Redmond, Wash. - Instead of an elevator ride from NT 3.51 to the upcoming 5.0, Microsoft Corp. wants server customers to take the stairs - pushing them to first climb up to NT 4.0, and then step up once again to 5.0 when it arrives later this year or early next year.
An estimated 70% to 80% of NT Server users are still on 3.51, and many are wary of 4.0 due to stability problems. But Microsoft has not budged.
"We are not thinking about 3.51. We are not sitting here testing 3.51 and 5.0 systems mixed," said Jim Allchin, senior vice president of Microsoft's Desktop and Business Systems Division.
"So users should buy and install NT 4.0 because we are spending a great deal of time making that migration [to NT 5.0] easy," he said.
Users are not pleased and wonder why they need to endure both the cost and the headaches associated with two major server upgrades within just 18 months. And many are riled at being forced to buy into the less useful feature set of NT 4.0 in order to get at what they really want, the NT 5.0 Active Directory.
"Why should I have to put all my money and effort into 4.0 when it doesn't give me what I really need?" asked James McKane, a network manager with Tread Corp., a manufacturing firm in Roanoke, Va. McKane said his NT 3.51 servers are rock-solid, and he does not want to upset that stability for the NT 4.0 graphical user interface or the bundled Internet features. "The directory service is what is going to make my life easier, and Microsoft is essentially telling me to pay for it twice by forcing me into NT 4.0," he said.
Others point to the disruption. "Being a 24-by-7 shop, we can't afford the downtime it takes to carry out multiple upgrades," said Rick Shope, manager of PC technology and planning at NationsBanc-CRT in Chicago.
Forty-eight of NationsBanc-CRT's 50 NT Servers are running Version 3.51. Shope is planning to gradually upgrade all of them as well as 1,000 workstations to NT over the next year. However, he said, having to migrate to NT 4.0 first will likely delay the firm's eventual move to NT 5.0.
Allchin claim smoving to NT 4.0 first is necessary because it lays the groundwork for the distributed computing features expected with NT 5.0, such as the Active Directory service. For example, NT 4.0 has some support for the Unix-based Domain Naming System (DNS), which is expected to play a big role in host name space resolution in the Active Directory.
Additionally, NT 4.0 servers can run pieces of NT 5.0 technology that Microsoft has already made available, such as its Distributed File System.
Observers disagree. "That is baloney. Microsoft just doesn't have a compelling business value in NT 4.0," said Neil MacDonald, an analyst with Gartner Group, Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "They did nothing with the directory. You can get the Web server they put in there free anyway. Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol hasn't taken off, so what do you really get? It's arrogant to rope people in by threatening backwards incompatibility."
MacDonald also noted the publicized problems with NT 4.0 device driver incompatibility, video drivers taking the server down and recent NT 4.0 service pack problems, which also freeze up the server. All these have customers that are used to stable NT 3.51 systems scared to make the move.
"My NT 3.51 servers have been up since last February. I will not risk that security to prep for code that promises a lot but isn't even close to being delivered," said Josh Turiel, director of information services at Adlife Company, Inc., an advertising firm in Norwood, Mass.
There is a possibility that Microsoft will look at compatibility issues should NT 4.0 not be more widely accepted as the NT 5.0 release approaches, said Enzo Schiano, group product manager for NT Server.
But Allchin said the company is focused on making the NT 5.0 migration from NT Server 4.0 a smooth one.
"We will let users install an NT 5.0 system, and it will run with the old 4.0 domain controllers. They can put in more 5.0 systems as backup and primary domain controllers when they get more comfortable," he said.
