pat@rwing.UUCP (Pat Myrto) (09/20/90)
I have a question that perhaps the collective experience of the net
can answer (I hope). Responses I can gather may influence a mgmt
decision on the future direction of the company where I currently
work.
I need a rough idea of the pros and cons of two approaches to a
multi-user system. The system is to handle 15 users now (more added
later). The purpose is to run billing applications, with data shared
by all the users, both for reading and updating. The databases are
large file with some having several hundred thousand records.
Concerns are reasonable security, versatility, response to a request
for a given data item, expansion of computing power, and cost
effectiveness.
The two competing aproaches are a UNIX system (basic application
runtime for sake of comparison) with terminals for the users via
serial ports, running on a 386 vs a Novell/DOS based network with
diskless PCs for each user, instead of the plain terminal associated
with the UNIX system.
On top of the basic approaches described above, will be (for the
Novell) a 'canned' billing application, vs an existing in-house
generated FoxPlus billing application, or perhaps a 'canned' billing
application for running under 386 UNIX if one is available. Currently
available is a 386 running UNIX with a UNIX flavor of FoxPlus (dbase
type app) with 1200 megs of disk space.
I know this is not real specific, but I have poor info to go on at
this point. What I need to know is the long-term desireability of
each basic approach, reputation for reliability, room for reasonably
easy growth/expansion, and relative portability of the results of one
going in the direction of either environment. In short, as a GENERAL
approach for the multi-user database environment, which is usually the
preferable approach - UNIX w/terminals, or Novell server w/diskless
PC's. I need the kind of questions I can pin down a salesmam for the
Novell approach with - one who is advocating abandoning an existing
UNIX system for the DOS/Novell approach.
Any info/feelings/opinions of folks that have worked with both are
desired and welcome. Since this is probably of limited interest to
most net readers, E-mail would seem to be the best means of response.
Thank you, Pat Myrto (pat@rwing).
--
pat@rwing (Pat Myrto), Seattle, WA
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