------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews The Biweekly Newsletter For UniForum Members ------------------------------------------------------------ Issue Date: May 08, 1996 Volume X, Number 7 ------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews is written and published by UniForum's publications department. For information on articles in this issue or to contribute news to future issues, contact Richard Cole, (512) 292-1561, fax: (512) 292-1566, or email at 76402.1503@compuserve.com. Copyright 1996 by UniForum. All rights reserved. UNIX is a registered trademark, licensed exclusively by X/Open Co., Ltd. UniForum is a trademark of UniForum. Printed in USA. UniNews (ISSN 1069-0395) is published biweekly for $12 per year (membership dues) by UniForum, 2901 Tasman Dr., Suite 205, Santa Clara, CA 95054. Except for individual use by member subscribers, no portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of UniForum. UniNews is presented in ASCII format. It is also available in hypertext by accessing the UniForum World Wide Web Server. Point your WWW client to http://www.uniforum.org. ------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents: o Data Warehouse Backlash? o SCO and OEMs Standardize on UnixWare o Disbributed Computing Conference o All-Star Program Committee Plans UniForum '97 Conference o 50,000 Attend Virtual Trade Show o UniForum Press: Call For Book Proposals o UniForum Association Presents o News Flash From UniForum! o UniNews Recruitment and Positions Wanted o Call for Perl Authors o For inquiries on the UniForum '97 Conference o UniForum Member Benefits ------------------------------------------------------------ Data Warehouse Backlash? ------------------------ Smaller solutions appear By Jeffrey Bartlett For nearly two years now, vendors of all types--server systems, RDBMS and tools--have been stampeding user organizations toward data warehousing. Their main cattle prod has been the electric shock of the buzzwords competitive advantage. Customer service and decision support are the most widely touted applications for achieving this goal. To judge from the recent DB Expo, held in April in San Francisco, the herd is in full stampede. One of four conference divisions was dedicated to data warehousing and parallel computing, and it included as many sessions as the omnibus database and client/server division. Clearly, the expo organizers and the vendors and consultants who led the conference saw a need to jump on the subject with both feet. But the rush to sell these solutions may be running into its first wall. Customers know they have a problem with data access, but they're not sure building a warehouse is the answer. The data warehouse generally is understood as an enterprise-wide system; by definition it almost has to be. As a new, large-scale construction, it is expensive, complex to understand and complicated to implement and maintain. To do it right requires outlays of time and money that not every company can afford, no matter how worried they are about competitive advantage. The idea of starting such a project at the top of the IT infrastructure could seem to be just too much. *** Enter the Data Mart Vendors show signs of realizing this and, ever resourceful, are proposing warehouse-style solutions on a smaller scale. The concept of the data mart, a department-size data repository tailored for specific users and their applications, was on everyone's lips. There were a couple of obvious reasons for this. A data mart can be built faster and more cheaply than a warehouse, and it does not require revamping the entire architecture. Instead, it can serve as the proof of a concept that lets a supplier get a foot in the door. This tactic reveals another vendor strategy. Apparently everyone--from hardware and RDBMS giants to small consulting shops--involved in the current data access frenzy has implementation teams who can take the customer through the whole process, from defining needs to building a pilot to managing a warehouse after it is built. Consulting is a growing source of revenue for vendors in general, and in this arena, where knowledge of fast-changing technology is scarce, they see a major opportunity. But the data mart itself raises crucial questions, particularly in the area of integration. Following the metaphor, how do you tie all the local data marts into the corporate distribution center? Ultimately, the central data warehouse has to populate the data marts, but marts often spring up in departments independently of the overall corporate structure. Potentially, user organizations and their IS departments are looking at a reprise of the rivalry between the data center and departmental LANs--a situation that many enterprises are still struggling to overcome and are not anxious to see happen again. *** Back on the Big End Despite the interest in data access on a smaller scale, conference sessions on the very large database (VLDB) and parallel computing, in which I was interested, seemed to draw well. There's no doubt that data keeps growing like mushrooms in the forest, and the IS pros who attended DB Expo are seriously engaged in trying to deal with it. One consultant leading a conference session tried to pinpoint the state of the art at the high end. Nagraj Alur of Data Base Associates of Morgan Hill, CA, posed the rhetorical question, "Are corporations really exploiting parallel processing technologies?" In response he answered, "Yes, they expect to." This equivocation may not be what anybody wants to hear, but it probably is accurate. Those on the supply side of the equation can run out all the new strategies they want, but from the implementation side we're not there yet. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ SCO and OEMs Standardize on UnixWare ------------------------------------ Plan for standard enterprise-level servers on Intel The series of announcements from SCO, beginning with its purchase of UnixWare from Novell last fall and including the joint-agreement announcement with Hewlett-Packard at UniForum '96 to develop Unix for a 64-bit processor architecture, continued with a press briefing in San Francisco on Apr. 23. At that meeting, Alok Mohan, SCO president and CEO, introduced senior officers from Data General, ICL, NCR, and Unisys, as well as others on videotape, each of whom spoke about their company's decision to commit to SCO UnixWare as a standard, high-volume Unix operating system based on Intel processors. Mohan stressed that the announcement signaled real progress towards his goal of a collaborative process that preserves innovation. This innovation, he said, will come from the work that manufacturers will do to provide value-added features. At the same time, independent software vendors (ISVs) will have fewer ports with which to contend. Mohan said he expects this to result in many more applications being developed for the Unix platform. A number of industry-leading ISVs were at the meeting to lend their endorsement, including Acucobol, BEA, Computer Associates, Information Builders, Informix, Netscape Communications, Oracle, Platinum Technologies, SAS Institute and SAP. An SCO technical white paper, "SCO UnixWare 2.1, Enabling the Enterprise" is available on the Web at http://www.sco.com. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Disbributed Computing Conference -------------------------------- Open Software Foundation brings its message to San Jose The OSF DCE User & Developer Conference, held Apr. 16-18 in San Jose, CA, offered a wide-ranging, comprehensive look at the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and its applications across the enterprise. The well-attended conference offered visitors a variety of useful presentations arranged in four concurrent tracks: DCE Technology, Tools and Products; DCE Deployment/End User Stories; DCE Client/Server & Objects; and DCE Security and the World Wide Web. Other highlights of the conference included a presentation by Maj. Gen. William H. Campbell on the U.S. Army's use of DCE for its global command and control effort, and a "DCE-enabled" product showcase where attendees could run DCE-based applications on a variety of different platforms. Products were available from several of the industry's principal vendors, including Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard and SunSoft. At the show, UniNews spoke with Joseph Maloney, director of technology marketing for OSF. He filled us in on the ongoing work of OSF and The Open Group that focuses on the advancement of DCE technology and implementations. He told us that work is concentrating in three major areas of technology: the World Wide Web, objects and client/server. OSF has carried out significant work in each of these areas, which Maloney says has had "a major effect on the direction of DCE." Maloney stressed that the presentations at this year's conference show significant growth in the number of companies that are actually in production with DCE-related products. "For the first time," he said, "a large number of companies and organizations are talking about full production use of DCE." Maloney specifically cited MCI, which currently has 8,500 DCE users throughout its organization; IBM, which is integrating DCE's time, directory and security services into its CORBA model; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, which has just made a major investment in DCE; and the U.S. Army, which is planning procurements of DCE technology that will amount to some $2 billion over the next few years. "At previous shows, participants were talking about their early work with DCE: testing, prototyping and so on," Maloney said. "A critical mass appears to finally have been reached in the productization of DCE. This is also reflected in what the industry consultants and analysts are saying." He cited a recent industry market research study from Input of Mountain View, CA, that estimates a 100 percent compound annual growth rate for sales of DCE-related products and services. The study valued the DCE market at $50 million at the end of 1994, and it states that it will grow to $1.65 billion by 1999. Maloney said that OSF "considers these figures to be conservative," particularly in light of the level of government DCE-related procurement. According to Maloney, "DCE technology is finding adoption in so many application areas that its explosive growth can no longer be ignored. DCE is gaining this tremendous acceptance because it provides something vitally important to open systems: real interoperability. After all the hype and argument," he said, "there are only two things that users of open systems really want: portable interfaces across platforms and interoperability. DCE is positioned to deliver in both those areas." End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ All-Star Program Committee Plans UniForum '97 Conference -------------------------------------------------------- Discussion begins on new and expanded conference topics Work is already in full swing to help make sure that next year's UniForum Conference is better than ever, and that includes a recent planning session by the UniForum program committee on May 4-5 at Carmel Valley, CA. The committee members determine the content of each year's conference, basing their selection on what they feel are the most important issues and technologies of the day. Although details about next year's plans are not yet available, members were optimistic going into the session about what they hoped to accomplish. "We've assembled an outstanding international group of people this year," says Richard Jaross, UniForum executive director. "The committee represents a broad spectrum of the industry: hardware and software developers, analysts, the press and end users." Jaross also points out that the committee is balanced between experienced and first-time members, ensuring a welcome diversity of viewpoints. Each year, the program committee analyzes the previous year's conference in detail, discussing attendance patterns and the written comments provided by attendees after the sessions. Based on this information, they plan next year's track sessions, seminars and tutorials. This planning effort is an impressive challenge because, in effect, the committee has to predict what will be leading-edge technical issues almost a year in advance. However, it is a challenge that the members are well suited to handle. As David Bernstein, consultant and committee member, put it, "We have a lot of the people here who are inventing the future." In addition to Jaross and Bernstein, attending committee members include Jeffrey Bartlett, executive editor, UniForum; James Bell, CEO of The Open Group; Kim Biel-Nielson of the Denmark Unix User Group; Andrew Binstock, editor-in-chief, Unix Review; Rebel Brown, president, Cognoscenti; Marie Burch, director of conferences, Softbank Comdex; Tsvi Gal, senior VP, Bank of America; Rob Gingell, VP, Sun Microsystems; Don Harbert, VP, Digital Equipment Corp.; Michael Harrington, systems administrator, Beth Israel Hospital; Phil Johnson, director of advanced operating environments, IDC; Derek Kaufman, middleware manager, Levi Strauss; Deborah Murray, conference manager, UniForum; Ted Prindle, director, open computing, Softbank Comdex; Dan Slavin, VP, Open Market; Richard Shippee, director of publications, UniForum; Cathie Smith, president, UUNorth International; and Tim Yeaton, director of strategic planning, Digital Equipment Corp. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ 50,000 Attend Virtual Trade Show -------------------------------- Online format a model for future shows Tired of traveling around the country for yet another trade show? Then you might be interested in InterAct'96, the world's first virtual trade show and conference which was introduced on the Internet on Apr. 23-25. Located at http://www.interact96.com, the event drew a crowd of over 50,000--and that's actual registered visitors, not just hits on the Web site. Sponsored by InfoWorld and Time magazines and Stratus Computers of Marlboro, MA, the show provided visitors with a fast, convenient--and free--way to check out some of the latest news and technology through virtual exhibits, conference rooms and online chat sessions. Participants logged on from as far away as Munich, Germany, as well as from all parts of the United States. At the conference, participants could download text, video and sound clips, as well as participate in discussions about topics including Web site building, virtual reality markup language (VRML), cyberspace and, of course, the ubiquitous Java technology. At the trade show, visitors with the necessary software (downloaded from the Interact'96 site) could visit a virtual exhibit area which included three-dimensional booths, multimedia theaters and interactive product demonstrations. Visitors could see and talk with computer-generated figures that represented other attendees and exhibitor personnel. And if visitors became tired of "walking" through the trade show area, they could even "fly" over the aisles if they wanted to. David Bernstein, a San Francisco Bay Area consultant, helped lead a chat group on electronic commerce on Apr. 25. He reports that although the technology was still a bit "creaky" (the password system developed problems, for example), the experience was valuable. "This could easily serve as a model for future shows," Bernstein says. "The Internet is ideal for this sort of thing, and it's a great way to get tons of information easily." End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ UniForum Press: Call For Book Proposals --------------------------------------- Call For Book Proposals UniForum Press is the new book publishing alliance between UniForum and Prentice Hall PTR. Under the guidance of editor-in-chief Tony Wasserman, UniForum Press will publish high-quality books about new and emerging open technologies for professionals who need information that will help them make better strategic and tactical decisions. Topic areas in which UniForum Press will publish include: o Networking and Communications o Data Management o Applications Development o Software Engineering and Software Process o Computer Systems Technology o Distributed Systems and Systems Administration o The Internet and the World-Wide Web More information on UniForum Press is available online at http://www.uniforum.org. Proposals may be submitted to Tony Wasserman at the address below. UniForum Press 2901 Tasman Drive, Suite 205 Santa Clara, CA 95054 tony@uniforum.org End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ UniForum Association Presents ----------------------------- The Best of UniForum Conference, Showcase and Tutorial Programs @COMDEX-Chicago, June 3-7, 1996 * @COMDEX-Toronto, July 8-12, 1996 Co-sponsored by the Canadian Information Processing Society Special Member Price: $895 Conference & Tutorial; $595 Tutorial Only ($100 Savings!) *** UniForum Tutorial Program: (2 days each) *** CHICAGO, June 6-7, 1996 * TORONTO, July 8-9, 1996 UniForum Tutorials are educational experiences that enable attendees to immerse in key subject areas and come away with new insights, valuable information and practical examples that can be put to use immediately. Advanced Unix and Internet Security Instructor: Rik Farrow, Security Consultant and Author Course Level: Intermediate to Advanced Designing and Building Your Enterprise Web Server Instructors: John Stewart, Lead Systems Administrator, Cisco Systems, Inc. David Kensiski, Network Design Engineer, MCI, Inc. Course Level: Introductory to Intermediate The Open Data Warehouse Instructors: Dr. Brian Boyle, Managing Director, NOVON Research Dr. Pamela Gray, President, The Winta Group Course Level: Introductory to Intermediate The Middleware Solution - Building an Enterprise-wide Distributed Computing Architecture for the 90's Instructor: Max Dolgicer, Director, International Systems Group, Inc. Course Level: Intermediate The Open Data Warehouse GUEST PANELISTS: Chuck Kelley, President & Founder, Front Range Consulting International Ed Peters, Jr., Vice President & General Manager, INTERSOLV *** Two Powerful Tracks, Key Conference Sessions Led by Industry Experts SESSIONS: CHICAGO, June 3-5, 1996 * TORONTO, July 10-12, 1996 TRACK: Using the Internet and the Web for Your Competitive Edge How far the Internet and the World Wide Web technology have advanced, how to use that technology to give you the competitive edge, and what lies ahead in the not so distant future are the hot topics of discussion for this track of sessions and tutorials. *** TRACK: Business-Critical Architecture If you're serious about data warehousing, enterprise-wide distributed computing and other business-critical architecture, be sure to attend this track of sessions and tutorials devoted to new concepts and practical applications that can successfully improve your business processes. All attendees receive a one-year General Membership in UniForum Association. For more information about registration, please call: Karen Clapes, 408-986-8840 ext.30 The complete program with session and tutorial descriptions is available on the UniForum Web Page: URL: http://www.uniforum.org End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ News Flash From UniForum! ------------------------- The 1997 Open Systems Products Directory will move to CD-ROM this coming year. Data acquisition has already begun on the new edition so that revised and updated versions, with improved functionality, may be produced as we use this more flexible technology. Watch future issues of UniNews for more information on this exciting new project. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews Recruitment and Positions Wanted ---------------------------------------- For inclusion in the UniNews Classified Section, please provide the following information, being as specific as possible. If you do not want your name printed, please indicate in item No.1 and UniNews will receive replies and forward them to you. Please type or write legibly. Your classified may be edited for length or clarity. UniNews "Positions Wanted" classifieds are available FREE OF CHARGE to UniForum members only. Upon receipt of your material, we will publish your classified in the next TWO available issues of the biweekly UniNews. YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF UNIFORUM TO PARTICIPATE 1. Your name Shall we print your name in UniNews? Your UniForum Membership # (if available) 2. Where Hiring Companies May Reach You (include phone, fax and e-mail) 3. Title and Description of the Job You Want 4. Geographical Preference 5. Professional Experience and Qualifications 6. Highest Grade or Degree Achieved, and Where: 7. Salary Range $ 8. Availability You may mail or fax this form to: Sandy Parker UniForum 2901 Tasman Drive, Suite 205 Santa Clara, CA 95054 (408) 986-1645. GOOD LUCK! *** Positions Wanted Software Integrator Seeks position as senior software integration specialist for vendor and custom in-house products. Experience: over 15 years in software devopment of in-house systems and integration of vendor products for front-end and back office applications in C on Unix. Wrote device handlers for new terminal product, time and attendance plus scheduling applications. Personal: Degree from U.C. Berkeley; prefers South Bay Area, CA; salary $70-80K; available in two weeks. UniForum Association, Box 327, 2901 Tasman Dr., Suite 205, Santa Clara, CA, 95054-1100. Fax (408) 986-1645. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Call for Perl Authors --------------------- Sams Publishing, a division of Macmillan Publishing, is looking for authors to write about Perl (v5). If interested, please contact Sharon Cox at scox@sams.mcp.com or CIS: 76712,3476. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ For inquiries on the UniForum '97 Conference -------------------------------------------- Call (617) 433-1804 or visit us at http://www.uniforum.org End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ UniForum Member Benefits ------------------------ Publications, Conferences, Discounts, and More For more than 13 years, UniForum has provided its members with the best open systems information and services. Purchased separately these benefits cost more than twice the price of general membership. Don't be left out--if you're not already a general member, can you really afford NOT to be? (Membership: $125 per year U.S., Mexico and Canada. $225 overseas.) o UniForum's IT Solutions magazine o The UniNews newsletter o Products Directory o UniForum technical publications including: o Setting Up a Home Page on the World Wide Web o POSIX Explored: Shell & Utilities o The Collected MOSES Whitepapers o Establishing a World-Wide Web Server o Free "Positions Wanted" ads in UniNews o Discount rates worldwide from Hotel Reservations Network o Discount on Avis car rentals Attend one of UniForum's upcoming seminars! For your free brochure, call UniForum today at 1-800-255-5620. Register on-line at http://www.uniforum.org. Call today for a complete list. 1 (800) 255-5620 or 1 (408) 986-8840 (outside U.S. and Canada) Comments or questions: contact Membership Services at UniForum *** Benefit in the Spotlight WGS Linux Pro WGS Linux Pro plus a PC creates a powerful Unix workstation and a powerful server! UniForum members can order WGS Linux Pro at a special Members Discount of just $59.00 per copy--a 40 percent savings! WGS Linux Pro includes every Unix command and utility, including the X Window System, TCP/IP, NFS, WWW Server, C, C++, Lisp, Perl, Smalltalk and more. It comes with a 1,200-page manual and complete documentation. Call WorkGroup Solutions at (303) 699-7470, or e-mail info@wgs.com. Remember to ask for the UniForum special price. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ End UniNews.