FRAMINGHAM (08-11-95) - Enterprisewide network and systems management problems will melt away during leisurely cruises on the World Wide Web if new technologies from Sun Microsystems Inc. and other vendors live up to their promise.
Users applauded cutting administrative costs through Web-based management of remote computers, applications and network devices, but they also pointed to security concerns.
When first announced, Sun's Java and Hot Java technologies were confined to "one small corner of the Web that didn't look to have that much of a future," said Percy Young, manager of store systems and Webmaster at Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. in Lebanon, N.H.
Since then, Netscape Communications Corp. in Mountain View, Calif., has moved to incorporate Java into future releases of its widely used Netscape browser. Given the prerequisite of security, that makes Java "a more attractive possibility" for pushing some network and systems management functionality out to help desks or less knowledgeable users at remote sites, Young said.
But another user said Hot Java's ability to distribute and make use of applets -- small, special-purpose application programs -- could compromise security. "Conceptually, it sounds good, but if it's your code, you don't want anyone else getting it," said Virgil Pittman, senior vice president of systems at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. in Novato, Calif.
Hot Java's usefulness "would be limited to simple functions unless we had an elaborate scheme for using it and had an extreme amount of intelligence built into it," Pittman said.
While Sun, so far, hasn't emphasized the use of Java or Hot Java for network or systems management, "using a Web-based interface to devices makes perfect sense," said Eric Schmidt, Sun's chief technology officer.
Analysts differed in their assessment of Hot Java's network and systems management benefits. Because Web-based management entails "another interface and another protocol, initially it will be more applicable to managing Web servers than to general-purpose network and systems management," said John Morency, a principal consultant at The Registry Inc. in Newton, Mass.
Hewlett-Packard Co. in Cupertino, Calif., is prototyping a method for using its OpenView Operations Center to manage Web servers, but a spokesman declined to provide details.
Still, "the Web is, in a way, a form of groupware, and many aspects of network and systems management need groupware functionality," said Jim Herman, a vice president at Northeast Consulting Resources Inc. in Boston.
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