From Dialog@eds.dialog.com Fri Sep 19 08:53:40 1997 Received: from hpfcla.fc.hp.com (hpfcla.fc.hp.com [15.254.48.2]) by hpesdxl.fc.hp.com (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id IAA23084 for ; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 08:53:39 -0600 (MDT) From: Dialog@eds.dialog.com Received: from eagle.eds.dialog.com by hpfcla.fc.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.20/15.5+IOS 3.20) id AA060471062; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 08:57:42 -0600 Received: (from root@localhost) by eagle.eds.dialog.com (8.8.6/8.8.6) id HAA07168 for DXL@FC.HP.COM; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 07:11:46 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 07:11:46 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199709191411.HAA07168@eagle.eds.dialog.com> Subject: SGI ALERTS To: DXL@hpfcla.fc.hp.com Status: RO X-Label: 3456097 FILE016, UD=9709W2, SER. DBDXL16 File(s) searched: File 16:IAC PROMT(R)_1972-1997/Sep 19 (c) 1997 Information Access Co. Sets selected: Set Items Description 1 38 SILICON?()GRAPHICS? 2 12 S1 AND SGI 3 12 S1 AND SGI? Prints requested : ('*' indicates user print cancellation) 19sep 06:55:43 P304: PR 3/9/ALL ADDR ABDXL (items 1-12 VIA EMAIL ) Total items to be printed: 12 Record - 6 DIALOG(R)File 16:IAC PROMT(R) (c) 1997 Information Access Co. All rts. reserv. 07083175 Unix Remedies Bayer's Network Headache InternetWeek Sep 15, 1997 p. 78 You can't say Jeff Wessinger didn't give Windows NT a fair chance. Last summer, the manager of business systems development at Toronto-based Bayer Inc.'s health care division gave Microsoft an opportunity to support the company's automated sales program. To give you a sense of the clear shot Microsoft had with Bayer (www.mb.sympatico.ca/contents/Health/BAYER/BCdn.htm), a unit of the $48.6 billion Germany-based Bayer Group, Wessinger ran the remote dial-up sales application on a server loaned to his company for free by Data General Corp. (www.dg.com), Westborough, Mass. The server was great, particularly since it sported four 200-megahertz Intel Pentium Pro processors, but Wessinger says NT just couldn't cut it. "No matter how we tried to tune it, Windows NT couldn't handle more than two 'synchs' at once," he explains. Out of Synch The "synchs" Wessinger refers to are synchronizations of the server database with the new data sent in via dial-up by field reps from their notebooks when they log in--usually at the end of the day. The application, called Mpower '96, lets reps send only the changes--called "difs"--they entered on their local databases since the last update. At the same time, Mpower updates their personal notebooks with any new data that's been forwarded to the central server. The app was written in Delphi, a development tool from Borland International Inc. (www.borland.com), Scotts Valley, Calif. What's the Dif? The dif transfer is a two-step process: "Find Changes'' and "Apply Changes.'' The two steps run once each on the client and the server. The Find Changes process on the server is the most resource-intensive. It requires a full scan of the 300-megabyte database to produce its dif file. Checking all that corporate data for changes consumes a stadium full of CPU cycles. When the trial took place, Bayer had about 160 reps in the field. Because the company only had an eight-port modem pool, Bayer's techs thought they didn't have to worry about a massive number of dial-in sessions, adding undue pressure on the server. They were wrong. The Windows NT/Intel configuration simply didn't scale across the network. "It took 5 to 10 minutes when only one process was running,'' explains Wessinger. When multiple callers connected with the system, that time frame skyrocketed to almost one hour. Sometimes, the telephone system would even hang up and the processes couldn't be completed. "We eventually had to set things up so that when a third caller dialed in, we just had them wait until somebody else finished," recalls Wessinger. That temporary solution was unacceptable. The field reps count on the Mpower databases to do their jobs. For example, unlike the United States, where information about physicians' prescription-writing preferences is largely unavailable to pharmaceutical companies, such data is readily accessible to vendors in Canada. Accurate information on new physicians or new residents at hospitals keeps Bayer's reps competitive. Another big consideration was that more than 90 percent of dif processing time is on the server side, a point that ruled out upgrading the reps' machines--Toshiba laptops with 90-Mhz Intel Pentium chips running Windows 95. One big point: Wessinger recognizes that at the time of the trial, he was using Windows NT 3.51, and that Microsoft has made significant progress with NT Server 4.0, the latest version of the operating system. "From what I understand, they're doing a better job of taking advantage of multiple processors," he says. "But 3.51 was what they were touting at the time, and it didn't make the grade." The Unix Choice After running tests between Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics Inc. machines with Oracle7 and Borland's Interbase, Wessinger opted for Sun's dual-processor UltraSparc workstation with Oracle7. The Sun computer runs over Solaris and is licensed for 20 simultaneous users. Although it was somewhat more expensive than the Interbase configuration, Wessinger says Oracle (www.oracle.com) delivers the query optimization features Bayer's system requires. Since implementing the Sun/Oracle solution, Bayer's field sales force has increased to more than 220 reps. The company is planning to replace its eight-port modem pool with remote access service from CompuServe that aggregates dial-in sessions over a single router port--effectively eliminating the limitation of eight simultaneous sessions. Wessinger says the system is running fine. "If a process takes 30 seconds with one user, it takes about 35 seconds with two," Wessinger claims. "In fact, we're finding we can run up to eight sessions at a time. It's running so well, we really don't have much call to go in there and fool around with it at all." SUMMARY A Tough Choice Bayer's Jeff Wessinger priced three configurations before opting for Sun. Each configuration included a price with Oracle7 and a quote with Interbase. NT Solution: Data General Aviion with four Intel Pentium 100-megahertz processors, 256 megabytes of RAM, 4-gigabyte fast/wide SCSI internal drive, and 12-gigabyte fast/wide SCSI external drive running NT Server 3.51: $74,750 Cost with Interbase: $75,500 Cost with Oracle: $95,050 SGI Unix Solution: Silicon Graphics Inc. Challenge with four 200-megahertz RISC processors, 1 gigabyte of RAM, 12-gigabyte fast/wide SCSI drive running Irix 5.3: $65,000 Cost with Interbase: $75,000 Cost with Oracle: $103,250 Sun Unix Solution: SunUltraSparc2 with dual 167-megahertz MIPS processors, 256 megabytes of RAM, 4-gigabyte fast/wide internal drive and 16-gigabyte fast/wide SCSI external disk array running Solaris 5.51: $59,800 Cost with Interbase: $69,800 Cost with Oracle: $98,050 TOOL BOX Bayer's Unix System: * Server OS: Sun Solaris * Server hardware: Sun UltraSparc 2 with dual 167-megahertz MIPS processors, 256 megabytes of RAM, 4-gigabyte fast/wide SCSI internal drive, and 16-gigabyte fast/wide SCSI external disk * Communications utilities: XcelleNet Inc.'s RemoteWare, Syware Inc.'s Datasync * Remote Access: RemoteWare, XcelleNet Inc. * Applications: Mpower '96 sales force automation app (developed in-house), plus E-mail and electronic software distribution Copyright 1997 CMP Media Inc. THIS IS THE FULL TEXT: COPYRIGHT 1997 CMP Publications, Inc. WORD COUNT: 990 COMPANY: *Bayer Inc. PRODUCT: *Drugs & Pharmaceuticals (2830000) EVENT: *Strategy & planning (220); Use of materials & supplies (460) COUNTRY: *Canada (2CAN)