In a recently released video about the future of OS/2 Warp in a Network Computing world, John Soyring reaffirms IBM's commitment to OS/2 and explains in detail what their strategy is.

Soyring begins with a recap of the Internet's rapid growth, the phenomena which excited the company into forming their new "Network Computing" strategy. With the number of Internet users increasing by 10% per month (up to 200% in countries like Italy) and a new network coming online every ten minutes, Soyring shows that it's clear how important networks are in computing.

He further explains one of the chief problems companies face with computers today: cost of ownership. For a large company, putting a PC on every desktop is an extremely expensive deal.

Compare this with the first generation of computing, where in the 70's and 80's the world was dominated by large mainframes powering many 'dumb terminals'. This solution was cheap, because even though the mainframes were costly, each terminal was inexpensive and so simple that it had little or no maintenance costs tied to it. IBM had perfected what was called "lights out operations" -- where the mainframes were so well built they could be run in the back room with the "lights out" and nobody needed to stay and keep things going.

The problem with mainframes was that it took the IT department of a company ages to add new applications. The solution found in the late 80s and early 90s was to use PCs instead and to buy shrink-wrapped software "off the shelf". At that time companies were doing real work with their computers, but the cost of running those systems had gone up astronomically. Those thousands of PCs were not only expensive to buy but they were expensive to support. They were more complex and therefore more prone to failure. Thousands of copies of software had to be installed separately and with each came the cost of technical support. Then came upgrade costs and depreciation.

For the average corporation the "cost of ownership" comes to about US$8,000 per PC per year. Soyring cites one company in Germany with tens of thousands of computers where cost of ownership took over $400 million out of their IT budget annually.

So now, IBM and John Soyring claim, we have come to the "third generation" of computing. Already companies are using Intranets -- private networks that use the same protocols as the Internet -- to cut costs. This means that employees who go home and read their e-mail with one e-mail client, can come to work and use the same e-mail client, or web browser or whatever, thus saving the company a fortune in training costs. Soyring explains that IBM's strategy is to encourage this, heralding a new era of computing they call Network Computing. The idea is to move more and more of the computing work back into the network and simplify the client, making the system cheaper and reducing the cost of ownership for each desktop machine.

Java

But Java isn't mature, many argue. True, there are many holes in Sun's language but Soyring says that IBM is working hard to fill these holes. Among the projects in development at IBM are:

• JavaEnterprise - for database connectivity.
• JavaSecurity
• JavaBeans - for connecting Java to component software architectures such as OpenDoc and ActiveX.
• JavaCommerce

Soyring says he expects to see most if not all of today's major operating systems incorporate the Java Virtual Machine, including all of IBM's major operating systems, for PCs, minis and mainframes.

But Soyring raises an important question: "Why should I buy OS/2 Warp [to get] Java support?" He lists several reasons why:

• IBM's commitment to the standard. IBM is dedicated to Java as a standard agreed upon by the major Java investors. This is unlike Microsoft's proprietary approach to Java.
• Performance. IBM has its top engineers and scientists working on improving the performance of Java, as evidenced by the "Just In Time" compiler shipped with the release version of Netscape Navigator for OS/2.
• Reliability, Availability, Serviceability. OS/2's time tested design has been deployed widely in "mission critical" environments such as the banking industry, which use it heavily not only in their desktop systems but for ATM machines.
• IBM Service. OS/2 has consistently ranked the highest in customer satisfaction ratings.

What's all this got to do with Warp?

So IBM has come up with a 3-tiered computing model. Three classes of computer, all of which connect and operate together in harmony. The first tier is the simplified client, the "Network Computer." The second tier would be a PC or RISC based server, running Warp Server or a Power PC based operating system. The third tier is where 80% of the world's data still resides; Big mainframes and minicomputers.

In this world painted by Soyring, a user would run a web browser on a 1st tier computer -- such as a handheld network computer, laptop or common desktop PC running Warp client. He'd access a web page being hosted on a 2nd tier server, running Warp Server with Lotus Notes and Domino. Here the user may use the web page to request data, which the server translates into a DB2 query that is finally run on a third tier mainframe or minicomputer which is storing the real data. "Move more of the computing load out of the client and into the network" IBM is saying.

Soyring illustrated with an example: IBM employees in New York are running Windows NT applications with their OS/2 systems, but the applications are actually running on a computer in Austin Texas. Keystrokes and mouse commands are bundled up and sent down the network, then the server passes these to the application and generates a set of instructions which are fed back to the client in New York to update the screen. Bandwidth isn't a problem apparently, since both in the laboratory and in the real world these applications only send about 20 kilobits of information per second during normal operation - enough for a 28.8k dialup modem to handle.

The result of this thinking can be seen clearly in Warp 4 and the way IBM is marketing it. It's a "Universal Client" -- able to connect up to any network using the major protocols. It has extensive Internet and intranet features, a bundled Lotus Notes mail client, FTP folders, Java of course, and the newest in TCP/IP technology which IBM themselves have developed. IBM has built and is continuing to build many new "network centric" technologies into both the client and the server.

The 3-Phase Strategy for Warp

Phase 1: Extend

• Run existing applications (OS/2, Win16, Win32s, DOS)
• Universal client equipped with industry standard browser (Netscape)
• Java Support
• Easy IP administration.
• Security and Directory enhancements.

Phase 2: Transform

• Universal access to any application over the Worldwide Web.
• Open Java tools, partners and services.

Phase 3: Freedom

• Exploit network computing.
• Platform neutral, open applications.
• Central control (such as security, servicing etc.).

Soyring begins this video presentation addressing a problem that many IBM customers have complained about; that different parts of the huge corporation told different stories about what their strategy is. In this tape, Soyring tries to make it clear that all of IBM is now fully on track and behind their new strategy, pointed that way by their chairman, Lou Gerstner himself.

This video goes a long way towards convincing the viewer that IBM does not consider Warp "dead"; they consider it an arguably important cog in a very intricate machine.

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