The NC Revolution

By Scott Leibs



Less is more when it comes to Network Computers


For the first time since computers have taken center stage on the desktops of corporate America, the machine taking the market by storm is one that actually does less than its predecessors.

Meet the "network computer," also known as "NC," "thin client," "network appliance," or, as one analyst dubs them, "network toasters." The fact that such a relatively simple device can go by so many names is ample proof that this is a concept that has yet to burst fully forth from its shrink-wrap.

In one sense, that's curious because the idea behind network computers is as old as computing itself: use a very simple desktop machine (little to no processing power, no storage) to communicate with a larger computer, which does all the work. NCs are the direct descendants of dumb terminals such as IBM's famed 3270, and, more recently, X terminals and diskless workstations.

But in another sense, NCs are revolutionary because they buck the current trend in desktop computing: more power and more features should be delivered to all users as fast as Moore's Law can generate those next-generation microchips. NCs are a cry to let loose at the all-you-can-eat buffet table of corporate information-age largesse. "Customers are now telling us that they don't want to put a 200Mhz Pentium machine on someone's desk if that person only uses word-processing and email," says IBM's Jim Palatucci, product marketing program director in the company's Network Computer division in Somers, NY. "From the time we debuted the AS/400 minicomputer (in the late '80s) customers have been pushing for lower-cost access to centralized processing, and we've been working on it."

That may be Palatucci's way of suggesting the NCs were not single-handedly conceived by Oracle Corp. founder and CEO Larry Ellison. But it has been Ellison's relentless proselytizing over the past 12 months that has put NCs neck-and-neck with the Internet in the Technology Hype Derby. Not bad for a guy whose company doesn't even make computers (although a "set-top box" device the company had in the works, which makes it possible to get high-speed Internet access, is evolving into an NC).

It was the explosion in Internet use that, Ellison says, inspired his idea. If access to information via the Internet was fast becoming the focus of many people's professional (and personal) lives, the argument went, why not offer a simple, low-cost ($500 to $700) computer-a sort of Volkswagen Beetle for the Info Highway that would get them there economically?

Ellison quickly formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Network Computer Inc., to address software issues associated with this idea. Some hardware vendors, notably IBM and Sun, leapt in, while others demurred. But as the buzz continued to build, everyone from Compaq to Microsoft to Intel began to come forward with products or plans for them. International Data Corp. in Framingham, MA, predicts that the number of desktop machines accessing the Internet will rise from 60 million in 1996 to 265 million in 2000, with NCs accounting for more than 20% of them. Put another way, IDC sees a 176.4% compound annual growth rate for NCs over the next five years.

Ironically, much of the appeal to customers seems to have less to do with Internet access than with recapturing the virtues of the dumb terminal: low cost and easy maintenance. "With NCs, you don't open yourself up to the problems of PCs," says Chris Housely, director of information systems for The Crosby Group, a manufacturer based in Tulsa, OK. "PC clients are expensive to buy, and more expensive to maintain. You're fixing them every day as users go in and modify their configuration files, introduce unsupported software, or have a hard-drive or diskette problem. With NCs, you have a controlled environment, but one that gives you a lot of flexibility, as well."

Housely says his firm now has about 20 NCs in place, most for use by customer-service agents who had been using dumb terminals. He plans to increase use of the machines to several dozen by the end of the year.

Analysts agree with Housely that the total-cost-of-ownership issue is sharply in the NC's favor. Neil MacDonald of the Gartner Group in Stamford, CT puts the total annual figure for a PC running Windows 95 in a networked environment at about $10,000 a year, compared to $1,800 to $3,000 for an NC.

Not everyone is a believer, however. Whatever their virtues on the hardware side-which essentially boil down to the less you have, the less you pay, the less you fix-on the software side, NCs will, like so many technologies before them, have to wait for the applications to catch up.

George Orlov, VP and CIO at Unicom Corp., an electrical services provider in Chicago, has taken a look at NCs and isn't impressed. "It's much more hype than reality," he says, "at least for the next 12 months. Unless you want to rearchitect your applications, how are you going to take advantage of them?"

Orlov is alluding to the fact that replacing a PC with an NC is more than just a matter of unplugging the cable from one box and sticking it in the back of another. While NCs offer a major usability advantage in that end users don't have to be retrained (everything looks the same at the desktop level), NCs really need applications that have been written in, or modified with, Sun Microsystem's Java programming language. And even IBM's Palatucci, who say his company will sell "tens of thousands" of its Network Computer Stations this year, admits that "industrial-strength applications that make full use of Java" aren't here yet.

But they may not be far off. One major benefit of using Java is that a software vendor can write just one version of a program that can run on virtually any computer. As a result, the Java/NC boom has enormous support from the legion of third-party software suppliers who have already been the beneficiaries of corporate America's new preference to buy off-the-shelf software rather than build its own. IBM's Palatucci adds, "That doesn't mean customers need to wait to reap the benefits of an NC. Customers deploying the IBM Network Station can immediately access their mission-critical applications, whether they be S/390, AS/400, RS/6000 or Windows-based."

And NCs may also get a boost from nascent efforts to create some type of standards. Today, one company's NC probably won't work well, or at all, with another's. But a two-part specification agreed to by Oracle, IBM, Sun, and others now spells out what features a device must have to be designated an "NC," and what elements of Java must be supported. This specification lacks the true, technical nitty-gritty of a "standard" as usually defined in the computing industry, but is a useful step in that direction.

Hardware vendors face an interesting challenge: already struggling to explain to customers (and sometimes rival divisions within) how NCs differ from PCs, they will have to roll out the inevitable "new and improved" models but resist loading them up with features that make them truly indistinguishable from the PCs they're likely to replace. "Some of these 'thin clients' don't look so thin anymore," says Unicom's Orlov.

IBM's Palatucci is more diplomatic. While acknowledging that today "clients are spending a lot for capacity they don't need," he hastens to add, "We're not saying NCs will replace PCs; these are complementary products. Just as GM offers everything from Corvettes and Cadillacs to basic Chevys depending on your needs, we offer a portfolio of desktop machines."


About the Author: Scott Leibs is a freelance writer based in Boston.



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