Has Windows 2003’s time come?

Despite an all-out effort from Microsoft, Indian users are still lagging their global counterparts in adopting Windows 2003. Rahul Neel Mani talks to users and vendors to figure out this puzzle

The support issue for Windows NT will accelerate a customer’s decision to look at an alternate vendor, says KP Unnikrishnan

A year after Microsoft launched Windows Server 2003 in India, its sales have been less than spectacular. Despite Microsoft’s decision to pull the plug on Windows NT4, users are unable or unwilling to accept the fact that NT will soon be history. It’s not just a question of deciding whether a server OS needs to be upgraded; unless companies deploy Windows 2003, the very future of .Net in India could be at stake.

Not a sure bet

Last year, the Yankee Group had predicted that only 20 percent of existing users would install Windows 2003 within a year of its release. Windows 2000, on the other hand, was adopted by nearly 30 percent of the NT user base within a year of its release.

The main opportunity for us will be to convert UNIX-RISC-based systems to Windows 2003, says Robert Chu

Users are not completely convinced that they have to upgrade to Windows 2003. Server hardware OEMs are showing substantial interest in alternatives to Windows server on Intel hardware, most notably Linux on x86 and Itanium. The issue, however, is not about the quality of the product. Companies are convinced that Windows 2003 is a superior OS when compared to NT or 2000. Their worry is more in regard to the sheer complexity of a server OS migration that can break legacy and custom applications, result in driver incompatibility and require costly hardware upgrades. Even while NT’s life has come to an end, Windows 2000 server is still alive and kicking. Last but not least, the economy has played spoilsport, forcing users to cut down on IT spending.

Linux, a limited threat

Some customers might prefer to migrate to Windows 2000 instead of 2003 due to application compatibility. Microsoft will ensure that applications and solutions are available on Windows 2003, Yasir Yousuff

With support for NT coming to a close by end-2004, HP will offer both Linux and Windows to users looking at migrating from NT to other platforms. “We support Linux as an offering without pushing Linux over Windows. We let customers decide,” says Pallab Talukdar director, BCS & Solutions Marketing, ESG, HP India. A small percentage of users plan the reverse, going from Linux to Windows. “Many organisations are using Linux in the production environment. For them running Linux means migrating the support environment, getting people and training them. It’s like moving to a completely new environment. Linux is more popular with the developer community. I think that a great majority, over 90 percent, would be going with Windows,” says Talukdar.

KP Unnikrishnan, director Marketing, Sun Microsystems India says “We have solutions and programs for them [NT users] to come to us. We believe that the support issue for Windows NT will accelerate a customer’s decision to look at an alternate vendor,” says Unnikrishnan.

Talukdar feels that as far as Windows is concerned, customers are interested in both Windows 2000 and 2003. Server vendors find that there isn’t any difficulty in selling Windows 2003.

“NT4 is now an eight-year-old technology and it’s a challenge to scale it any further. In the last few months we have seen a huge upsurge in demand for Windows 2003,” says Robert Chu, GM, Server & Tools, APAC and Greater China Region, Microsoft. Microsoft isn’t stopping at targeting existing NT4 customers as potential migrants to Windows 2003. “The main opportunity for us will be to convert UNIX-RISC-based systems to Windows 2003,” says Chu. The company is working on new areas such as high performance computing (HPC), clustering and 10g (10-Gigabit Ethernet) applications.

Indian CIOs are concerned

We support Linux as an offering without pushing Linux over Windows. We let customers decide, says Pallab Talukdar

CIOs have doubts regarding Windows 2003’s stability. Usha International has about 17 servers running Windows NT. It is considering migrating from Windows NT but is undecided. Pradyumna Poddar, senior GM, Usha International says, “When you opt for a platform provided by an organisation like Microsoft, you can be sure that things cannot go drastically wrong, but platform stability is still a major area of concern.”

New Holland Tractors India, has five servers running Windows NT and one running Windows 2000. Avinash Arora director, Systems, New Holland says, “Being a global organisation there is a global evaluation taking place. The process has already started abroad and we will soon be starting it in India.”

Hilal Khan, head of IT at Honda Siel concurs that stability is an issue. “In our experience, when Microsoft launches new products, there are issues relating to support, patches, etc. Whether we go for Windows 2000, 2003 or Linux—the decision will be based upon the applications that we use,” says Khan.

CR Narayanan, head IT at Alstom India manages 40 servers of which nine run Windows 2000 and the remainder run NT. The company follows global guidelines, but Narayanan is clear that Alstom India will not be migrating in the near term. The lack of support from Microsoft in 2005 isn’t an issue for the company, as it believes that expertise is available, both in-house and external. “It doesn’t make much of a difference whether Microsoft is providing the support or not. Worldwide, the company is still on Windows 2000 and hasn’t moved to Windows 2003. Microsoft is in the habit of getting new things into the market and then releasing the patches. So, 2003 will still take some time to stabilise,” says Narayanan.

Another example is Daikin Sriram, all its servers run Windows NT. The company is planning to migrate from Windows NT to Windows 2003. It will be simultaneously upgrading to the latest version of SAP. “While support for NT will end by December 2004, we will likely be migrating two to three months after that. Porting apps to a different platform is much more difficult than migrating within a family. Therefore, Linux may not be the right choice for us,” says Anand Sengupta, Head IT, Daikin Sriram India.

Escorts recently migrated Exchange server from NT to 2003. We looked at Linux but felt that Exchange was much better in terms of features, says Vinay Mehta

Escorts Agri Machinery Group is comfortable with the Windows 2003 roadmap. The company has around 15 Windows NT servers. It is planning to migrate some to Windows 2000 and the rest to Windows 2003. The company’s earlier plan was to move the legacy system to Linux. However, due to technical problems in porting the legacy application onto Linux, it opted for Windows 2003. “We have recently migrated Exchange server from NT to 2003. We looked at Linux but felt that Exchange was better in terms of features. It’s difficult for an organisation that is already using Exchange to change. The decision to go in for Windows 2003 has not been taken because support on NT is coming to an end. It was taken earlier due to other limitations,” says Vinay Mehta, head IT, Escorts AMG. Mehta also feels that Windows 2003 is reported to be more stable than NT. Escorts AMG will continue using its Windows 2000 servers, as they will need a hardware upgrade to run Windows 2003.

Thomas Cook’s main applications on WinNT or 2000

are J2EE applications and Exchange server. For Exchange server Thomas Cook is not considering Linux but for the J2EE apps it might opt for Linux. Anil Nadkarni, CIO, Thomas Cook India says, “It has been observed that errors start creeping in immediately after an upgrade.” Nadkarni feels that the Active Directory is the best feature in Windows 2003 as it lets users consolidate the mail directory. “It will also reduce a huge amount of administrative and network overheads,” feels Nadkarni. Thomas Cook is planning to migrate all its NT servers to either Windows 2000 or 2003 as per its application requirement and Exchange Server will be upgraded to Exchange 2003.

Eicher Motors recently deployed Windows 2003 Server to manage a network of over 800 desktops. Earlier, a Windows NT user, Eicher, decided to migrate to Windows 2003 to achieve significant improvements in directory services and identity management. Sanjay Govil, director IT, GIS and CIO, Eicher Group says, “One of the biggest advantages offered by Windows 2003 server is the flexibility to remotely manage infrastructure. It gives us better security and patch management.”

Hero Honda has yet to evaluate Windows 2003. Even though NT’s life cycle is drawing to a close, CIOs believe that the hardware that runs NT still has a few years left. India Inc. believes in amortising technology investments. The combined cost of hardware and software at a typical company is not more than 20-25 percent of a system with the remaining costs involving expenses associated with staff, operations, development and training. If Microsoft can show that it’s new product will result in a net reduction of staff, IT managers may be able to sell Windows 2003 to business heads. Even Microsoft’s licensing policy is working against it and has made CIOs think of open-source server OSs.

The final call

Alstom will not make a migration from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003. We believe 2003 will take time to stabilise, says CR Narayanan

Whether Windows 2003 picks up or not, Windows 2000 is still going strong. Microsoft’s Chu says that sales of Windows 2000 have doubled during the past year. Yasir Yousuff, senior marketing manager, Windows Server Platforms says, “Some customers might prefer to migrate to Windows 2000 instead of 2003 due to their application compatibility [issues]. We are working with our partners to ensure that their applications and solutions are available on Windows 2003. It makes more sense for customers to migrate to Windows 2003 because they get a stronger value proposition at the same price as Windows 2000.”

Windows 2003 is solid, easy to set up and administer, cost-effective and has plenty of hooks into other Microsoft offerings such as SharePoint, SQL, Exchange and BizTalk Server. Robert Chu admits that in many Asia-Pacific markets, including India, the message wasn’t given out right until early 2004. “We are still in the early cycle of upgrade so we have to wait until the next year to see a rise in the number of migrations,” says Chu.

An IDC (worldwide) report issued in December 2003 says that the market for Windows server-based systems is growing but Linux-based systems are growing faster. Servers shipping with Windows in Q3 2003 saw revenues increase by 10.3 percent over the same quarter last year to $3.4 billion, unit shipments rose by 21.4 percent. This was attributed to migration from NT4 to Windows 2000 and 2003. Linux-based server shipments soared with 49.8 percent growth in revenues to $743 million; units grew by 51.4 percent. Unix saw declining revenues but it is still the single largest segment in absolute dollar terms at $4.1 billion for Q3 2003.

While Linux has a window of opportunity to challenge the Windows server, it doesn’t look likely to be a major competitor considering the fact that most NT users are looking to migrate to either Windows 2000 or 2003 or just stay put. Microsoft estimates that Windows 2003 license sales are growing at 50 percent on a worldwide basis. The company’s goal is to migrate the remaining NT4 base over the next 12 months. “124,000 customer training sessions have been completed since the launch of Windows 2003. As part of this system, ‘Small Business Server’ has also gained momentum with a 145 percent year-on-year growth during January 2004,” says Chu.

rahul@expresscomputeronline.com