Win2000: IT directors must look before they leap

Three more industry experts have called on IT directors to approach Windows 2000 with some caution, warning: 'Don't believe the hype'.

In the latest edition of Silicon.com's weekly Behind the Headlines panel discussion, Richard Sykes, Morgan Chambers chairman and ex-CIO at ICI, said: "Is there something new that will make people do their business better, differently and more effectively? if there is, fine, but I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't."

Clive Longbottom, analyst at Strategy Partners, added: "Microsoft have got into a functionality war, selling what I call rubber chickens - selling people things they don't necessarily need. They have to do this going up against [Sun's] Solaris and Linux."

Microsoft is aiming its OS at the high-end server market - Gates even saying at the launch event that Windows 2000-based servers can now go beyond "a single, expensive hardware box" - but Longbottom said to prove itself, the software risks becoming overly complex.

Despite the attention of the DoJ and the European Commission, Longbottom singled out the Active Directory part of Windows 2000 for praise. However, he warned that Microsoft partner Cisco Systems - which has been working with the technology for about three years - will only implement the network directory technology at the end of this year.

Rene Carayol, ex-IT director of IPC Magazines and most recently MD of IPC Electric, said: "It's not about waiting, it's not about being patient. It's about what is the value of this upgrade."

Disillusioned with the Microsoft marketing machine, he likened users upgrading to the latest operating systems with the music listener's move from vinyl to tape, then to CD, and then to mini-disk, claiming people are being "pushed to radio" because they are not interested in the means of delivery.

To watch the full Behind the Headlines programme, visit our Enterprise OS Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a35816 )