enterprise workstation management from chaos to order

Enterprise Workstation Management:From Chaos to Order

June 1996IBM VM/VSE Technical Conference

Mark Cathcart,IBM United Kingdom Limited.

Enterprise Workstation Management: From Chaos to Order

M. S. Cathcart, IBM UK Ltd. © IBM UK Ltd.1989-1992,1993

Enterprise Workstation Management:From Chaos to Order

June 1996IBM VM/VSE Technical Conference

Mark Cathcart,IBM United Kingdom Limited.

Happy Birthday!!

8-years old!!


M. S. Cathcart, IBM UK Ltd. © IBM UK Ltd.1989-1992,1993 Page 3

DisclaimerThis presentation is based on the presenters own experience and an analysis of the current state of workstation management in both customer and IBM locations that he visits as a large systems specialist. Mark has no direct responsibility for workstation support , management or marketing in IBM UK.If I visit your installation, expect more than a passing interest in how your installation manages it's workstations !

TrademarksThe following are trademarks of their respective companies in the USAand/or other countries:

Novell and Netware are trademarks of Novell, Inc.Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Inc.APPLE and MacOS are trademarks of Apple Inc.SunOS is a trademark of Sun MicrosystemsSAA, IBM, OS/2, Netview, S/370, S/390, AIX and DF/SMS are

are trademarks of the IBM Corporation.PC Week is published by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. New York

and in the UK by VNU Business Publications.Byte is published by McGraw-Hill Inc. USAComputer Weekly is published in the UK by the Reed Business

Publishing Group



Why Manage Workstations ?

Industry views are changingGrowing realisation of real cost in workstation environment




Industry views are changingGrowing realisation of real cost in workstation environment In its Jan. 1993 report, The LAN Mine, commisioned by Computervision, Business Marketing Services Ltd. (UK) reports LAN Managers:

Are poor plannersHave unrealistic expectationsConsider users the biggest source of frustration

"it would be so simple if there were no users"Rate LANs as important or crucial

to day to day businessAll claim LANs increase productivity but

only 12% measure itMany expect 100% LAN availability but only 9% achieve it




Industry views are changingGrowing realisation of real cost in workstation environmentIn a survey of corporate workstation users with an average of 850 machines, KMPG Management Consultancy found that:

Running a desktop system over 5-years costs $1,564Additional items not included in purchase cost $7,830 per

workstation per yearThe real cost of a PC is the person sitting behind it

"if the printer breaks down and the support line is busy, there is probably someone in your department who will help. That's the hidden cost."




Industry views are changingGrowing realisation of real cost in workstation environmentCost per User/Terminal

CompassKPMG

GartnerITG

Real DecisionsXephon

02,0004,0006,0008,000

10,00012,00014,00016,000

Cost per year ($)

Wkstn + NetWorkstation3270 Term




Industry views are changingGrowing realisation of real cost in workstation environment

Low High Avg. Low High Avg.

Mainframes

$900 $5,976 $2,127 $0.003 $0.07 $0.03

PC/LANs $3,885 $9,250 $6,982 $0.12 $0.79 $0.45

Mainframes are cheaper

Source: ITG, Mountain View, Ca.as reported by Information Week 27 May, 1996

Issue




Industry views are changingGrowing realisation of real cost in workstation environmentOrganisation & Technology - OTR UK

15 mins per day per network PCFebruary 1995

1 2 4 16 32 64 128 2560

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

Number of people

Number of workstations




Industry views are changingGrowing realisation of the true cost in workstation environmentsAfter 8-years of giving this presentation

It is no longer a cry in the dark !



Do Nothing.... Do Something !More Questions than Answers

Issues

ThreadsAdministrationSecurity

AwarenessOPEN



Quotes

If a train station is where the train stops, What's a workstation ?



Quotes

A workstation is a platform where people sit and wonder when the train will finally arrive. After a while they get anxious and start wondering whether they are on the right platform after all.

If a train station is where the train stops, What's a workstation ?



Questions

Do you use a workstation ?Is it on a LAN ?

Who manages your workstation ?You ?A Local Administrator ?A Central IT/IS/DP Dept. ?



Users

What do you mean I can get the answer from a KICKS application ?Can you recommend a laser print for less than $500What do you mean you are not co-ordinating 1-2-3 Upgrades ?The boss needs access to the accounts summary from the mainframe !I've really blown-it, I erased some files I can't unerase !



Workstation Challenges

Data DistributionProgramsDataAuditabilityCost ManagementVirus Protection

"Last November we fell foul of the virus. This time we spent 48-hours phoning staff and scanning their PC's for any virus programs"

Data AccessBackupDisk ServingDataFileRecordByteTransparent

OPEN

NLS PC Week 2/92



Workstation Challenges

Data DistributionProgramsDataAuditabilityCost ManagementVirus Protection

Data AccessBackupDisk ServingDataFileRecordByteTransparent

OPEN

NLS

... as an aside...

Is the virus industry a self fulfilling prophecy ?

from PC Week, April 1992...

"his company no longer relied on conventional scanning... due to the increase of stealth and polymorphic viruses like the mutating engine."



Workstation Data/Software Distribution Requirements

System

s Man

agem

ent

Productivity

How many copies are we using ?

Which Licenses cover this product ?

Who is the vendor for this ?

SNEAKERNET

What software are you running ?

What version are you at ?

You want me to update 1,000 users this weekend ?

UpdateCONFIG.SYS ?

What's a PATH ?

Subdirectory, what ?

Bu

sin

ess

Co

ntr

ol



AdministrationThe right people for the right job !AuditabilitySecurity

Workstation Challenges......





"Security ? The IT Manager deals with that"

PC WeekMarch 3rd 1992





In its report, The LAN Money Pit, Forrester Research USA suggests:

"Typical support costs for a 5,000 user LAN internetwork are $6.4 million a year compared to $2.3 Million for an SNA Network of the same size."

"One LAN with 150 users is better than 10 LANs with 15 users"

"$1,270 in support costs per user per year"





Microcom LANlord toease network trafficMicrocom is aiming to bring the real-time centralised management of the mainframe to the LAN... with the launch of LANlord.

...LANs are a precious IT investment. Up to 50% of organisations' IT spending is now on LAN support according to research company IDC.

Companies can't afford to have one administrator per LAN... The centralised mainframe management model needs to work in the LAN environment. PC Week, May, 1992




Print ServingLAN to HostHost to LANTranslation

ASCII/EBCDIC

Application AccessSingle System Image3270 Application Integration




... as an aside...

"When Superservers Are the Best Bet"from Datamation, May 1992.This article discussed the evolution of workstations through LAN servers to the current position, where "super" servers provide centralised services, including large scale storage technologies, to diskless, network attached workstations.

I can just visualise the announcement:Users sharing the power of a central high speed execution server. Since most people can't use all the power on their desktops why waste all those MIPS just leaving them unused ?

Move the power to a central, 200Mhz server which executes all the programs. Back the superserver with dedicated support staff and this has the added benefit of allowing users to get on with the job for which they are paid !

Adapted from A letter by Tom R. Donnelly, Pasadena, CA



I thought mainframes were

dead ?




dead ?

DOWNSIZINGIn most firms solved problems tend to stay solved and many systems don't cry out for new technology. Jim Louderback looks at progress

If it ain't broke don't fix it: some jobs are suited to the mainframe

Some industry pundits seem to think the mainframe as we know it is going away. By 1999, they insist, the last big hunk of dumb terminal-driving iron will be sent off to the scrap heap.

I think that's a bit shortsighted. Networks of peer machines

have as much chance of "dinosauring" the mainframes in the next 10 years as the Power PC architecture has of making Intel microprocessors obsolete.

First, public and private-sector America has a substantial investment in mainframe-based




dead ?

DOWNSIZINGIn most firms solved problems tend to stay solved and many systems don't cry out for new technology. Jim Louderback looks at progress

If it ain't broke don't fix it: some jobs are suited to the mainframe

PC Week - May 4th, 1993

Some industry pundits seem to think the mainframe as we know it is going away. By 1999, they insist, the last big hunk of dumb terminal-driving iron will be sent off to the scrap heap.

I think that's a bit shortsighted. Networks of peer machines

have as much chance of "dinosauring" the mainframes in the next 10 years as the Power PC architecture has of making Intel microprocessors obsolete.

First, public and private-sector America has a substantial investment in mainframe-based



Are you suffering from...

Management byMagazine ?

THE WORLDWIDE COMPUTING AUTHORITY

SEPTEMBER 1992 COMPUTING GOES OPTICAL PAGE 168

Is UnixDead?Is UnixDead?

B Y T EBest New Notebooks

Pages 238, 249

Unix is at a crossroads.Soon, Unix will faceits most powerfuladversary to date:Microsoft Windows NT.Will Unix Survive ?

Turn to page 134

Major Upgradesfor Ami Proand PowerPoint

Green Computingsaves Moneyand the Planet

UK/ International Edition

£1.95 U.K./Lit.8,000 Italy/$3.50 U.S.AA McGraw-Hill Publication/0360-5280



Backup and Recovery Assessment

Criticality

Difficult to recreate

Can be recreated with

effort

Easily recreated

HighValue

Information

High

High

High

MediumValue

Information

High

Medium

Low

FrequencyValue

Information

Medium

Low

Low

Viewpoint from September 1993 Windows User

Protect and SurviveThe real cost of being burgled isn't always immediately apparent.

My office was burgled early this year, the felons managing to make of with two PCs, a fax machine and assorted boxed software.... Well, having had six months to ruminate of the disappearance of the said items, ....

At a rough estimate I reckon I have wasted about two months out of the last six,... It is only when you desperately need to re-create something that the holes in your backup procedure become readily apparent. We thought we had everything backed up, but (and it pains me to say it) our confidence was sadly misplaced.

As personal computers continue to make more of an impact, the computer literacy of the public(criminals included) increases and so does the likelihood of machines and software being stolen. For us, installing our new burglar alarm may have been a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, but there is no reason why others shouldn't learn from our misfortune.



How much is your data worth ?% Causes for Data Loss

Source: "Digital Storage Systems" 6/1989

0

20

40

60

80

100

UserError

SoftwareError

PowerFailure

HardwareFailure Others



Backup and Recovery Assessment

Criticality

Difficult to recreate

Can be recreated with effort

Easily recreated

HighValue

Information

High

High

High

MediumValue

Information

High

Medium

Low

FrequencyValue

Information

Medium

Low

Low



Summary

Lots to think about

Tackle Todays problems Today

If you need order and not chaosDefine your requirements !How many can be achieved ?

Next time the phone rings...



Summary

Lots to think about




...Oh yes, just before you leave...In a September 15th 1993 Gartner Group ATGResearch note:"Total Cost of PCs versus X-terminals"

The five-year cost of ownership personal computers is $40,000 per userup to $65,000 when including network server resourcesPCs have a labour/capital ratio of 85:15Mainframes labor/capital ratio of 20:80



Summary

Lots to think about




...Oh yes, just before you leave...In a September 15th 1993 Gartner Group ATGResearch note:"Total Cost of PCs versus X-terminals"

The five-year cost of ownership personal computers is $40,000 per userup to $65,000 when including network server resourcesPCs have a labour/capital ratio of 85:15Mainframes labor/capital ratio of 20:80

Hold on, what was that ?

X-terminals??



Best of both worldsModern interfaceBased on Web browser technologyLittle or no software distributionLittle or no customisationEasily integrated with existing apps.

Salvo, WEB3270, etc.S/390 Web servers

Low cost of ownership

The Network Computer




Time to think againIdeal for most administrative workersIncorporates JAVA

means almost anything is possibleSoftware dynamically loadedNot a bandwidth hog

Bar chart applet<2x size of 3270 character version.5 size of 3270 graphics version




Time to think againIdeal for most administrative workersIncorporates JAVA

means almost anything is possibleSoftware dynamically loadedNot a bandwidth hog

Bar chart applet<2x size of 3270 character version.5 size of 3270 graphics version

Come back next year for another

party, this time to celebrate the Network

Computer !

