Big Blue refines the cost argument

With total cost of ownership of PCs now one of the most hotly debatedks to its NCs to provide the low-cost alternative that users desire. issues in the industry, it was not surprising that all IBM was interested in talking about at last month's PC Expo in New York was its Network Station NC.

IBM said that, starting in July, all its Network Station NCs will ship with support for Citrix' ICA protocol. This will allow them to access Windows applications running on Citrix Winframe or on MetaFrame, Citrix' add-on to Microsoft's Terminal Server.

Currently, IBM has three models in its Network Station family of NCs.

The Network Station 100 is essentially a replacement for 3270 or 5250 terminals. The Network Station 300 is a browser-based system, while the Network Station 1000 is designed to run Java applications locally.

IBM and Sun announced in April that they would together develop Java OS for Business, which is to be the operating system for both companies' NCs. The OS will be introduced in the high end of the Network Station range early next year, and later spread to other models. It will be tuned to Intel's Lean Client design - the same design that is being used by IBM's manufacturing partner NCD to develop a Windows Based Terminal (WBT), the Thinstar 300.

Microsoft plays the game

Also at PC Expo, Microsoft rolled out Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, as the product is now officially called. IBM's Paul Boulay said his company will not develop its own WBT for this software, but claimed that the current Network Stations with ICA support will be able to compete with WBTs in the multi-user Windows marketplace.

"We see Bill Gates' change of view on the merits of thin clients as a good thing," said Boulay. "But there is always a question mark about their degree of seriousness."

Boulay also said Terminal Server is priced too high, at more than $300 (#182) per user (a full NT Workstation licence is required for each client).

IBM claims that tens of thousands of Network Stations were shipped in 1997 and, according to Boulay, in 1998 it will be hundreds of thousands.

He believes Java-based NCs will start taking off as soon as more Java applications become available.

Servicing the desktop

According to Boulay, NCs are well suited for data entry as well as for general office workers. "That's about 70 per cent of all desktops," he said.

Despite IBM's enthusiasm there are still a number of unanswered questions surrounding the NC. For example, what happens when the network goes down?

Research from Spikes Cavell has shown that as many as 91 per cent of companies suffer several networking failures every year. Until network reliability improves it could be risky for any company to run its business on clients that depend entirely on the network.

But a recent Gartner Group report showed that capital costs make up only a small part of the overall cost of owning and running a network. The report claimed that each PC costs the average company over $13,000 (#8,125) a year in total - 20 times the cost of the PC itself written off over five years. With figures like these the total cost of ownership debate is likely to rage on for some time.