Connecting PCs to Open Systems? UniForum '95 Tells How
Integrating e-mail systems, LANs with UNIX is track topic
Open systems is intruding on the proprietary world in ways that
might not have been expected a year or two ago, especially in
the need to connect networks of PCs and Macintoshes with larger
UNIX systems and with the Internet.
That's the basis for the UniForum '95 Conference track "Upsizing
and Integrating PCs with Open Systems," one of ten tracks in
the March 14-17 conference in Dallas. The track is designed for
managers of PC LANs who don't want to throw out their existing
systems in favor of UNIX, but who need to make their networks
interoperate with some facet of open systems. The need to integrate
may be spurred by a number of reasons, according to David Bernstein,
track chair and vice president of product development for Electronic
Publishing Resources, Inc.
For example:
- The PCs may need to connect with another department in the
company that is based on UNIX.
- A particular application has been found that runs only on
a UNIX server.
- Employees need to take advantage of the Internet for e-mail
or for using the information resources of the World-Wide Web.
Bernstein gives a typical scenario: "Say you had a PC LAN down
in the manufacturing department, and for some reason the manufacturing
resource planning software that was chosen ran on the big UNIX
machine. So it arrives-now what do you do? How would you set
that up? Or you've got one department that uses cc:Mail and one
department that uses Microsoft mail, and now you want to create
a corporate e-mail system. I probably want to install a nice,
big UNIX box with good backup, and maybe it's got to be pretty
powerful, but it's got to hook up to all these different networks
and deal with these different e-mail applications. How do I do
that?"
The typical track attendee will be a network administrator, IS
director, or system administrator who has a PC network running
Windows and linked with NetWare, but needs information about
how to start adding open systems components. "We'll have a number
of vendors discuss how they could set up UNIX servers to serve
PC desktops," Bernstein says. "We'll have some people talk about
integrating software, and even a software developer's perspective
on Windows and UNIX desktops"
The track sessions include:
- "Comparing and Integrating Desktop Alternatives: Windows
95 and UNIX," chaired by Leith Anderson, senior director of the
client/server division at Oracle Corp.
- "Choosing and Integrating the Right Server: Windows NT and
UNIX," chaired by Rebel Brown, president of Cognoscenti, Inc.
- "Integrating UNIX with NetWare," chaired by Shannon Reynolds,
area technical specialist with Novell, Inc.
- "Integrating UNIX with OS/2 and Workplace OS PCs," chaired
by a representative of IBM.
- "PC Applications on UNIX Desktops," chaired by Stephan Chan,
president of Uniprime Systems, Inc.
- "Integrating UNIX with Macintosh PCs and Network."
- "Turning Your PC into an Open Networked, X-Window Workstation,"
chaired by Anil Malhotra, vice president of marketing of IXI
Corp.
- "LAN Messaging Servers," chaired by Bernstein.
- "UNIX Servers for PC Networks," chaired by Robert Kruger,
director of strategic relations and standards for Microsoft.
Reynolds says his session will be addressed to both users of NetWare
who need to connect to UNIX, and to UNIX users needing NetWare
connectivity. He will discuss Novell offerings including NewWare NFS,
UnixWare, LAN Workplace and LAN Workgroup. "A lot of people from
the UNIX environment are a little confused about how they can
use NetWare," Reynolds says. "They need to know how to get into a
NewWare environment. And I think it's also important for people
running NetWare servers to know how to get access to application
servers such as UNIX machines, which are more open."