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PCs or NCs?

The second session of the twin conferences here, the 'Evaluations and comparisons track' had a post-lunch topic of 'PCs or NCs'.

Bikramjit Sarma, group manager, Oracle India Development Centre; B K Rangraj, technology consultant, Tektronics (India) Limited and Vijay Mishra,

T O D A Y

• Q&A: Sanjay Kumar • Jon DeVaan's keynote • The Net infrastructure • Q&A: Dr D Packard • PCs or NCs? • Sites and servers • The localisation issue

system engineer, Microsoft Corporation India Limited spoke.

Bikramjit Sarma

The Oracle man focused on the advantages of the network computer over the personal computer. He considers the NC as a professionally managed network with scaleable architecture and open Internet solutions, besides, of course, offering universal access.

However, the cost of the NC will be its biggest attraction, he said. Resource sharing through client-server architecture is an important feature, apart from the easy administration of the system, he claimed.

B K Rangraj

He elaborated on the advantages of the 'Net station', especially in terms of cost. Applications can be distributed among PCs through the Net station.

It is necessary to consider the lifecycle costs of network administration while deciding on these issues, he stressed.

Vijay Mishra

The main objective behind the Net PC is to reduce the cost of the system and maintenance and Microsoft's focus is on improved flexibility and performance, Mishra said.

The Net PC or the network PC, in the Windows environment, offers easy centralised management, lower administration cost for the organisation, he claimed.

He said that Windows 95, with its plug and play feature, has paved the cost of ownership by 35 per cent as compared to Windows 3.11.

The main message is to "reduce the support burden", he said. With the predominant process of the Windows environment, Mishra feels the future for Net PC is bright vis-à-vis other systems.

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