🚀 go-pugleaf

 
In article <5h5bs0$end@sjx-ixn6.ix.netcom.com>,
    aax@ix.netcom.com(ANDREW GRYGUS ) wrote ...

> IBM has replaced NT in a few critical spots, but NatWest holds they
> have far too much invested in NT to abandon it.  They have not heard
> the advice of (don't remember name of zillionare) who, when asked for
> advice on how to get rich, responded, "Never meet a margin call".

According to Information Week (a new UK publication for IT people), the
IBM involvement at NatWest has reduced the importance of NT by starting
to move some of the critical applications back onto the IBM mainframes.
They wrote:

    In 1992 NatWest announced the rollout of a flexible middle-tier
    infrastructure for its branch network, called the Retail Bank
    Platform (RBP).  It chose a distributed network of NT servers as
    the core technology - a bold decision at the time, given the
    product's relative immaturity.  The project was designed to cut
    staff costs by offering business-based multimedia services to
    around 2,300 branches across the UK.
    
    The original spend was targeted at 200m, but by 1996 there was
    significant overspend as delays dogged the rollout.  It was
    rumoured the project would be cancelled but, instead, NatWest
    hired IBM to stiffen the system's backbone.  The weak link in
    the NT chain was reported to be SMS, Microsoft's Systems
    Management Server, and so IBM's open systems management platform
    Systemview (now integrated into Tivoli) was brought into replace
    SMS at a cost of 3m.  But the deals went further - IBM was also
    hired to provide integration services between branches,
    middle-tier and back-office IBM mainframe systems.
    
    However, the real killer for Microsoft was the announcement that
    that IBM was to work with Bristol Technology to suck some RBP NT
    services back onto the mainframe.  The Bristol S/390 is likely
    to be available as a product for ISVs this year.  It works by
    providing APIs, such that an application written in NT can be
    recompiled using IBM's VisualAge C++ to run natively on an
    OS/390 Open Edition mainframe.  It is not emulation but
    recompiled code, which means performance suffers less.
    
    NatWest was important to Microsoft's credibility as one of its
    first enterprise-wide customers, and the Redmond vendor was
    further shaken in 1996 by the news that Commonwealth Bank of
    Australia was experiencing similar problems.  At NatWest, NT was
    downgraded and IBM's mainframe emerged as the most important
    platform in a three-tier architecture.


Niel
-- 
Niel Kempson <kempson@snowyowl.co.uk>