprise client-server applications vendors have similar products in development. PeopleSoft plans to modify its applications to run over the Internet and intranets. Both SAP and Baan are working with start-up Business@Web in Watertown, Mass., to use its OpenScape software to link their applications to the Web and let users check product availability or place orders online. "Our software allows users to extend their business on to the Web," says Klaus Besier, CEO of Business@Web and the former head of SAP America.
That sort of business extension should prove alluring to many IS executives and the businesses they serve. "The Internet is a tremendous vehicle for CIOs to align themselves with the business," says Michael Bauer, manager
of technology planning services for EDS' client-server group.
Adds Besier: "If you have fallen behind your competition in your use of technology, you can still participate in the Web. Your customers and business partners don't necessarily care what [your technology] looks like inside."
Many CIOs have embraced the Web's business potential. Bill Howard, for example, CIO at Inland Steel in Chicago, has set up an intranet that's accessible to 5,000 PCs on 160 LANs, replacing paper systems to distribute meeting notes, reports, employee benefits data, manuals, and news. "The intranet is the wave of the future," says Howard.
Inland Steel's next step, he says, may be to provide direct database access to the company's automotive customers. "The intranet will eventually replace EDI," Howard asserts. For Inland and others, Web-based technology already is easing the pain of client-server while preserving legacy data and systems. It may even have finessed systems management and middleware problems-albeit temporarily.
But while the Internet may bypass some of the problems inherent in client-server architectures, there's the unknown complexity of an emerging and wildly popular technology.
Sound familiar? Well, get ready. Here we go again.
With Doug Bartholomew, Barbara DePompa, Jill Gambon, Caryn Gillooly, Monua Janah, Rich Levin, Stephanie Stahl, John Swenson, and Clinton Wilder
copyright (r) 1996 CMP Publications, Inc.