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Building better business agility

Microsoft'sWindow

to the Future

M AY 2 0 0 3 | $ 7. 9 5B U S I N E S S I N N O VAT I O N D I R E C T F R O M D E L L

DELL insightBuilding better business agility

MA

Y 2

00

3

Get wired about wireless computing

Why Web services walk on water

Organic IT: The hottest new trend you've never heard of

A_B_Dell_Insight Cvr 3/14/03 9:14 AM Page A-B

B U S I N E S S I N N O VAT I O N D I R E C T F R O M D E L L

EDITORIAL NOTE 3

Contents

PRODUCT SHOWCASE 32

32:ENTER THE POWERHOUSEIt may be small, but the Dell Inspiron 8500 packs enough multimedia power to rival even the most decked-out desktops

33: DESKTOP DYNAMOSTwo Dell Dimension systems offer blazing enterprise-classperformance at an affordable price

34: SMALL WONDER The high-performing, space-conscious Dell PowerEdge2650 helps make downsizing the data center a snap

35: BUILT FOR NEEDDell and EMC’s first jointly manufactured storage array—the CX200—delivers high-end functionality at entry-level prices

INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT 36

36: FROM FRAGILE TO AGILE Forrester Research Analyst Ted Schadler discusses how Web services can help enterprises improve business agility

CUTTING EDGE 14

14: BET WEEN THE L INESAs wireless LANs gain momentumand vendors work to improve coverageand security, the promise of an agile,untethered enterprise draws closer than you think

20: BRINGING IT TO L IFE Will a sleeker “organic” IT infrastructure blunt the economic recovery of the high-tech industry? Yes and no

26: BUSINESS BE NIMBLE , BUSINESS BE QUICKJump over integration hurdles, save money, and stay agile with Web services

EXECUTIVE VISION 6

On the horizon | 6The editors of Dell Insight asked Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer what customers can expect to see from Microsoft in the near future

Paying it forward | 8 by Tara Swords

Microsoft’s big investment in research is proving that its interest in innovation is anything but academic

Departments

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 1

26

01_03_TOCandEditorR 4/8/03 10:39 AM Page 1

2 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

EDITOR- IN-CHIEFEddie Ho

MANAGING EDITORTara Swords

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSSarah CloseElizabeth DoughertyPaul Williams

ART DIRECTORMark Mastroianni

DESIGNERSGlen AbrahamsIva FrankPhu TranAmy Vest

WEB PRODUCTION MANAGERBrad Klenzendorf

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESLisa Ho

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND

ADDRESS CHANGESSubscriptions are free to qualified readerswho complete the subscription card found in each issue. To subscribe or change youraddress, complete and return the businessreply card in this issue or visit us atwww.dell.com/dellinsight.

About Del l ComputerDell Computer Corporation, headquartered inRound Rock, Texas, near Austin, is the world’sleading direct computer systems company.Dell is one of the fastest growing among allmajor computer systems companies world-wide, with approximately 40,000 employeesaround the globe. Dell uses the direct businessmodel to sell its high-performance computersystems, workstations, and storage products toall types of enterprises. For more information,please visit our Web site at www.dell.com.

Dell Insight is published quarterly by the DellProduct Group, Dell Computer Corporation,One Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas 78682. Thispublication is also available online atwww.dell.com/dellinsight. No part of thispublication may be reprinted or otherwisereproduced without permission from theeditor. Dell does not provide any warranty as tothe accuracy of any information providedthrough Dell Insight. Opinions expressed inthis magazine may not be those of Dell. Theinformation in this publication is subject tochange without notice. Any reliance by the enduser on the information contained herein is atthe end user’s risk. Dell will not be liable forinformation in any way, including but notlimited to its accuracy or completeness. Delldoes not accept responsibility for the advertis-ing content of the magazine nor for any claims,actions, or losses arising therefrom. Goods,services, and/or advertisements within thispublication other than those of Dell are notendorsed by or in any way connected with DellComputer Corporation.

Dell Axim, Dimension, Inspiron, Latitude, OpenManage, OptiPlex, PowerConnect,PowerEdge, PowerPath, PowerVault, Precision,and QuietCase are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Dell Computer Corporation in theUnited States, other countries, or both. Othercompany, product, and service names may betrademarks or service marks of others.

© 2003 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

May 2003

B U S I N E S S I N N O VA T I O N D I R E C T F R O M D E L L

insight

INSIDE TRACK 40

40: TEN YEARS DOWN UNDERby David Miller · Ten years ago, with a smallteam, just one product line to sell, andabsolutely no local brand presence, Dellestablished itself in Australia. Today, wecelebrate our incredible growth

41: CUSTOMIZING CUSTOMER SERVICEby Dr. Walid Moneimne · How do we service bothlarge and small enterprise customers acrossmultiple languages and diverse cultures inEurope, the Middle East, and Africa?

42: SETTING THE STANDARDby Steve Felice · IT decision makers in search oflow-cost, high-quality products are migratingto open, standards-based architectures

43: THE SWITCH IS ONby Kim Goodman · In this challenging businessclimate, the need to drive down costs andimprove efficiency spares no aspect of your ITinfrastructure

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT 44

44: GETTING THE JOB DONEMonster.com expands its scalable Dellinfrastructure to fuel non-stop growth

48: A QUICK ASCENT TO PEAK PERFORMANCEIntrawest stays agile and customer focusedusing a Dell|EMC storage area network

Departments

52: A CONNOISSEUR OF ROBUST SCAL ABIL IT YLa Madeleine satisfies its appetite for freshdata using a Dell|EMC storage area networkand enterprise resource planning

56: THE REAL -T IME DEALK & N Kenanga provides trading brokers withreal-time access to information by using Dellservers and storage

60: APPL ICATIONS FOR RENT Dell helps ASPGulf improve its infrastructureto meet the Middle East’s growing IT needs

PARTNER PROFILE 64

64: QLOGIC Dell and QLogic work together to deliver low-cost, high-value SAN solutions to enterprisecustomers around the world

NEWS BRIEFS 67

Index of Advertisers

Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 51, 63, 66Microsoft Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside front cover, 4Novell, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Oracle Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Outside back coverQLogic Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Quantum Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Seagate Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside back cover

52

60


[ From the Editor ]

“Agility” means the state of being quick, light,

and nimble. Whether you encounter a bump

in the path or a total roadblock, agility is the

quality that puts your feet into motion in

precisely the right way to escape danger. But

the word also evokes a feeling of calmness in

the face of unexpected change. Being agile

means being cool until a change forces you

into perfectly tuned motion, and then swiftly

returning to readiness.

These days, it’s no wonder that we hear so

much about the importance of “business

agility.” Experts prescribe all kinds of tactics to

help companies overcome the ills of a strug-

gling economy, and we have dedicated this

issue of Dell Insight to a few of the ways in

which companies build better business agility.

And fortunately, improving agility doesn’t

necessarily mean stretching your pocketbook.

First, we discuss the concept of organic IT. If

this is the first time you’ve heard the phrase,

it will not be the last. An organic infrastruc-

ture is like an intricately evolved living

being—its parts are interconnected, highly

functional, and entirely aimed at serving the

business that it supports. The organic IT

movement is no industry ploy to get busi-

nesses to spend more on IT—going organic is

all about smarter spending.

We also provide a “how it works” guide to one

of today’s most exciting technology develop-

ments: wireless computing. You can already

walk into just about any airport and many

restaurants and receive a signal from a wireless

LAN that gives you instant Internet access.

This technology holds the potential to increase

worker productivity dramatically because it

turns the world into one giant access point.

The release of Microsoft® Windows® Server

2003—Microsoft’s “.NET-connected” server

operating system—signals that Web services

truly have arrived. In a Cutting Edge article

and an interview with Forrester Analyst Ted

Schadler, we examine this up-and-coming

technology and explain why it’s here to stay.

Speaking of Microsoft, we have no doubt that

you noticed the industry leader who graces

our cover: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. In

the Executive Vision department of this issue,

Ballmer shares his company’s latest efforts in

areas such as R&D spending, security, and

Web services.

As always, we shine the spotlight on some

Dell™ customers that have achieved great

success using Dell enterprise solutions. Our

Partner Profile highlights the relationship

between Dell and QLogic and the tremendous

benefits that Dell storage customers derive

from this alliance.

Finally, we are happy to report that Dell Insight

has been named a finalist for two prestigious

Maggie awards by the Western Publications

Association. With the support of readers and

advertisers, we are confident that you are

holding yet another award-winning issue of

this magazine—and we hope that you agree.

Until next time, stay agile and enjoy this issue

of Dell Insight!

Business agility: It’s not such a stretch

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 3

Eddie HoEditor-in-Chief


04-05_MICROSFT_AD 4/4/03 4:17 PM Page 4

04-05_MICROSFT_AD 4/4/03 4:21 PM Page 5

ON THEON THE

6 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

The year 2003 is a banner year for Microsoft

Corporation as the company pours more

money into research and development

(R&D), ships several new releases including

the first .NET-connected products, and steps

up security efforts. The editors of Dell Insight

asked Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about

these topics and others, including the

company’s close partnership with Dell.

A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H M I C R O S O F T

06-12_Executive Vision 4/4/03 9:05 AM Page 6

[ Executive Vision ] On the horizon

HORIZONHORIZON

Dell Insight: What kind of innova-tion should enterprise customers expectfrom Microsoft in the next six months?

Steve Ballmer: This will be a

great year for our customers and partners.

We’ve made deep investments in research

and development (R&D) over the last

several years, and they’re coming to fruition

now with products that offer much greater

operational efficiency and dependability. In

April, we will launch Microsoft® Windows®

Server 2003, the next major evolution of

our server platform. It builds on the proven

reliability, scalability, and manageability of

Windows 2000 Server. It delivers a highly

productive infrastructure for connected

applications, networks, and XML Web

services—from the workgroup to the

data center.

We also plan to release Exchange Server

2003 in the middle of this year. It contains

lots of new features and enhancements,

based on customer feedback. It will help

information workers be more productive

and help IT managers deliver mission-

critical messaging and collaboration

services at lower cost.

This year, we’re also releasing the new

Microsoft Office System, Visual Studio® .NET

2003, and SQL Server™ Enterprise Edition,

plus new XML Web services technologies,

a unified e-business environment, and

InfoPath, which streamlines information

gathering by teams and organizations. So lots

of great things are happening.

DI: Microsoft is increasing its R&Dspending this year by 11 percent. Whysuch a large increase at this time?Where will this money go?

SB: Innovation is at the core of our long-

term business strategy—that’s the reason

we’re increasing our R&D. Over the years,

our R&D investments have produced

groundbreaking innovations in speech and

handwriting recognition, text display, digital

media, software programming languages,

and many other areas. We’ve pioneered

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 7

C E O S T E V E B A L L M E R


[ Executive Vision ]

next-generation information worker tech-

nologies for collaboration, real-time

communication, mobility, and digital

rights management.

We see lots of opportunities to deliver

new and better solutions and services for

customers—making computing more reli-

able and secure, delivering on the promise

of Web services, helping information

workers be more productive, and increas-

ing customers’ return on investment while

reducing the complexity of their IT infra-

structures. Some great work is coming out

of our five research labs around the world.

We have more than 700 researchers really

pushing the envelope in terms of explor-

ing future technologies and solutions,

while also working with our product

groups in the near term to incorporate

exciting advances into products.

DI: How do customers get the most outof what they’ve already licensed, andbe primed to add new hardware andsoftware to make it all work together?

SB: Customers tell us that two things are

very important: enhancing productivity

and reducing total cost of ownership. We

are passionate about both. They are a major

focus for our work with industry partners

such as Dell. We built Microsoft’s enter-

prise software, including Windows Server

2003, to work well in a mixed environment

because that is what our customers tell

us they need. Totally homogenous data

centers are extremely rare these days, so

Microsoft’s approach is: Don’t rip and

replace! Maximize your existing IT assets.

If you have already invested in UNIX®

or Linux®-based applications, you can

continue to operate them while gaining

the benefits of Windows Server 2003 and

Windows-based applications—in the same

environment.

DI: What key Microsoft products andinitiatives demonstrate Microsoft’scommitment to work with Dell toprovide enterprise computing productsthat minimize TCO and maximize ROI?

SB: A specific example is our close collab-

oration with Dell to help small businesses

8 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Paying it forward

The culture at Microsoft’s research labs might bereminiscent of the universities that some of itstop scientists once inhabited, but Microsoft’sbig investment in research is proving thatits interest in innovation is anything but academic

A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H M I C R O S O F T C E O S T E V E B A L L M E R

by Tara Swords


On the horizon

reduce the complexity and cost of deploy-

ing a server-based environment. With the

Windows platform, scenario-based solu-

tions can deliver an integrated experience

out of the box, which dramatically reduces

the need for additional software and

services to build solutions. And Windows

is coupled with a comprehensive and

integrated set of distributed computing

services, application frameworks, and

advanced tools, which give you single

sign-on between applications, a common

IT systems management infrastructure, and

consistent user interfaces across many

applications and other components. Back-

ing up these tools is a global community

of 750,000 independent software vendors

and other Microsoft partners, 450,000

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers,

and 1.5 million Microsoft certified profes-

sionals providing support and services

around the world.

DI: How does Windows Server 2003support that vision?

SB: Businesses need a complete technol-

ogy solution that is dependable, connected,

productive, and economical. Windows

Server 2003 adds to the productivity of

businesses by increasing overall computing

efficiency, connecting people in real time,

and enabling IT administrators to have

confidence in the stability of their networks.

DI: Please describe Microsoft’s visionfor .NET in enterprise environments andhow partners will be critical to the plat-form’s success.

SB: The goal of Microsoft .NET is to

enable faster, more agile business integra-

tion, and deliver on the promise of infor-

mation anytime, any place, on any device.

Building on XML Web service standards,

we’re providing the ability to quickly

We think customer choice isa great thing. Our job is tosimplify the process forcustomers so they can makethe best, informed decisionsfor their businesses

The year was 1991. At the time—decades ago in “tech years”—

Microsoft Corporation was a fraction of its current size and influence.

The average computer user—which was not yet the same as the average

person—might have known Microsoft for its office productivity software

and early operating systems. Many major companies in the budding tech

industry were scaling back research efforts, but Microsoft decided to raise

the research bar. That’s when the company paged Dr. Richard Rashid and

asked him to undertake a major operation: Build a world-class research

laboratory at Microsoft.

After a 12-year tenure, Rashid left his research post at Carnegie Mellon

University, where he was next in line to become dean of the university’s

computer science department. He relocated to Redmond, Wash., and began

building Microsoft Research from the ground up—an organization that now

employs more than 700 people in more than 50 technology areas in

Redmond, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Cambridge, England.

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 9


build and use solutions that connect infor-

mation, people, systems, and devices.

That’s the clear business value that

Microsoft .NET helps partners deliver to

their customers.

DI: Explain the importance of intellec-tual property, in Microsoft’s view.

SB: Innovation is the fundamental

component of progress and growth in the

IT industry; it’s the essential foundation

for the delivery of great new products.

Companies whose business is based on

the commercial software model, such as

Microsoft, engage in applied research to

develop products that advance the state of

technology. We generate jobs, profits, and

tax revenues that boost the economy and

that fund additional basic research in the

process. Microsoft believes that protecting

intellectual property is central to ensuring

a continuous cycle of sustainable innova-

tion that benefits customers and sustains

the vitality of the IT industry.

DI: How can a customer make the rightdecisions in such a complex environmentwhere the good news is that they have alot of choices and the bad news isperhaps that they have too many choices?

SB: We think customer choice is a great

thing. Our job is to simplify the process

for customers so they can make the best-

informed decisions for their businesses.

Customers tell us that the Windows platform

provides greater productivity, a safer invest-

ment, and the greatest value for their money.

DI: Please discuss Microsoft’s effortsin the area of security.

SB: We have made important progress

in the year since Bill Gates challenged

Microsoft’s employees to build a Trust-

worthy Computing environment for

customers. In early 2002, we took the

unprecedented step of stopping the

development work of 8,500 Windows

engineers while the company conducted

10 weeks of intensive security training

and analyzed the Windows code base.

These efforts have begun to pay off.

Microsoft goes old school

Rashid, now a Microsoft senior vice president of research, joined the company

while feeling a tinge of uncertainty. After all, he was accustomed to a university

environment in which scientists determine and direct their own research, are

rewarded for uninhibited, innovative thinking, and receive backing from

academic institutions that value research for its own sake. But in the corporate

world, research usually exists only when its fruits directly apply to the next prod-

uct development cycle.

One reason Rashid eagerly accepted his post at Microsoft was the promise

of an “open academic model.” Rashid implemented the same bureaucracy-

free environment enjoyed at the world’s top research institutions: a flat organi-

zational structure, a peer-review process conducive to collaboration,

unregulated research publication, and self-directed work. As a result, Rashid’s

guidance has helped Microsoft Research to attract some of the top minds in

the world of computer science.

1 0 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H M I C R O S O F T C E O S T E V E B A L L M E R



We’re eliminating vulnerabilities with

offerings like Windows XP Service Pack 1.

New products such as Windows Server

2003 also have gone through our Trust-

worthy Computing security review cycle.

Looking ahead, we’re working on a new

hardware/software architecture for the

Windows PC platform that will signifi-

cantly enhance integrity, privacy, and

data security.

Meanwhile, we’re closely examining

when to preconfigure products as “locked

down,” meaning that the most secure

options are the default settings. We have

updated and significantly expanded our

enterprise security tools with Software

Update Services (SUS) and the Systems

Management Server 2.0 SUS Feature

Pack. And responding to customer

feedback, we’ve worked with industry

professionals to develop a new security

bulletin severity rating system, intro-

duced new security bulletins designed

for consumers, and begun developing an

e-mail notification system that will

enable customers to subscribe to the

particular security bulletins they want.

In the coming year, we will continue to

work with customers, government offi-

cials, and industry partners to deliver

more secure products and share our find-

ings and knowledge about security.

DI: Specifically, what can customersexpect to see as a result of the Dell™

and Microsoft relationship in 2003?

SB: Dell and Microsoft both have proven

individual histories of driving down costs

for customers while providing best-of-

breed products. Dell is participating signifi-

cantly in the Windows Server 2003 launch.

In the enterprise, customers will see Dell

and Microsoft delivering enterprise-class

solutions for Windows-based server consol-

idation, UNIX migration, Windows migra-

tion, and server application deployment

including SQL Server and Exchange. We’ll

focus on key products such as Exchange,

Windows Server, and SQL Server as well

as Windows NAS storage solutions. It’s a

great alliance.

“At CMU, there was this notion of ‘the reasonable person principle,’” Rashid

says. “There were not a lot of rules. There were just intelligent people making

intelligent choices, and that’s the approach we’re trying to take here.”

Dollars fuel the future

Microsoft has so much faith in the future of its research organization that the

company is projecting an increase in its overall research and development budget

from $4.3 billion to just under $4.8 billion for this fiscal year. This move is particularly

aggressive when you consider today’s headlines: The economic environment is caus-

ing the vast majority of companies to cut every luxury—and some necessities—out of

their budgets. But Microsoft is funneling even more money into research projects such

as speech recognition, user interface research, operating system development,

graphics enhancement, data mining, and natural language processing. The

research budget will even fund work in seemingly sci-fi areas not often associated

with Microsoft, such as nanotechnology and quantum state teleportation.

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 1 1



From theory to practiceMicrosoft Research has pioneered a plethora of technologiesthat have made their way into Microsoft products in use atmany companies today. Here are some highlights:

Windows XP» ClearType� display technology allows a crisper, higher resolution display of

text on ordinary LCD screens » Windows Media� Player codec advancements provide better digital media

encoding technologies » Source code analysis tool advancements allow developers to find more subtle

and complex bugs» Performance optimization tool advancements optimize the load time, memory

requirements, and overall performance of the operating system

Microsoft SQL Server » Test tools generate random and complex SQL Server™ queries, which can

more fully test and exercise the Microsoft SQL Server engine » Auto admin tools automatically tune SQL Server for optimal performance

and engine enhancements » Key range locking allows more users to access the database simultaneously » Multilevel recovery allows the system to bring itself back to a stable state

even when very complex operations were only partially completed at the time of the failure

» New data-mining techniques allow users to more easily find patterns in massive data sets

Dr. Richard Rashid was namedvice president of research forMicrosoft in July 1994. Today, heheads the Microsoft Research Group.

Before joining Microsoft in September1991, Rashid was a professor ofcomputer science at Carnegie MellonUniversity. He received his master of

science and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the Univer-sity of Rochester. He previously graduated with honors in math-ematics from Stanford University.

Rashid is credited with co-development of one of the earliestnetworked computer games, Alto Trek, during the mid-1970s.Rashid was the director of the CMU Mach Operating SystemProject. The Mach kernel is in use worldwide by companiessuch as NeXT, organizations such as the Open Software Foundation, and corporate and university research laboratories.

Rashid’s research interests have been in the areas of artificialintelligence, operating systems, networking, and multiproces-sors. He has published papers about computer vision, operat-ing systems, programming languages for distributedprocessing, network protocols, and communication security.

“We are making a long-term commitment to research,” Rashid says. “Microsoft

Research has a track record of contributing to almost every product that

Microsoft has shipped, while also committing to solving some of comput-

ing’s greatest challenges and pushing the state of the art forward.

Microsoft has a vision of how technology can improve day-to-day

life, and the road to reaching that goal is through research.”

Whatever the focus of study at Microsoft Research, all

of the organization’s work is aimed at simplifying and

enhancing the way people experience technology. The

ultimate goal of this research is to ensure Microsoft’s longevity

in a rapidly changing industry, and Rashid says a company can

accomplish that goal only through continual re-invention.

“Technology is constantly changing. You have to constantly renew your

technology base and the approach that you take toward technology if you’re

going to continue to be successful.”

1 2 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Paying it forward


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[ Cutting Edge ] Between the lines

1 4 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Between

As wireless LANs gain

momentum and vendors work

to improve coverage and

security, the promise

of an agile, untethered enterprise

draws closer than you think

14-19_Wireless 4/4/03 9:54 AM Page 14

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 1 5

Between the lines [ Cutting Edge ]

By Paul Williamsthe lines

Picture this: You send your best salesperson on the road

with a presentation that is sure to blow the customer

away. It has slick graphics and a well-articulated message.

How can you lose?

This is how: Your big seller just realized she is missing

some critical slides—10 minutes before the meeting. She

floods the office with voice mail, e-mail, and instant

messages, but no one responds. Whatever the reason—she

attached the wrong file, she woke up 5 minutes too late, or

she got stuck in traffic—your sure-fire deal is in jeopardy

thanks to a simple oversight.

Despite rapid technological advancements that have

given enterprises the convenience of cellular phones, note-

book computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs),

workers in the field often find themselves lost without

access to the corporate network. For that reason, many

businesses have begun to invest in wireless LAN (WLAN)

technology. Using WLANs, your network resources can be

anywhere you want them to be, making your road warriors

more productive and your enterprise more nimble.

14-19_Wireless 4/4/03 9:54 AM Page 15

Connecting the dots

The U.S. mobile workforce is

growing at an incredible rate. In fact,

IDC estimates that the U.S. mobile work-

force population will reach 104 million

by 2006, nearly doubling the expected

growth of immobile workers.1 But corpo-

rate acceptance of wireless networking

has been slower than expected, mainly

because of security concerns and limited

IT budgets. Today, many industry analysts

say the fog finally is lifting from WLAN

adoption because of a growing need to

equip mobile workforces with effective

tools for identifying opportunities and

closing business deals. According to

Infonetics Research, for example, global

sales of hardware used in WLANs totaled

$1.68 billion in 2002. The company

predicts that number will rise more than

60 percent to $2.72 billion by 2006.2

WLANs extend network coverage to

notebooks and handheld devices both on

corporate campuses and in public facilities

such as hotels. They use electromagnetic

waves to send data from a wireless device,

such as a PDA, to a strategically located

wireless router or access point (AP).

An AP is the bridge between a mobile

worker and a regular “wired” network. It

emits a radius of connectivity called a “hot

spot” that forwards the signal from a wire-

less client to a landline using a standard

Ethernet connection. IT managers can

position APs across the corporate campus

to bring the network to workers sitting in

meetings or walking between buildings.

IT personnel can also use APs to create

a temporary WLAN for one-time events,

such as operating a booth at a trade show.

Implementation of a WLAN at the

office entails a comprehensive site survey

that uses building plans and physical site

tours to ensure optimal AP placement.

This survey takes into account prospective

wireless usage patterns, as well

as potential obstacles to signal

transmissions, such as walls and

furniture. Because an AP can service

only a limited number of clients at a

given distance, enterprises must position

plenty of APs around the campus to

maximize signal strength.

Society hot spots

When on the road, your untethered

employees will rely on public APs to

communicate with the office network.

These communal hot spots usually

are operated by wireless Internet

service providers, and can be found

in many airports, train stations, and

convention centers.

Because your IT staff cannot control

these hot spots, traveling workers should

expect slower throughput as they move

farther from the AP or as more users log on

at the same time. The exact range, connec-

tion speed, and number of clients sustained

by a single hot spot depend on the WLAN

specification that a hot spot supports.

Taking CRM on the road Analysts predict that an expanding mobile workforce and a larger presence of WLAN hot

spots will accelerate growth in wireless enterprise applications such as customer relation-

ship management (CRM). IDC estimates that mobile CRM solutions will become a $459

million market by 2007.3

An effective mobile CRM solution will give your workers in the field immediate access

to customer-specific information that they could use to tailor sales pitches or create special

offers. At the same time, employees fresh from a customer engagement would have the

ability to upload new client data in real time using any Wi-Fi-enabled device. This

enhanced coordination in the field will help enterprises improve customer satis-

faction and retention, while minimizing cost and

maximizing employee productivity.


1 6 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

14-19_Wireless 4/4/03 9:55 AM Page 16

Separating the standards

You might have heard talk about three

main WLAN specifications: 802.11b,

802.11a, and 802.11g. They appear similar,

but actually are quite different.

802.11b

Known as “Wi-Fi,” 802.11b is the de facto

industry standard for WLANs. It operates

on three independent channels at up to 11

Mbps per channel, and can support 256

simultaneous connections at an outdoor

range of up to 300 feet. The indoor range

is limited to 150 feet.

Because the format shares the 2.4 GHz

spectrum, 802.11b users may experience

interference problems if microwave ovens

or cordless phones are operating nearby.

However, 802.11b is by far the most

mature WLAN specification and has

received broad support from Wi-Fi equip-

ment and hot spot vendors in the United

States, Europe, and Japan.

802.11a

802.11a is also called Wi-Fi, but the simi-

larities between it and 802.11b end there.

This spec runs on eight independent chan-

nels and offers data rates up to five times

faster than 802.11b. It can support up to

1,024 concurrent users, but its range is

limited to 25 feet.

Unfortunately, 802.11a is not backward

compatible with 802.11b, meaning that

users have to pick one spec and hope that

it sticks as the standard. The 802.11a spec

operates on the 5 GHz frequency band—

causing fewer interference problems than

802.11b—but does not have broad support

from Wi-Fi equipment and hot-spot

vendors at the time of this writing.

802.11g

802.11g is the proposed follow-up to

802.11b. It operates on three independent

channels in the 2.4 GHz spectrum like its

predecessor, but its data rates are up to five

times faster, topping out at 54 Mbps per

channel—just like its competitor, 802.11a.

802.11g is backward compatible with

802.11b, but it has not yet been ratified by

the Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers (IEEE) organization at the time

of this writing. The few 802.11g products

now on the market are based on draft

versions of the specification and may not

be compatible with the standard that ulti-

mately is available. The IEEE expects to

ratify 802.11g by June 2003.

Most WLAN manufacturers today

support 802.11b. But as 802.11a and

802.11g gain acceptance in the business

market, look for dual-mode equipment

to become the rule rather than the excep-

tion. Upcoming hardware that supports

both 802.11a and 802.11b/802.11g will

help to ensure the WLAN products you

buy today support the emerging standards

of tomorrow.

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 1 7


When on the road, your untethered employees will rely on public APs to communicate with the office network

802.

11g

802.

11b

802.

11a

14-19_Wireless 4/4/03 9:55 AM Page 17


No strings attached?

To date, the biggest knock against WLANs

has been their perceived lack of security.

Without adequate protection, unautho-

rized users can access a WLAN to extract

sensitive information or simply use the

connection as a free Internet on-ramp.

The practice of finding and mapping

APs has even spawned its own lexicon:

“Wardrivers” are unauthorized users who

travel around town in search of wireless

hot spots to hack for free wireless Internet

access. The process of documenting and

publishing hot-spot locations for use

by unauthorized users is called

“warchalking.”

It is important to note,

however, that most WLAN

users bring security breaches on

themselves. According to Gartner, Inc., a

market research advisory firm, “vulnerabil-

ities to attacks occur when enterprises

deploy WLANs and do not ‘turn on’ wired

equivalent protection (WEP),” the security

protocol of the 802.11b standard.4 In

November 2002, the WorldWide WarDrive,

a global effort by “concerned” wardrivers

to draw attention to access point vulnera-

bilities, found that 72 percent of the nearly

25,000 APs they identified did not have

WEP enabled.5

Mending fences

Although WEP provides a basic level of

protection, most security experts recom-

mend that businesses fortify WLANs

by using more traditional safeguards,

including firewalls and virtual private

networks (VPNs).

A VPN, for example, creates a “tunnel”

through a public network that wireless

clients can use to safely and inexpensively

communicate with the corporate network.

For enterprises still daunted by the risk of

WLAN intrusion, be assured that major

security improvements are on the way.

For example, the Wi-Fi Alliance, a

non-profit industry-standards body

composed of high-tech vendors including

Dell and Intel, has introduced security

provisions to replace WEP. Known as

“Wi-Fi Protected Access,” these measures

enhance encryption and improve the

way APs authenticate Wi-Fi clients that

connect to the network. Products using

this technology should be available by

mid-2003.

By the end of 2003, the IEEE is

expected to finalize even tougher wireless

encryption and authentication standards,

called 802.11i and 802.1x, respectively. If

you plan to implement a WLAN, be sure

to choose a vendor with a low-cost

upgrade path to 802.11i- and 802.1x-

compliant products.

Upward mobility

Despite security concerns, WLANs have

been one of the few bright spots in today’s

gloomy economy. Research firm In-Stat/MDR

estimates the volume of Wi-Fi products

shipped to the business market jumped by

65 percent in 2002, thanks to falling prices

of 802.11b APs and network interface

cards (NICs). In-Stat/MDR also estimates

that 14 percent of new laptop PCs shipped

to businesses in 2002 had 802.11b-

compliant NICs built in, compared with

only 2 percent in 2001.6

Inexpensive and widely available

WLAN technology is also fueling the

growth of public hot spots around the

globe. According to Gartner, Inc., “the

number of public WLAN hot spots world-

wide will increase from slightly more than

1,000 at the end of 2001 to more than

21,000 by the end of 2004”7—a 2,000

percent jump.

Dell widens the net

Dell has helped accelerate wireless trends

in a variety of ways. The company has

added standards-based WLAN capability

1 8 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Despite security concerns,WLANs have been one of thefew bright spots in today’sgloomy economy

14-19_Wireless 4/4/03 9:55 AM Page 18

Air travelWLANs use electromagnetic waves to

send data from a laptop PC or hand-

held device to a wireless access

point. An access point emits a

radius of connectivity

called a “hot spot” that

forwards the signal

from a wireless client

to a landline using

a standard Ethernet

connection.


1 IDC. Mobile Application Solutions: Making a Credible Case for Mobile CRM Adoption in 2003. January 2003.2 Infonetics Research. Enterprise Gearing up for Wireless LAN Adoption. February 24, 2003.3 IDC. Mobile Application Solutions: Making a Credible Case for Mobile CRM Adoption in 2003. January 2003.4 Gartner, Inc. Wireless LANs: An Overview by K. Hiller. October 17, 2002.5 http://www.worldwidewardrive.org/wwwdstats.html. November 2002.6 In-Stat/MDR. Attractive Cost of 802.11b Drove Wi-Fi Shipments in 2002. February 12, 2003.7 Gartner, Inc. How Hot Will Public Wireless “Hot Spots” Become? by W. Clark. October 10, 2002.8 Based on 802.11b standards where data rate can range from 1 to 11 Mbps depending upon signal strength and environmental interferences.

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 1 9

to its Dell™ Inspiron™ notebooks,

Latitude™ notebooks, and OptiPlex™ work-

stations. Dell Latitude C400 and X200

portables, for example, come with an

integrated Dell TrueMobile™ 802.11b

wireless antenna that enables business

travelers to access enterprise networks

from locations across the United States,

Europe, and Japan.

In addition to Wi-Fi–enabled laptops,

Dell manufactures 802.11b NICs and APs

for enterprise-class WLANs. The Dell

TrueMobile 1150 Wireless NIC, for exam-

ple, connects notebook computers with

APs at up to 11 Mbps8 and uses Carrier

Sense Multiple Access with Collision

Detection, a feature that ensures multiple

client signals do not disrupt each other

when accessing the same AP. On the AP

side, the Dell TrueMobile 1170 Wireless

Router can sustain up to 32 users and is

compatible with all Wi-Fi NICs, including

the TrueMobile 11xx series.

Time to cut the cord?

A WLAN can be a powerful tool for any

enterprise. It eliminates reliance on desk-

top computers and makes employees more

productive no matter where they are on

the corporate grounds. For road warriors,

WLAN-enabled devices provide conven-

ient access to information and back-office

applications for important engagements

with customers, partners, and prospects.

These gains in efficiency and produc-

tivity not only improve competitiveness in

the long run, but they also increase return

on investment as workers spend more of

their time working—not frantically phon-

ing and e-mailing the office for assistance.

As prices of WLAN equipment continue to

decline, companies no longer need to

wonder if WLANs will become standard

fare in enterprise environments, the ques-

tion is: When? The answer: Soon.

For more information:www.dell.com/truemobile

Wireless AP

Wireless Client

Ethernet

Internet

14-19_Wireless 4/4/03 9:55 AM Page 19

2 0 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Bringing IT to lifeWill a sleeker “organic” IT infrastructure blunt the economic recovery of the high-techindustry? Yes and no. The drive toward optimized efficiency

might put the brakes on IT spending, but it could also be the best thing to

happen to tech—and to the enterprise—in years

By Sarah Close

20-23_BringingITtolife 4/8/03 12:21 PM Page 20

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 2 1

Bringing IT to life [ Cutting Edge ]

“Aman with one watch knows what time it is; a man with

two watches is never quite sure.”

Many years ago, a little-known businessman by the name

of Lee Segall made this curious observation about the age-old

dichotomy between quantity and quality. More, he postulated,

is not always better. Sometimes, more is counterproductive.

Listen closely, and you can hear this adage ringing true today.

It sounds something like this: hundreds, if not thousands, of CIOs

collectively slapping their foreheads in understanding. The real-

ity, it seems, has hit. Organizations are spending too much money

on too much IT, with little to show except weed-like infrastruc-

tures that drain resources, congest business processes, and some-

how still manage to grow.

Many expert organizations say it’s time to kill the weeds

and go organic—and they don’t mean “buy the farm.” On the

contrary, analysts predict the influx of a newer, more vibrant IT

infrastructure that is organic in an almost biological sense. Like a

living being, this new infrastructure has a central nervous system

with interconnected, highly functional parts. Servers that heal

themselves. Bandwidth that self-allocates. Applications that—

dare we say it?—actually integrate with each other on their own.

The new infrastructure, unlike its current manifestation, is not

about tech for tech’s sake. It is about aligning technology, at long

last, with the business it was always meant to serve.

But this alignment will not come effortlessly. First, enter-

prises must strip existing systems and networks to include only

that which is necessary, useful, and highly efficient. In turn,

they must streamline the budget—a move that has some experts

understandably concerned about the future profitability of high

tech. The less money allocated to IT, they contest, the less

money we will spend on it—which could cause a drastic

reduction in demand.

Despite this threat, organic IT does not create a bland and

compromised infrastructure. In fact, not only will this shift likely

inspire the development of the most intelligent, efficient technol-

ogy in years, but it also promises the most intelligent, efficient

use of that technology. Could organic restructuring be the start of

another innovation revolution?

Zen and the art of IT maintenance

One look at today’s business technology and it’s easy to see

why the organic approach holds such appeal. According to one

research and advisory firm, global enterprises are throwing

almost $50 billion a year at servers alone, while reporting 60

percent or less utilization. Similarly, the average Global 3500 firm

spends $6.3 million annually on application integration, yet

cannot effectively connect its own enterprise software, let alone

connect with its partners’ systems. Hardware proliferation has

turned many a data center into a labyrinth of plastic and cables.

And people are supposed to manage this tangled mess?

As IT foundations begin to sag under the accumulated

weight of their expensive and unfulfilled potential, many CIOs

are anxious to lighten the load. How? Simplification. Stop

excessive IT expenditure, eliminate many inflexible proprietary

systems, and leverage inexpensive commodity hardware and

applications in the data center to ensure true collaboration and

easy management.

Forrester Research, an analyst and advisory firm, prescribes a

Zen-like new architecture that streamlines IT to four primary layers1:

» NETWORKS. Off-load costly leased WAN lines and switch to a

cheaper redundant array of Internet links (RAIL). Forrester

analysts estimate performance improvements will reduce

bandwidth costs by 20 percent.

» STORAGE. Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate. By eliminating

direct-attach disks and centralizing on server networks, says

Forrester, enterprises can trim 30 percent off storage costs.

» PROCESSORS. The buzz phrase is “fabric technology.” Forrester

predicts the move toward a highly flexible server infrastructure

based on inexpensive shared processor and memory nodes.

» SOFTWARE. Woven into the server fabric will be fully inte-

grated applications that leverage new Web standards to cut

integration expenses drastically.

The key is abstraction, says Forrester Analyst Frank E. Gillett.

“History reveals that technologies mature—and gain universal

usage—only when engineers can simplify controls and conceal

complexity,” he explains. Also crucial is the ability to build

better, more efficient products by combining inexpensive, stan-

dardized ingredients. “By aggregating cheap components in


[ Cutting Edge ] Bringing IT to life

creative ways,” Gillett says, “smart engineers can deliver advances

in performance and reliability.”

Applying the concept of abstraction reveals a newfound and

much needed ability to go Gestalt in the data center—making it

manageable as a whole, rather than a collection of parts. This

approach would enable organizations to take a step back and

gain a more complete perspective of the infrastructure. Why does

this matter? Because along with the realization that they are over-

spending on undereffective IT, businesses have also realized a

critical urgency for agility.

Your roots are showing

The real benefit of organic IT is exposed. CIOs are not merely

interested in slaying the dollar-eating dragon; they also want to

rescue the princess in a display of grace and agility. By reducing

IT to an understandable and manageable beast, organizations can

begin to demand faster and smarter responses from technology.

But is it really that simple?

Some experts say no. Although he agrees wholeheartedly

with the need for an infrastructure overhaul, former Xerox® CIO

and renowned IT guru Paul Strassmann warns against taking a

too-idealistic or utopian approach. “The median value of a

computing infrastructure of U.S. corporations is 3 percent of

revenue. It is an intensely political artifact. The current ineffi-

ciencies are not a reflection of technology, but of bureaucratic

contests for control over information involving 100 percent of

revenue. Information technology is an extension of corporate

power politics by other means.” In other words, the fastest route

between two points might be a straight line, but the straight line

is not always an option in the corporate world.

The struggle between business and technology must be

addressed completely before a true revolution can take place.

Gartner, Inc. agrees. Like Forrester, Gartner is predicting a “New

Enterprise Architecture.” But unlike Forrester, whose analysts

encourage CIOs to run—not walk—to new organic technology in

the interest of seeing immediate ROI, Gartner researchers advise

moderation. “There is an inescapable amount of hard work,

hard thinking, and change management that must precede the

technology,” says David Flint, research director at Gartner.

“Without it, you will spend the money but not

get the benefits.” 2

Rather than basing its predicted new

architecture on four layers of infrastruc-

ture alone, Gartner dissects the entire

relationship between IT and business into

four critical tiers:

» MULTI-ENTERPRISE GRID. This tier provides a

framework for aligning physical (pipes and networks, for

example) and semantic communication tools, so that busi-

ness and technology can speak a common language.

» BUSINESS PROCESS STYLES. This tier concentrates on aligning core

business competencies and objectives with technology systems.

» PATTERNS. These reusable logical models (such as client-

server or hub-and-spoke) put the business objectives into

functional configurations.

» BRICKS. Finally, the nitty-gritty components (such as operating

systems or databases) set the new architecture in motion.

To best understand how these tiers interact, says Gartner

Research Group Vice President Jeff Schulman, just picture a

Rubik’s Cube, with four tiers that spin independently of each

other to create new viewpoints. “Historically, when you modified

an architecture you had to modify the whole thing over and over

again, and architectures ended up looking like soup in one big

pot. Everything lost its shape,” Schulman says. “What we are

suggesting with this four-dimensional model is that by moving

any of those dimensions independently, you won’t compromise

the agility of the whole.” 3

Can IT get a witness?

Whether CIOs prefer Forrester’s approach or Gartner’s, both firms

ultimately predict a similar fate for the IT budget: It has to go.

Humbled by the dot-com crash, we finally are ready to acknowl-

edge the truth that skeptical experts such as Paul Strassmann

have been preaching for years: We have no statistical evidence

linking increased IT spending to increased profitability or

2 2 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

The organic IT revolution is

driving “brutal vendor

transformations” to separate

the wheat from the chaff


M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 2 3

Bringing IT to life [ Cutting Edge ]

productivity. It’s time to slash costs and ramp up

savings—with one catch, of course: The incredible

shrinking IT budget must remain able to procure agile

technology for an agile business.

This is a good thing. Although Forrester paints a

pessimistic picture for high-tech economic recovery, the

shift toward organic infrastructures might not take us there after

all. Why not? Because, like a novice monk in a monastery or a

sinner at a revival, an unburdened IT quickly becomes a revital-

ized IT. Right this minute, organizations are rethinking the

purpose, functionality, and cost of technology in the world of

business. They are discovering that technology must get smarter

in order to survive. Business today (and, more important, tomor-

row) demands more from less, and the only enduring technology

components will be forced to provide optimized functionality

that is more flexible and more efficient. Seen in this light, a well-

thought-out, strategic migration to standardized, commodity

components is likely to take tech vendors, as well as enterprises,

one step back and two steps forward.

The reason: Keeping pace with this migration to remain

competitive will encourage tech vendors to resurrect the innova-

tion of yesterday, even while adhering to today’s strict require-

ments. Dell’s ongoing work with standardized technology is a

prime example. Dell’s success has always centered around

offering customers off-the-shelf solutions rather than costly

proprietary systems. This strategy enables Dell to run a lean,

customer-focused operation and promotes lower prices and

higher performance in the products at the center of real-time,

agile computing. The vendors who follow suit are likely to

outlast the organic migration, according to Forrester, who fore-

sees the survivor list to include component providers and lead-

ing enterprise visionaries such as Dell.

From weeds to seeds

And why shouldn’t this type of innovation, which must become

widespread if IT is to survive at all, rejuvenate tech economics? If

history repeats itself, the major vendors on the innovation super-

highway, once in motion, won’t stop at business agility. Engineers

will again engineer with the force of an impending revolution.

Who knows what might come next?

In the meantime, as Forrester says, the organic IT revolu-

tion is driving “brutal vendor transformations” to separate the

wheat from the chaff. Although these vendors might undergo

transformations for their own survival, they also are aware that

the enterprise’s best interest is now their own best interest.

Thus, as business becomes more closely aligned with technol-

ogy and enterprises are no longer imprisoned by IT run amok,

a higher quality of industry will soon sprout where once there

were only weeds.

Listen closely, and you can almost hear the roots taking hold.

It sounds something like a street-corner hoodlum, surreptitiously

exposing his jacket lining and quipping, “Wanna buy a watch?”

And the plain response of thousands of CIOs: “No, thank you.

Already have one. And one is enough.”

1 Forrester Research. Wholeview™ TechStrategy™ Research: Organic IT. April 2002.2 Gartner, Inc. The New Rush to Real Time by David Flint. 2003.3 Gartner, Inc. The New Enterprise Architecture: Wiring for Speed by Jeff Schulman. 2003.

Five symptoms of an ailing infrastructureYour budget hurts Despite—or perhaps because of—overspending on IT, you can’t seem to assemble a

truly reliable and functional network.

You can’t feel your servers With dozens of boxes for dozens of functions, why are you still struggling toassign bandwidth to high-performance tasks? Where does all of that expensive capacity go?

Your data centers are congested Hardware proliferation in your key IT locations has you feeling like youcan’t breathe.

You separated your software It seemed like a good idea at the time—different applications for differentjobs. Now that you need real-time agility, however, your software can’t connect across the enterprise.

You have a management migraine The building pressure of countless IT administration tasks has culminated in the biggest headache of your career.

Time for an IT checkup?


Dell server consolidation.

Saves money. Saves space.Spells doom for your old servers.

24-25_AD_DELL_SPRD_CMYK.qxd 03/20/03 12:43 PM Page 24

*Per TPC-W 100,000 Item Count Results Test, June 2002. For more information, visit www.tpc.org. TPC and TPC-W are trademarks of the Transaction Processing Performance Council. Intel, the Intel logo and Xeon are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Dell, the Dell logo and PowerEdge are registered trademarks of the Dell Computer Corporation. ©2002 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.

Visit www.dell.com/serverROI

Flexible solutions that can cut costs today and tomorrow. Easy as

What kind of server consolidation solutions does Dell bring to your enterprise? Just what you’d expect: A legendary focus on you, the

customer, that’s as relentless as our focus on driving down costs. An end-to-end solution that saves you money today and tomorrow

by delivering:

Maximum flexibility, manageability, value and price/performance. Our new line of PowerEdge™ servers, powered by

Intel® Xeon™

and accelerate time to a positive ROI.

Optimized uptime/maximized investment. Dell’s new systems management solutions deploy software, tools and services

which help simplify and automate server systems administration. Leveraging your IT resources and maximizing your IT dollar.

Server infrastructure consolidation services. Our comprehensive portfolio includes consolidation readiness assessment,

consolidation design and transformation, customer training and certification, deployment and high availability support services.

Flexible financing alternatives. Dell gives you a variety of financing avenues designed to help you optimize ROI.

For nearly 20 years, we’ve revolutionized the way the world buys and manages technology. Now find

out how Dell’s direct approach can revolutionize your server consolidation. To learn more about the Dell ROI

test, visit www.dell.com/serverROI.

™ ™ ® Xeon™ processors

24-25_AD_DELL_SPRD_CMYK.qxd 03/20/03 12:43 PM Page 25

processors, consistently ranks at the top of industry benchmarks such as TPC.* Collectively helping to lower TCO

Consolidate with Dell and you’ll need to find a new use for your old servers.

Dell PowerEdge servers use Intel

2 6 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Business be

nimble,business be

quickBy Elizabeth Dougherty

26-30_Web_services 4/8/03 11:01 AM Page 26

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 2 7

Business be nimble, business be quick [ Cutting Edge ]

W eb services have attracted a lot of

attention over the past couple of

years, and for good reason: Web services

hold tremendous potential to connect

heterogeneous systems without draining

the life out of IT resources. But all of that

pie-in-the-sky hype sometimes distracts

from the important story: Web services

have practical applications—such as point-

to-point integration—that can revolution-

ize the way enterprises do business and

also save big dollars.

Web services enable communication

among programs that are written in

different languages and are running on

different hardware platforms and operat-

ing systems. Sure, we can use software

and customized adapters today to make

our systems play nice, but any CIO can

lament the mountain of time and money

that such integration projects typically

require. The standardized communication

of Web services, on the other hand, helps

businesses accomplish integration with

faster development, increased reliability,

and huge cost savings. “It’s a story the

IT manager loves to hear,” says Jason

Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink, a

market research firm specializing in XML

and Web services.

Be like bamboo

Web services can give your company a

competitive edge by increasing your

business agility—the ability to respond

quickly and advantageously to a chang-

ing competitive situation. As the old

adage says, you should be flexible

enough to bend when a big wind comes—

but never break.

From established industries to upstarts,

Dell™ customers are relying on Web

services—often built using Microsoft®

.NET-connected software—to stay agile. For

example, a coatings, glass, and chemical

manufacturer founded more than a century

ago automated its business-to-business

electronic commerce using .NET-connected

software on Dell PowerEdge™ servers. Not

even a decade old, an online broker uses

similar technology internally to exchange

financial data with its parent company.

Sorting through the hype

Despite all of the press that Web services

have garnered, people are still debating

their definition—perhaps because the term

“Web services” combines two straight-

forward terms into a concept that is anything

but obvious.

From a business perspective, a Web

service is a self-contained business func-

tion that runs on standards-based Internet

technology using everyday Web servers.

On a more technical note, a Web service

lets you connect two disparate software

systems and automate data exchange

between them using XML (eXtensible

Markup Language). On a less technical

note, you can envision a Web service as

the translator between pieces of software

that have something to say to each other

but don’t speak the same language.

Here’s how it works: The Web service

producer describes the information available,

JUMP OVER INTEGRATION HURDLES,

SAVE MONEY, AND STAY AGILE

WITH WEB SERVICES


[ Cutting Edge ] Business be nimble, business be quick

what can be done with it, and an authenti-

cation process. The Web service consumer

communicates with the Web service to

obtain the information, manipulate it, and

possibly add new information. For exam-

ple, a tire manufacturer could make avail-

able its inventory and production schedule

and allow car makers to place orders and

schedule deliveries—even linking to a

system that warns of an upcoming shortage

of snow tires before ski season. The

exchange of information happens via

messages based on XML standards.

Sounds pretty routine, but the aspect

of Web services that makes businesses

“ooo” and “aah” is the fact that all of this

communication happens automatically

and without much need for human inter-

vention. And because Web services use the

inexpensive Internet to function, they are

suitable for even the thriftiest companies.

“The Internet” is not to be confused with

“the public.” Although Web services use

Internet protocols, such as HTTP, they are

not necessarily accessible to everyone. For

now, security limitations constrain the kinds

of Web services that businesses can launch.

Each company chooses who can access its

Web services, and most businesses that use

Web services today are deploying them

over firewall-protected intranets or with

trusted business partners. Early adopters—

businesses in the financial services, insur-

ance, and health care industries—deal in

some very sensitive data.

Seeing the future

A Web service can be a simple one-way

exchange of information, in which a Web

services consumer requests information and

receives it. Today, Web services already are

sending us stock quotes, weather reports,

and sports scores. In the future, a taxi

company might ask an airport system for

information about arriving flights to help

the dispatcher send enough taxis.

A Web service also can be a more

complex two-way exchange of informa-

tion, such as a transaction with multiple

steps. For example, a health club could

implement a scheduling Web service that

allows customers to access their personal

trainers’ calendars and reserve appoint-

ments, or receive an e-mail or pager notifi-

cation if a slot opens up in Wednesday’s

tai chi class. Or, when you buy a plane

ticket from a travel Web site, you might

request that you be notified of all schedule

changes, but that dear old mom only

receives an e-mail one hour before your

flight arrives.

As Web services become more sophisti-

cated, they can ask for information, process

it, and deliver it directly to users’ desktops.

“Unlocking the data isn’t enough,” says

Neil Charney, director of the Platform

Strategy and Partner Group at Microsoft.

“You must be able to do something with

it.” For example, a major U.S. stock market

developed a Web service application that

sorts, retrieves, and analyzes financial data

before displaying it in Microsoft Excel

spreadsheets. Consequently, traders and

analysts get faster, streamlined, custom

answers to queries that previously required

traders to search through paper reports.

How to succeed in Web services

That’s how Web services work and how

businesses can apply them, but it is only

half of the picture. The real story is about

the incredible benefits that Web services

can deliver—especially if you know the

best way to approach them.

Leverage existing resources. One of Web

services’ greatest strengths is their ability

to exploit and connect existing disparate

systems, which saves time and money.

Because so many systems have the basic

components of Web services—a Web

server, XML parsing, and SQL database

access—it is easy to construct Web ser-

vices applications that are portable across

platforms. Companies also can reuse Web

services interfaces to shorten the develop-

ment time of projects.

Form faster partnerships. An upfront

standards-based agreement about how to

exchange data in an automated way can

eliminate the time-consuming meetings,

decisions, and development cycles of past

approaches.

Increase flexibility. Web services allow

ad hoc connections that companies can

build and change quickly in response to

changing business needs. Because Web

services utilize an existing connection—

the Internet—between your company and

other companies, new integration projects

are significantly less expensive compared

with traditional application integration.

2 8 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3


Setting thestandard:

How conformity

helps you compete

Thanks to software vendors playing nicely together and

supporting Web services standards, businesses gain the

ability to interoperate. This means that when you use

industry-standard tools to build your Web services, you

can interact with other standards-compliant Web ser-

vices. Because the method of exchanging data is

predefined, you can establish partnerships quickly and

easily, boosting your business agility.

Although standards bodies such as the World

Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Organization

for the Advancement of Structured Information

Standards (OASIS) define Web services standards,

the backing of industry heavy hitters such as

Microsoft, IBM, and Sun Microsystems is crucial

to their acceptance. In fact, a group of vendors

has formed the Web Services Interoperability

Organization (WS-I) expressly to promote Web

services interoperability.

“Web services are strategic and important

enough that these companies are committing time

and energy around building a common understand-

ing and interpretation of them,” says Neil Charney,

director of the Platform Strategy and Partner Group,

at Microsoft.

Web services utilize XML, a general-purpose docu-

ment format language used for Web documents. Here’s a

rundown on the alphabet soup of XML components that

Web services use:

• SOAP: The Simple Object Access Protocol allows a

Web services consumer to communicate with a Web

services producer using XML messages

• WSDL: The Web Services Description Language is used to

describe a Web service’s capabilities

• UDDI: Universal Discovery Description and Integration, the

“yellow pages” of Web services, lets you register the availability

of your Web services

Simplify development. Development tools,

such as Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET

2003, speed development by automating

much of the coding typically involved in

creating Web services. Also, most devel-

opers already know the ins and outs of

the Internet markup languages—such as

XML and HTML—that they will use to

create Web services.

Capitalize on standards. Agreed-upon

standards and industry support for those

standards are key to the success of Web

services. Standards enable Web services

from different companies to interoperate,

which helps businesses to form and evolve

partnerships quickly and easily.

Join industry efforts. Many industries

have developed standard XML dictionar-

ies and templates to encourage applica-

tion compatibility. Industries that have

published Web services standards include

insurance, human resources, and printing

and publishing.

Enjoy a competitive edge. Faster, more

cost-effective development means your IT

department can better respond to business

needs. “The business can now drive the

technology instead of vice versa,”

Bloomberg says.

Getting in the game

Ready to dive into Web services?

Experts suggest that you develop a

careful, gradual plan.

Invest in training. Whether you are

just starting to dabble in Web services or

expanding your efforts, educate your IT

staff about the Web services capabilities of

your current development platform and

language. Online training classes can

shorten the learning curve.

Investigate what’s happening in the IT

trenches. Is an informal Web services

implementation operating under the

corporate radar, for example, within a

different department? If so, talk to the

developers about what they have learned

and brainstorm about other potential

applications.

Create a pilot project. If you are new to

Web services, get started by creating a

one-way Web service that is not

mission critical but has some busi-

ness function. For example, publi-

cize something about your

company. If your company is a

manufacturer, create a Web

service that allows

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 2 9


.NET makes gainsMicrosoft’s monster commitment to

standards gets results

If you have looked online for a job, you have most likely

browsed Monster, the number 1 career Web portal. Behind

the scenes, Monster relies on Microsoft software to build its

giant network, which runs on Dell servers. Like many

Microsoft customers, Monster is using .NET, Microsoft’s

software for implementing Web services, to increase its

business agility.

Microsoft has united with partners and competi-

tors, including rivals IBM and Sun Microsystems, to

support Web services standards. “They’re commit-

ted to interoperability, which is a new thing for

Microsoft,” says Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst

at ZapThink, a market research firm specializing in

XML and Web services. “To penetrate the enter-

prise space, Microsoft realizes it must interoper-

ate. The company is serious about this.”

When announcing the .NET strategy several

years ago, Microsoft committed to building XML

support for Web services across its product lines.

In Visual Studio .NET, released February 2002,

Microsoft delivered the only development environ-

ment built for Web services from the ground up.

Since that time, thousands of customers have experi-

enced the benefits of .NET-connected solutions using

Microsoft tools, client software, servers, and services.

Beginning with the launch of Windows Server

2003 and the latest edition to the Microsoft Visual

Studio family, Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft prod-

ucts that support Web services will begin to display a “.NET

Connected” logo. “The .NET Connected logo promotes prod-

ucts and services with Web service-based connectivity that

people build on our platform,” says Neil Charney, director of the

Platform Strategy and Partner Group at Microsoft.

Monster expects the new Visual Studio .NET 2003 to boost

developer productivity for Windows Server-based applications. “We’re

shooting for more than a 30 percent improvement,” says Brian Farrey,

president of TMP Technologies, a division of Monster’s parent company,

TMP Worldwide.

Although Monster has been using XML for a couple of years, integration of

XML with the operating system will make it easier to build Web services to interact

with its larger enterprise customers. “We can more seamlessly integrate our offerings with

them,” Farrey says.

Faster development times and lower integration are compelling reasons to consider implement-

ing Web services. Staying agile in the marketplace is another. “You may not be thinking of it,” Charney

says. “But your competitor is.”

3 0 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

customers to access your product catalog.

This process can give your IT staff confi-

dence and provide a working example

upon which to build.

Evangelize. Educate employees outside

the IT realm about the capabilities of Web

services and enlist their help in finding

the most profitable business applications

for Web services. Check with major

suppliers and customers to see if they

offer Web services that you can use to

streamline your business relationships.

The more people who understand what

the technology can do, the easier it is to

use Web services as a business tool.

Tackle the next challenge. By being proac-

tive with your Web services strategy, you

will not only be ready to react to change,

but you will proactively move your

company’s IT infrastructure forward and

help improve its bottom line.

Building on success

As your company puts a Web services strat-

egy in motion, keep in touch with your

current software vendors. Also keep an

eye on some of the new companies that

specialize in Web services. Watch for

software vendors to improve develop-

ment offerings and add management

tools as the technology and the stan-

dards mature and evolve.

For example, companies are

refining security—an impor-

tant next step to making

Web services truly trans-

parent. Automated

authentication of

both parties is an aspect of Web services

that still needs to be standardized. Web

services currently use HTTP over Secure

Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, which

ensures private communications but does

not guarantee that communicating parties

are indeed who they say they are.

The initial deployment of Web services

targeted point-to-point integration of exist-

ing systems, because that is where busi-

nesses can get a measurable return on their

investments. This area will continue to

grow because it saves time and money by

allowing companies to leverage existing

resources.

As larger companies compel their part-

ners to support Web services standards,

these requirements will drive Web services

deployment between companies. Don’t

expect Web services to be open to public

consumption in the short-term future, but

that possibility may eventually take shape

after more companies implement Web ser-

vices and become confident in their security.

Change may be good or change may be

bad, but change in the business world is

certainly inevitable. That’s why—whether

you’re just getting acquainted with Web

services or expanding your initiatives—the

most important point to remember is that

Web services can help your business

perform well in the face of inevitable

change. Take advantage of Web services

technology and enjoy the rewards of being

agile. Then, when the heat is on, you can

relax knowing that your business can leap

higher than the hurdles it faces.

For more information:

www.microsoft.com/net

www.webservices.org

www.ws-i.org


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31_QLogic_Ad 3/20/03 11:09 AM Page 31

[ Product Showcase ] Dell Inspiron 8500

3 2 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

When it comes to laptops, some PC users have

grown accustomed to trade-offs: power for

convenience. But the Dell™ Inspiron™ 8500 note-

book computer is designed for the most discern-

ing users who want to have their cake and see it

in sharp focus, too.

Mobile multimediaThe Inspiron 8500 is where multi-

media power meets portability. At

its core lies the Mobile Intel�

Pentium� 4 Processor - M at

up to 2.4 GHz plus the Intel 845MP

chipset, which allows the Front-Side

Bus to run at 400 MHz. The Inspiron 8500 supports up to

2 GB system memory.

These features make the Inspiron 8500 a great solu-

tion for such compute-intensive applications as digital

movie editing and gaming. Users can push the limits

of the system without worry—the Mobile Pentium 4

Processor - M processor is specially designed for note-

books and enables cooler, quieter performance while

helping to maximize the battery life.

Multimedia buffs need more than blazing performance

speeds—they need a place to store their work. The

Inspiron 8500 comes with a hard drive up to 60 GB,

providing enough space for huge multimedia files.

Plus, an optional Dell TrueMobile™ wireless network-

ing card gives users the freedom to work on the run.

See it to believe it The Inspiron 8500 offers a 15.4-inch wide-aspect

UltraSharp™ TFT Active Matrix display in optional

WUXGA with 1920 x 1200 resolution. Dell’s UltraSharp

technology provides a display that is 20 percent

brighter than standard notebook displays and has a

33 percent improved contrast ratio. UltraSharp also

boasts an 80 percent faster response time than stan-

dard notebook displays, so “ghosting” doesn’t compro-

mise the clarity of moving images.

To support such crisp, speedy video graphics, the ATI�

Mobility™ Radeon™ 9000 video card offers 32 MB of

memory. Plus, the optional NVIDIA� GeForce™4 4200

Go card provides 64 MB of DDR (double data rate)

memory for smooth DVD and video playback. An inter-

nal optical media bay holds a DVD/CD-RW combo drive.

At a weight as light at 6.9 pounds1 and a thickness of

1.52 inches when closed, the Inspiron 8500 truly is a

mobile machine. And because multimedia artists

demand creativity from the notebook that empowers

them, the Inspiron 8500 sports QuickSnap™ color kits

that come in five stylish colors. The Inspiron 8500 also

comes preloaded with the Microsoft� Windows� XP

operating system.

Users who are discerning enough to select the Inspiron

8500 want to ensure their new systems are protected

by Dell’s award-winning service and support.

Customers can choose up to four years of mail-in or

on-site2 service with limited warranty3 and online

support for total peace of mind.

For more information:In U.S.: www.dell.com/inspiron

In Europe: www.euro.dell.com

In Asia: www.dell.com/ap

Enter the powerhouseIt may be small, but the Dell Inspiron 8500 packs enough

multimedia power to rival even the most decked-out desktops

1 Weight shown is with 14.1" display, CD-ROM drive, floppy disk drive, and 8-cell battery. Weights vary depending on configurations and manufacturingvariability.

2 At-home service provided via third-party contract with customer. Technicianwill be dispatched if necessary following phone-based troubleshooting.Availability varies. Other conditions apply.

3 For a copy of our guarantees or limited warranties, please write Dell USAL.P., Attn: Warranties, One Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682. For more information, visit www.dell.com/service_contracts.

Dell Inspiron 8500

32_Inspiron8500 4/8/03 11:45 AM Page 32

Dell Dimension 8250 and 2350 [ Product Showcase ]

Getting more for less is a top priority for today’s

enterprise purchasing departments, and Dell

comes through yet again. The Dell™ Dimension™

8250 and Dimension 2350 desktops running

Intel�processors give business users the comput-

ing power and productivity boost they demand,

while helping to reduce total cost of ownership.

Each system is easily expandable and comes

with industry-leading Dell support to help enter-

prises contain costs and improve the value of

their desktop investments.

HyperactiveSuitable for enterprise users

running multiple data-rich appli-

cations, the Dell Dimension

8250 combines advanced speed

with up to 1.5 GB of dual-channel

memory. Running the Intel

Pentium� 4 processor with Hyper-Threading technology,

the Dimension 8250 offers up to 3.06 GHz of number-

crunching power, along with intelligent parallel process-

ing to increase system responsiveness when

multitasking. As a result, your employees can get more

work done in less time, helping your enterprise to

become more effective and competitive.

First developed for advanced server processors, Intel

Hyper-Threading technology is designed to yield higher

processing throughput for Internet, e-business, and other

data-heavy enterprise applications. Hyper-Threading

maximizes processor resources by enabling a single chip

to run two separate threads of software simultaneously.

This allows business users to operate multiple compute-

intensive programs simultaneously without diminishing

overall system performance.

The Dimension 8250 comes with a hard drive up to

200 GB, eight USB ports for connecting an array of

high-bandwidth peripherals, and two 5.25-inch bays for

adding extra CD-RW or DVD storage drives. The system

is also available with factory installation of Microsoft�

Windows� XP Professional, Microsoft Office XP

Professional, and Dell SecurityCenter by McAfee.

Easy does itFor cost-efficient performance and fewer management

headaches, look no further than the Dell Dimension

2350. Enterprises can purchase the Dimension 2350

with either an Intel Pentium 4 or Celeron� processor

for up to 2.5 GHz of computing power. The system

also offers up to 1 GB of double data rate (DDR)

memory for greater application throughput.

The Dimension 2350 provides up to 120 GB of internal

storage and can easily expand to accommodate user

demands with six USB ports, two 5.25-inch bays

for CD-RW or DVD drives, and one internal bay for an

additional IDE hard drive. This PC is also a snap to

install thanks to color-coded connectors and ports. The

Dimension 2350 is available with factory installation of

Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Office

XP Professional, and Dell SecurityCenter by McAfee.

For more information:In U.S.: www.dell.com/inspiron



Two Intel processor-

based Dell Dimension

systems offer blazing,

enterprise-class

performance at an

affordable price

Desktop dynamos

Dell Dimension 2350

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 3 3

33_Dimension 4/8/03 11:40 AM Page 33

[ Product Showcase ] Dell PowerEdge 2650

3 4 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Small wonder The high-performing, space-conscious Intel Xeon processor-based

Dell PowerEdge 2650 helps make data center consolidation a snap

When it comes to serving enterprise applica-

tions, thin is definitely “in.” The Dell™

PowerEdge™ 2650 packs two high-speed Intel�

Xeon™ processors, plus an array of reliability and

manageability features, into a space-saving 2U

chassis. As server consolidation becomes a fact of

corporate life, the rack-optimized PowerEdge 2650

brings exceptional performance without taking up

valuable real estate.

Built for speedBased on dual Intel Xeon processors, the PowerEdge

2650 delivers up to 2.8 GHz of computing muscle and up

to 6 GB of memory for bandwidth-hungry applications.

Its system architecture also features the ServerWorks�

Grand Champion-LE chipset for a blazing throughput of up

to 3.4 Gbps between processors and other internal

components such as hard drives. The 400 MHz front-side

bus also boosts performance by accelerating data flow

from the processors to main memory.

As your business grows, the PowerEdge 2650 can

scale easily with your performance demands. The

server offers three PCI-X expansion slots that can

exchange data with add-on peripherals at a rate of

more than 1 Gbps. Its dual embedded Gigabit1 Ethernet

cards provide fast connectivity with high-speed

networks, as well as automatic failover if one card

should malfunction.

Feature comforts The PowerEdge 2650 comes

with up to 365 GB of inter-

nal storage and offers a vari-

ety of availability features to

help minimize costly down-

time. The embedded Ultra3 (U160) SCSI controller, for

example, allows you to separate the hard disk into five

redundant subsystems. Segregated disks protect criti-

cal business information by designating individual

drives for mirroring the operating system while using

the remaining storage to house backup copies of your

data. If you lose power in the data center, the battery-

backed cache of the PowerEdge 2650 continues to

write information to disk, keeping any data loss to an

absolute minimum.

Keeping it simpleAlong with enhanced performance and reliability, the

PowerEdge 2650 also has a special design that makes

it easy to deploy and manage. The server’s Embedded

Remote Access management port, for example,

enables users to manage the PowerEdge 2650 from

any networked PC—a feature that can help reduce

costs and improve productivity. In addition, the

server’s cable-free motherboard routes all internal

connections through printed wire assemblies, helping

to simplify maintenance and repairs. This design also

improves airflow inside the server, protecting data

from potentially damaging spikes in temperature.

Dell at your serviceThe PowerEdge 2650 is available with factory instal-

lation of Microsoft� Windows� 2000 Server,

Windows NT� Server Enterprise Edition, Windows

2000 Advanced Server, Windows NT Server 4.0,

Windows NT Server TSE 4.0, or the Red Hat� Linux�

operating system.

Customers also can utilize Dell Enterprise Services, a

broad portfolio of expertise that helps customers opti-

mize the use of IT technologies, deploy critical systems,

maximize system uptime, and train and certify IT

personnel. Dell is your single point of contact for these

services so you always have quick, cost-effective

access to expert advice and technical assistance.

For more information:In U.S.: www.dell.com



1 This term indicates compliance with IEEE standard 802.3ab for GigabitEthernet, and does not connote actual operating speed of 1 Gb/sec. Forhigh-speed transmission, connection to a Gigabit Ethernet server andnetwork infrastructure is required.

Dell PowerEdge 2650

34_PowerEdge2650 4/8/03 11:45 AM Page 34

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 3 5

Dell|EMC CX200 [ Product Showcase ]

The Dell|EMC CX200 Fibre Channel storage

array marks a turning point in the entry-level stor-

age class—combining the cost efficiency and tech-

nology expertise you expect from Dell and EMC.

The result is a storage system—the first to be jointly

manufactured by the two companies—that offers the

performance, scalability, and price demanded by entry-

level users and the architectural, reliability, and avail-

ability features of higher-end systems.

Working class appealThe flexibility and scalability of the CX200 are suitable

for workgroups and first-time storage buyers. The

modular array can attach directly to servers, plug in to

a storage area network (SAN), or connect to a Dell™

PowerVault™ network attached storage (NAS) system.

The system comes in a rack-mount chassis with a

base configuration of 10 disk drives that can scale to

30 drives, providing a maximum capacity of 4.4 TB in

just 7U of rack space (roughly 12 inches). Dell and

EMC have designed further modularity into the system

by allowing users to add disk drives and perform

upgrades in a non-disruptive manner.

The CX200 also includes EMC� Navisphere� Manager

Base software, which allows users to configure and moni-

tor the device through a simple Web-based interface.

These features enable the ease of management required

by companies deploying common workgroup applications

such as file-and-print, e-mail, small or distributed data-

base, and Web services.

Sophisticated featuresDon’t let the entry-level façade fool you—the CX200

also includes many high-end features. For starters, the

system uses 2 Gbps Fibre Channel disk drives and host

interfaces commonly used in high-end SANs. Fibre

Channel ports operating at up to 200 MB/sec through-

put also connect to the two storage processors used in

the system. Overall, the system can perform at up to

25,000 cached I/Os per second.

The CX200 also features enterprise-class availability,

including hot-pluggable redundant hardware, hot spare

disk drives, and multipath failover. Drives come

equipped with any combination of RAID levels 1

through 5, providing additional data protection.

Other features include:

• 1 GB of cache; automatic write cache destaging

• Four front-side ports, all of which can be FibreChannel

• Support for 36 GB, 73 GB, and 146 GB hard drives

• Support for up to 15 redundantly connectedservers in a SAN

• Support for EMC VisualSAN� centralizedconsole for SAN management

The system packs a number of powerful features into

one small unit, and it also does away with swollen

prices. The efficiencies of the Dell direct model keep

the CX200 affordable, helping companies maximize

productivity in the data center.

For more information:In the U.S.: www.dell.com



Built for need

Dell and EMC’s first jointly

manufactured storage array—

the CX200—delivers high-end functionality at entry-level prices

Dell|EMC CX200

35_CX200 4/8/03 11:37 AM Page 35

Dell Insight: We’ve heard a lot of talk about Web services. Can youexplain what Web services are?Ted Schadler: “Web services” is a bad name for the very good

idea of adding industry-standard middleware—software that

lets systems exchange information—to the Internet. For a

business person, Web services are a low-cost, standard way

to put business information and services in customers’ and

suppliers’ hands. I’m not talking about publishing informa-

tion just to people, because we already can do that with Web

sites. With Web services, on the other hand, we can publish

information to other computers.

DI: How might an enterprise use Web services internally?TS: Web services help enterprises integrate internal systems. For

example, a company might want to tie its customer database

and pricing engine to the call center, the field sales force,

and the commerce site so that regardless of where the

customer’s request comes in, the price is consistent—and

reflects the customer’s contract terms.

DI: That sounds like something that companies have been able to dofor a few years.TS: That’s true, but the difference is that Web services enable

companies to accomplish all of that internal integration at a

fraction of the cost. To do that type of integration without Web

services, you need a very expensive proprietary technology that

uses custom adapters to extract the right information and trans-

late it to a format that other systems can understand. If you run

Siebel as your customer database, manage the commerce site

using BEA, and use a home-grown system for the call center,

you need three different adapters to make them all speak to

one another. Those adapters—and their implementation and

[ Industry Viewpoint ] Q&A: From fragile to agile

3 6 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Software vendors have talked about Web services and its benefits for years, but the technology is nowbecoming mature enough for the average enterprise to implement. The editors of Dell Insight magazine

sat down with Forrester Research Analyst Ted Schadler to discuss how this revolutionary approach to shar-ing information can help enterprises grow dramatically more agile without breaking the bank

fragileagileto

from

36-39_IndustryViewpoint 4/4/03 11:56 AM Page 36

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 3 7

Q&A: From fragile to agile [ Industry Viewpoint ]

maintenance—are very costly. On the other hand, new versions

of Siebel and BEA ship with standard Web services technology

that does the same job as the adapters but at a much lower cost.

DI: Tell us how Web services can help companies integrate systems externally.TS: Companies are using Web services to build electronic links

to their customers and suppliers. They can replace many

manual processes with these system-to-system links.

First, let’s focus on customers. Today, a business can inte-

grate its back-end customer database with a customer self-

service portal that enables customers to check the status of

orders. Customers can visit the portal whenever they like, but

they still have to go to a certain URL and type in a username

and password—that’s not very convenient.

What if enterprises could publish all relevant customer

information directly to their customers’ desktops? Here’s an

example: Say you are a large book publisher and one of your

customers—a book seller—has ordered 3,000 copies of the

latest New York Times bestseller. You know that your

customer’s order is going to ship later than expected. Using

Web services, you can easily integrate your system with your

customer’s systems. With the Web service in place, you can

automatically and proactively send that information to the

customer’s e-mail inbox, procurement application, pager, or

cell phone—in any way that the customer wants to receive it.

By doing so, you have just helped your customers to better

manage their own businesses.

Many of those customer-related tasks are extremely

manual and repetitive. Web services automate manual

processes such as checking the status by picking up the

phone or sending an e-mail. Web services allow businesses

to re-allocate human resources because the connections

between company and customer are electronic and auto-

matic rather than manual.

DI: If Web services can automate the communication between busi-nesses and their customers, they can probably drive similar efficien-cies in the supply chain.TS: Absolutely. Imagine that you work for a build-to-order

company that does custom assembly. Your production

schedule is updated every hour. What if you could publish

that production schedule to your key suppliers on an

hourly basis in a way that plugs directly into their order

management systems? They can reroute trucks that are

already en route and reprioritize their own production

schedules to maximize their own efficiency. That kind of

visibility is the so-called “holy grail” on the supply-chain

side of the business, but Web services make it very easy to

accomplish without spending tens of millions of dollars.

Q&

ATed Schadler

Ted Schadler is a key contributor to Forrester’s research on software infrastruc-

ture and its impact on business strategy. He currently focuses on Web services

and service-based architectures, and on the role of Linux and Microsoft .NET in

the enterprise. Ted also plays a leadership role in Forrester’s research into the

software industry. He has appeared as a software technology and industry

expert on ABC and CNBC and has been quoted in journals including The

Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and BusinessWeek.

Ted has a master’s degree in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

He also holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Maryland and a

bachelor’s degree in physics from Swarthmore College.


DI: Now that we under-stand what businesses canaccomplish using Web services,explain how it all works at such a low cost.TS: The value proposition of Web services is

driven by two important facts. First, you already

have a low-cost wire between you and your customers

and suppliers—the Internet. Second, every software vendor

on the face of the earth has agreed to adopt the same Web

services standards. The Web Services Interoperability organi-

zation has 160 vendors cooperating on these standards. That

cooperation will revolutionize the way we use the Internet to

communicate with our customers and suppliers.

This is where the “wow” factor comes into the picture.

Because we already have the Internet as a link and because

vendors are working to exploit its full functionality, the price

of connecting your systems to your customers’ and suppliers’

systems using Web services is anywhere from 10 to 100 times

cheaper than using proprietary technology.

DI: That’s an incredible savings—one that certainly must sound veryattractive to businesses in today’s tight economic environment. Whyhaven’t more companies already jumped on the Web services bandwagon?TS: We are in the flat part of the adoption curve. The adoption of

Web services today is analogous to the where the World Wide

Web was in 1993. The use of Web services hasn’t yet

boomed—mainly because the technology is just now becom-

ing stable enough to bet on and because companies are still

figuring out how to use it. And today, you have to test your

Web service in many different scenarios. A year from now,

you won’t worry about the technology. Interoperability will

be guaranteed because members of the software industry have

committed themselves to the Web services standards.

DI: Several software vendors have been marketing the Web servicesconcept for a few years now, right?TS: Yes, but back in 2000—when IBM and Microsoft began to

push the concept of Web services—the technology was not

stable or secure enough. They were a little ahead of the

game. Businesses were beginning to feel the economic

crunch and said, “Why do I need this right now? I’m trying

to cut costs and you want me to invest in new technology?”

As we’ve seen big improvements in price/performance of

Web services, adoption

is finally starting to accel-

erate—even in this market.

For example, many companies in

the financial services industry are in

production with Web services projects such

as real-time content distribution. During 2003, we

will see a lot more announcements about companies—in

financial services and other industries—that are investing in

Web services.

Having said all of that, some barriers to widespread

adoption still exist. For example, many companies today are

nervous about putting information in the hands of their

customers and suppliers. They justifiably worry about secu-

rity. And many executives are uncomfortable putting corpo-

rate data in their customers’ or suppliers’ hands. For decades,

we treated information as proprietary—something to be

guarded. But that’s just not true for most kinds of data.

Instead, the more timely and complete information that

customers or suppliers have, the “stickier” and more produc-

tive they’ll be. It’s going to take a while for the general

cultures of some companies to shift to the view that putting

data into customers’ hands is a good practice, not a danger-

ous practice.

DI: Hasn’t the Internet helped many companies overcome that fear?TS: Yes and no. Certainly the Web has helped to allay some

companies’ fears now that they have seen the good that can

result from giving limited access to customers and suppliers.

But it’s one thing to give customers a username and pass-

word for a protected Web site, and it’s an entirely different

scenario to put up machine interfaces between you and your

customers. Web services are like plumbing—the way

customers access your data is not always visible. It’s sort of

under the surface, and that is why businesses need a lot of

reassurance about security.

DI: Now that we’ve spoken generally about Web services, tell usspecifically about the Microsoft� .NET platform.TS: One of the most important things to note about .NET is that it

is not a product. Think about .NET as an ingredient. If some-

thing has the .NET ingredient—or is “.NET connected”—it is

Web services-enabled. .NET is an implementation of Web

service standards using Microsoft technology.

3 8 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

“The price of connecting your systems to yourcustomers’ and suppliers’ systems using Web

services is anywhere from �� to �� timescheaper than using proprietary

technology”


Q&A

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 3 9

Q&A: From fragile to agile [ Industry Viewpoint ]

DI: What would you say to companies that are considering an upgrade toWindows� Server 2003—Microsoft’s .NET-connected operating system? TS: Balancing the need for integration with the cost of integra-

tion is a challenge that tops nearly every CIO’s list of IT

problems. The way to overcome the challenge is to utilize a

low-cost integration technology that extracts data from exist-

ing systems and makes it available internally and to

customers and suppliers. That’s the very definition of Web

services and it’s why we encourage companies to upgrade

and start reaping the benefits of this new technology.

DI: One of the most important benefits of Web services is that theycan help companies increase business agility. Lately, we’ve heard a lotof talk about business agility, but it’s not a new concept. Why is busi-ness agility on the tips of everyone’s tongues?TS: The idea of the “agile enterprise” has been around for at least

10 years. An agile enterprise is a company that takes advan-

tage of information technology—such as Web services—to

become more responsive to changes in the market. Agile

enterprises have an infrastructure that enables them to

respond to changes in customer demand and closely aligns

them with suppliers.

One example of an agile enterprise is a popular faucet

maker. This company used to spend three months in the

product development cycle because it distributed engineer-

ing drawings by mail. To shorten time-to-market, the

company created a Web site that contains all engineering

drawings, production schedule updates, and requirement

updates. The company has since reduced the product

development cycle from three months to three weeks.

That’s a dramatic improvement.

Now, imagine what will happen when that company imple-

ments Web services. The product life cycle will be even faster

because all information will appear on employee’s desktops

without them having to seek it out. That’s agility.

DI: Web services can help companies increase business agility. Whatother trends will help businesses become more nimble?TS: Businesses in search of agility need to enact a very important

change: They must simplify and automate their data centers.

Today, many data centers are a mess because companies

lost control of their IT spending during the tech boom. They

often bought products that solved very specific problems—

but these products often did not integrate well with the

company’s core data systems. The fallout of that spending is

systems that run stand-alone at something like 15 percent

capacity. That’s a big problem. Businesses must rethink their

software and hardware deployments with a focus on the idea

that less is more.

One important simplification trend is the move from

running the UNIX® operating system on expensive propri-

etary machines to running the Linux® operating system on

less expensive standards-based servers. As companies make

this shift, they should also make sure that they automate

server provisioning and management. Automation

saves companies a huge amount of time and

money in procurement and management. And

what’s more important, data center automation—

what we call “organic IT”—dramatically shortens

the time it takes to change, deploy, and scale up

an application. In short, it helps companies

become significantly more agile.

These ideas are not new to the IT world,

but we are seeing a renewed vigor in the way enter-

prises pursue them. The businesses that success-

fully implement an IT simplification and

automation philosophy will save money

on day one and are almost guaranteed to

become more agile. And in this economy,

increasing agility is perhaps the best way

to help ensure longevity.

Businesses must

rethink their

software and

hardware

deployments with a

focus on the idea

that less is more


[ Inside Track ]

4 0 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Online customerservice and support

empower ourcustomers to make

choices about how they want

to communicate with us

Ten years down under

In those early days, we encountered our fair share of critics who challenged whether the Dell™

model could work in a country such as Australia.But we pushed forward and promised our firstcustomers that we would always be on the otherend of the phone to help them with any issuesthat might arise.

An efficient team of telephone-based sales andsupport staff dealt with quotes, orders, and techni-cal issues. Through that model, we built customerloyalty, rose to become a leading player in theAustralian market, and were delighted to have ourfirst corporate client rejoin us 10 years later at our anniversary celebrations. That first customerremains a loyal and happy customer today, but werarely speak; we simply don’t need to. The reason,of course, is the Internet.

Staying connectedThe Internet has changed the dynamic of many ofour business relationships. For example, face-to-face and over-the-phone customer communica-tions are enhanced and sometimes replaced bythe Premier Pages service, a suite of online toolsthat make navigation more efficient and expandcustomization capabilities for Dell’s business andinstitutional customers. These features empowercustomers to transact business with Dell in a waywe never could have imagined when the companyfirst came to Australia.

The Internet is a powerful extension to the Delldirect model. Today, the company transacts asignificant amount of its revenues and addresses

many day-to-day customer service and technicalsupport issues online—and feedback from ourcustomers shows that they enjoy this model.Customers are able to avoid thousands of phonecalls and countless hours because they can gener-ate quotes, place orders, track deliveries, andanswer technical questions themselves.

Providing choicesNot only do online customer service and supporthelp Dell to operate more efficiently, but they alsoempower our customers to make choices abouthow they want to communicate with us. At Dell,we believe that customers should be able to workwith us in any manner that suits them. Whetherwe meet in person, on the Web, or on the phone,our efficient and personalized service helps main-tain healthy customer relationships. As the veryfirst—and still current—customer of Dell Australiawill tell you, this approach has worked for thelast 10 years and it will continue working formany more.

DAVID MILLER

David Miller is the managing director of Dell Computer in Australia and New Zealand

Ten years ago, with a small team, just one prod-

uct line to sell, and absolutely no local brand

presence, Dell established itself in Australia.

Our promise then and today is that a direct busi-

ness relationship with Dell is easy to maintain.

40-43_InsideTrack 4/7/03 11:01 AM Page 40

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 4 1

[ Inside Track ]

Customer service is what the customersays it isIn today’s economic climate, demonstrated value,total cost of ownership (TCO), and return on invest-ment (ROI) are critical. At Dell, we’re only one clickor phone call away from providing products andsolutions to meet customer needs through ourdirect model.

We also are able to tailor products to customers’individual requirements, and when customers callfor service and support, we immediately know theirconfigurations and systems. This level of familiarityensures that our customers’ businesses keeprunning smoothly. Most important, we are able toprovide the latest technology and pass along costsavings to our customers in real time.

Dell meets customers’ diverse cultural needsDell has been operating in EMEA for more than 15 years, so we understand the different languagesand ways of doing business. We also have adaptedthe direct model in each country to meet cultural,country, and language specifications.

For global organizations or businesses with oper-ations throughout EMEA, we provide a wide rangeof standardized enterprise solutions that allow busi-nesses to network and operate easily and effi-ciently. We customize our products to deliver thevalue, service, and quality that each diverse marketdemands. Furthermore, our supply-chain efficiencyand expertise allow us to track orders at each stepof the production line and deliver the right productswithin a matter of days, not weeks.

Ask and you shall receiveWe have listened to our customers’ issues, and are constantly developing the enterprise productsthat they require to support their long-term busi-ness strategies.

Dell is leading the way by providing reliable and robust products at affordable prices. Our high-performance computing clusters offer 100 percentof the supercomputing performance at a fraction ofthe cost. In EMEA, academic, telecommunications,and automotive companies—including OxfordUniversity in the UK, Fiat Research in Italy, andMTU Aerospace in Germany—are already reapingthe price and performance benefits.

Through partnerships, we deliver custom-made stor-age solutions including tape backup, network attachedstorage, and storage area network technology. We alsorecently extended our products by offering networkswitches, which have proved a much-needed tool infurthering our enterprise capabilities.

In addition, Dell provides systems managementtools to further enhance the network and automatetime-consuming tasks, and our service offeringshelp customers save resources, increase productiv-ity, and improve TCO.

To help our customers drive their businessesnow and in the future, we have created enterprisesolutions to meet their individual business-criticalneeds by providing standardized, robust productsusing the direct model.

DR. WALID MONEIMNE

Customizingcustomer service

How do we service both large and small enter-

prise customers across multiple languages and

diverse cultures in Europe, the Middle East, and

Africa (EMEA)? We treat each customer individ-

ually and understand each customer’s business.

Dr. Walid Moneimne is a vice president of Dell Enterprise EMEA

At Dell, we’re onlyone click or phonecall away fromproviding productsand solutions tomeet customerneeds through ourdirect model


[ Inside Track ]

4 2 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Growing numbers ofCIOs are answering

IT challenges bymigrating from

closed, proprietarysystems to open,standards-based

architectures

Setting the standard

Accordingly, nearly all IT decision makers are look-ing for reliable, low-cost, high-quality products. For that reason, growing numbers of CIOs areanswering IT challenges by migrating from closed,proprietary systems to open, standards-based architectures.

Dell is committed to offering our corporatecustomers high-quality, standards-based servers andstorage that will help simplify computing environ-ments and reduce complexity of installation. Everyday, Dell helps customers migrate from proprietaryUNIX� platforms to Dell™ PowerEdge™ serversrunning either the Microsoft� Windows� or theRed Hat� Linux� operating system to open up aworld of flexibility and cost savings.

Examples of these migrations are prevalent inthe retail sector, where Dell offers standards-basedtechnology to help many top company chainslower costs and improve efficiency. Technology inthis sector traditionally has been dominated byexpensive, proprietary systems that typically costmore to acquire and support and have limited oper-ational flexibility. For example, many retailerscontinue to pay credit-card processing fees ondebit cards because their dated point-of-sale (POS)systems preclude them from recognizing thesenewer payment options.

Using standards-based equipment from Dell,retailers have seen how working with Dell canhelp them more efficiently implement and inte-grate POS hardware, networking, server, and

storage systems through all aspects of their busi-nesses at lower costs.

Regardless of industry, standards-based technol-ogy and services from Dell bring many ROI advan-tages to customers. Programs such as CustomerFactory Installation, image management services,and asset recovery help to simplify deploymentand maintenance for our customers. Our server andstorage consolidation programs help customersnavigate the complex process of planning andimplementing consolidation projects. Dell’s ROIanalysis tools help customers quickly assess finan-cial benefits of consolidating their infrastructures.Dell Services can manage large-scale deploymentsand provide flexible support services to meetcustomers’ specific needs at a predictable cost. Ourdirect model helps keep costs down, while partner-ships with best-of-breed companies help us expandour enterprise portfolio.

When customers migrate from proprietary plat-forms to standards-based systems, they can paysignificantly less for comparable or better perform-ance, gain greater flexibility, and enjoy lower oper-ating costs. As we demonstrate by providing ourcustomers with outstanding value and a superiorexperience every time, Dell is committed to meet-ing the growing worldwide preference for high-quality, standards-based systems.

STEVE FELICE

Steve Felice is vice president and general manager of the Dell Corporate Business segment

Corporate CIOs are under a lot of pressure

today. They must improve the performance,

availability, and manageability of their IT infra-

structures while reducing costs and complexity.

CIOs are not able to engage in as much forward

buying as they have in the past because today’s economic climate

calls for severe spending restraints, yet their businesses are

becoming more complex as IT demands soar.


[ Inside Track ]

For years, the Dell™ direct model and standards-basedapproach have helped IT execs lower the total cost ofownership (TCO) and increase the return on investment(ROI) of their desktop, laptop, server, and storagepurchases. Now Dell is applying these same principlesto switches—and meeting with the same success.

The standard approachNetworking equipment has reached a critical point inits evolution: Standards have begun to take hold andmove the industry toward more cost-effective produc-tion. Although IT departments may still require expen-sive, highly specialized switches, standards-basedproducts now can handle more network traffic thanever before.

Dell capitalizes on hardware standards such asFast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet and softwaremanagement standards such as SNMP to provide an end-to-end line of open, easily manageable LANswitches. Our offerings include the cost-efficient,unmanaged Dell PowerConnect™ 2000 series andthe higher performance managed PowerConnect3000 and PowerConnect 5000 series. Adherence towidely accepted standards in these products lowersmanagement costs, increases choice for best-in-classsolutions, and ensures interoperability among thevarious switches and devices on the network.

Verified value Standards help lower costs in another important way:Dell’s commitment to standards-based switchescontributes to prices that are 30 percent to 50 percent

less than those of our competitors. At the same time,we have worked hard to deliver exceptional perform-ance. As validated by The Tolly Group’s benchmark test-ing, Dell switches operate at high wire speeds toprocess network traffic quickly and efficiently.1 Othertests from The Tolly Group confirm that Dell switcheshave outperformed competing products from well-knownvendors.2 All told, the remarkable pricing and outstand-ing performance of PowerConnect switches provide thevalue that businesses absolutely require today.

Better ROI Dell’s vision for accelerating open standards, reducingcomplexity, and staying attuned to our customers’needs has guided our strategy for networking infra-structure as much as any other part of our business.PowerConnect switches are designed for plug-and-playinstallation into the network and ease of integrationwith popular network-management systems such as Dell OpenManage™, HP� OpenView�, and IBM�Tivoli NetView�, allowing businesses to leverage existing IT investments and improve their ROI.

We also remain committed to working withcustomers directly, whether that means buildingswitches when you need them, providing our industry-leading service and support, or simply listening toyour feedback. These fundamental principles havealways defined our relationships with customers and are proving just as important in this new era oflow-cost, high-performance networking.

KIM GOODMAN

The switch is onIn this challenging business climate, the need to

drive down costs and improve efficiency spares

no aspect of your IT infrastructure. At the center

of that infrastructure sit LAN switches, tying

together clients, servers, storage, and printers

and connecting them to the devices that lead to wide area

networks (WANs) and the Internet.

Kim Goodman is vice president and general manager of Dell Networking

Dell’s commitment to standards-basedswitches contributesto prices that are 30 percent to 50percent less thanthose of ourcompetitors

1 Tolly Group. Dell Computer Corp. PowerConnect 3024 and PowerConnect 5012 Performance Evaluation. September 2001. 2 Tolly Group. Dell Computer Corp. Dell PowerConnect 3248 versus 3Com SuperStack 3 Switch 440 and Cisco Systems, Inc.

Catalyst 2950. September 2002.

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 4 3


During the 1999 Super Bowl, Monster.com ran its first

television advertisement. Traffic at the job search

site spiked beyond what the company expected—

from 6 Mbps to 30 Mbps—but the site held steady. “We had enough power, but

barely,” says Aaron Branham, Monster.com’s vice president of global operations and

networking. “We even plugged in desktops to help out.” The Monster.com� site stayed up

during the ensuing crush of visitors—running on an Intel� processor-based infrastructure

powered by Dell™ servers.

Fast-forward to Super Bowl 2002. Equipped with 10 times as many Dell PowerEdge™

servers as in 1999, Branham’s staff watched traffic soar to 28,250,035 page views

during the 24-hour period following the game. That jump marked an increase of 167

percent more traffic than the previous day and 57 percent more traffic than

during the Super Bowl of the previous year. Monster.com had 999,000

unique visitors during the 2002 Super Bowl weekend—nearly 60 percent

more than its nearest competitor. The Monster.com infrastructure of 330

Dell PowerEdge servers didn’t flinch.

4 4 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Getting

44-47_Monster 4/7/03 11:11 AM Page 44

Monster.com [ Customer Spotlight ]

Intel architecture trumps RISC in business value

The situation was not always so rosy in

the Monster back room. The company

launched its business using a RISC

(reduced instruction set computing) plat-

form in the early 1990s, but it quickly

discovered the high cost of scaling RISC.

“You often have to buy a larger server

than you need, and it can take months

or even years to grow into it,” says Paul

Nielsen, senior vice president of technol-

ogy services for Monster.com. “A too-big

box is also hard to tune and delivers lousy

ROI.” RISC systems also were expensive

to maintain and program, which hindered

the company’s ability to roll out new appli-

cations and capabilities.

In 1998, Monster.com standardized on

the Intel architecture because of its supe-

rior price/performance and scalability,

outstanding reliability, broad software

availability, and speed of development.

The small IT staff began purchasing

servers at Circuit City as the company

needed them, but quickly saw the need

to identify a reputable enterprise server

vendor. Monster.com already used Dell

PCs, so putting other Dell products in the

data center made perfect sense.

Dell meets data center needs at Monster

“We’re very impressed with Dell server

technologies,” Branham says. “Dell is

first out of the gate with new Intel tech-

nologies, which lets us leverage the latest

Intel server processors as soon as possible.

Dell hardware is also standardized, which

gives us added flexibility. RAID cards,

drives, and memory are the same across

models, so we can move resources around

as needed.”

Dell compact systems are suitable for

rack-intense data center environments like

Monster’s. “Real estate is expensive, and we

really appreciate Dell’s ability to engineer

high-performance four-way systems into a

compact 2U chassis,” Branham says. Dell’s

online ordering and fast delivery also are

critical to the Monster.com business model.

“Even large orders of $2 or $3 million take

Dell just a week to 10 days to deliver. It’s

incredible. No one else can do that.”

Because Dell servers are so reliable,

Monster.com never really throws one out;

the company simply recycles old hardware

into less critical areas of the infrastructure.

When servers move out of the production

environment, they become mail servers or

file-and-print servers in more than 33

Monster.com offices around the world.

“We get every last penny’s worth of ROI

out of our Dell servers,” Nielsen says.

“These servers pay for themselves by the

time we are finished with them.”

the job done

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 4 5

» CHALLENGE Keep up with rapid growth

and sudden traffic spikes while keeping IT

costs in check; provide sufficient performance

for differentiating features and enable rapid

deployment of new capabilities; help ensure

high uptime for a mission-critical site with

global accessibility

» SOLUTION Replace RISC-based servers with

Intel� processor-based Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers

running the Microsoft� Windows� 2000 operat-

ing system; implement Microsoft SQL Server™

2000 for the database and Active Server Pages,

and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)

for Web server software

» BENEFIT Improved performance handles

approximately 30 million page views a day and

sudden traffic spikes; increased flexibility enables

quick delivery of new features; cost-effectiveness

contributes to consistent profitability

MONSTER.COM

C u s t o m e r S p o t l i g h t

44-47_Monster 4/7/03 11:11 AM Page 45

Monster scales up and out with Dell servers

The Monster data center grew from 30

servers in 1999 to more than 300 Dell

PowerEdge servers just three years

later. Monster’s parent company, TMP

Technologies, has another 700-plus

servers that it is migrating to Dell. This

Intel processor-based Dell infrastructure

provides job-search services in 21 coun-

tries, two major alliances (MSN® and

AOL® career sites), and more than 600

individual company career sites.

The IT infrastructure carries this incred-

ible load by employing a horizontal clus-

tered architecture that enables tremendous

performance and scalability. Dell servers

are organized into functional clusters—a

job search cluster, a recruiter cluster, a

World Wide Web cluster, and so forth—to

minimize processing and response time.

For example, a job search request hits

approximately 30 specialized servers in the

Massachusetts and Indiana data centers.

These clusters are replicated at both data

centers, and either center is capable of

taking on the whole processing load.

Monster.com uses specialized Akamai®

content delivery servers to cache frequently

requested images and graphics, and

employs dynamic DNS load balancing to

evenly distribute traffic load among Dell

servers in both data centers.

Metrics reach the millions

The Monster.com Dell-based infrastruc-

ture has taken the worst that the Internet

can dish out and just keeps on humming.

Routine traffic has grown so much that

the site does not experience the wild

swings it saw in the early days; every day

is a high-traffic experience. Its Dell server

farm routinely handles database searches

across more than 20 million resumes and

1 million employment opportunities, 3 to

5 million e-mails daily (8 million on peak

days), and more than 40 million unique

visits per month. Throughput averages

200 Mbps. Resumes and job postings are

searchable within three minutes of posting,

and 60 percent of searches are dynamic,

requiring more processing power.

“January is still our busiest month

because of the Super Bowl, but we get so

much traffic now that we don’t see more

than a 15 percent fluctuation,” Branham

says. “The spurts are much more manage-

able.” However, the scalable Dell infra-

structure helps Monster.com quickly

integrate acquisitions—a major source

of growth. A succession of mergers and

acquisitions has steadily compounded

Monster’s traffic from 4 Mbps in 1997 to

approximately 200 Mbps today. “The

scalability of Dell servers, together with

the speed at which we can order and

deploy them, makes our rapid growth

possible,” says Brian Farrey, president

of TMP Technologies, the technology arm

of the Monster.com parent company.

Time-to-market takes off

One aspect of Monster.com that makes it

so popular with recruiters and job seekers

alike is its wealth of time-saving features

and unique capabilities. For example,

Monster.com boasts superfast job searches

and resume database searches, as well as

job search agent technology with e-mail

notification. The flexibility of the

Microsoft programming environment and

the wealth of programming resources and

application packages available for the Intel

architecture speeds Monster’s time-to-

market for such user-friendly extras.

“When we come up with a new

feature, we can go from whiteboard to

full functionality within six weeks,”

Farrey says. “The Microsoft programming

environment is very straightforward and

fast. Many third-party applications are

available for the Intel architecture, far

more than for any other, giving us more

options and much faster development

times when enhancing our site. As

anyone on the Web knows, continuous

“Even large

orders of $2 or

$3 million take

Dell just a

week to 10

days to deliver.

No one else

can do that”

4 6 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

44-47_Monster 4/7/03 11:11 AM Page 46

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 4 7

Monster.com [ Customer Spotlight ]

enhancement is critical to attracting visi-

tors and staying competitive.”

Availability hovers near 100 percent

Monster.com’s twin “hot” data-center

design provides the processing latitude

needed to do routine maintenance and

upgrades while providing ironclad disaster

recovery. If a server fails, another picks

up the load. If Monster needs to take a

cluster offline for an upgrade, the IT

department shifts traffic to the other data

center. “We’ve had one or two hardware

failures from 330 servers, with less than

10 minutes of unplanned downtime in all

of 2001,” Farrey says. “If we do have a

problem with a server, we simply replace

it and keep going.”

“We have experienced a database crash,

water shooting through a data center, and

several other calamities,” Nielsen adds.

“We’ve weathered them all, thanks to our

hot-swap data-center design.”

Great price/performance boosts profits

The ability to add servers precisely when

they are needed not only gives Monster

great scalability and performance, but also

great profitability. “While other dot-coms

have lost tons of money, Monster has

been profitable for the last 18 quarters,”

Nielsen says. “We add hardware, software,

even development resources incremen-

tally, which is far cheaper than buying big

and growing into it. Our technology

expenses are only 5 to 7 percent of

revenues—about half the industry average

of 12 to 14 percent.”

Everything about Intel processor-based

Dell servers is less expensive than propri-

etary RISC-based servers: the purchase

price, peripherals, maintenance, software

and upgrades, and development resources.

“I can get four times as many Dell servers

as RISC servers,” Farrey says. “Plus, we

get more bandwidth. Our bandwidth is

one-and-a-half to three times more than

other properties. We squeeze everything.

We’re a very efficient operation.”

Dell desktops prove stable and solid

Monster.com/TMP Technologies also has

about 11,000 Dell desktop PCs, which

provide plenty of performance for power-

hungry office users and developers. “Our

Dell OptiPlex™ PCs are so full-featured

and so stable that we don’t need to

upgrade as frequently,” says Tom Arcand,

vice president of Technology Services for

North America at Monster.com. “We make

our desktops last about five years. Having

Dell across the enterprise really makes

things simple. Many Dell products have

interchangeable parts, which helps us

with service.”

During peak growth, Monster brought

in Dell desktops at a rate of 20 or 30 per

week. “Dell makes it very easy to order a

standard desktop customized to our needs.

Without their rapid delivery, we would

never be able to grow this fast.”

TMP Worldwide currently is testing

Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 and

plans to transition all of its sites to the

new operating system. Down the road, as

64-bit applications become more broadly

available, Monster.com will probably

deploy Intel Itanium™ 2 processor-based

servers from Dell. In the meantime,

Monster.com has purchased another

$2 million worth of Intel Xeon™ processor-

based Dell PowerEdge servers to keep

growing and serving millions of job seek-

ers and employers around the world.

“The scalability of

Dell servers, together

with the speed at

which we can order

and deploy them,

make our rapid

growth possible”

44-47_Monster 4/7/03 11:11 AM Page 47

Intrawest stays agile and customer-focused using Intel Xeon processor-based Dell servers and

a Dell | EMC SAN

4 8 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

PEAKPERFORMANCE

A QUICK ASCENT

to

48-50_Intrawest 4/4/03 12:27 PM Page 48

To make play profitable, Intrawest uses

technology to get close to customers and

give guests personal, memorable experi-

ences. A new generation of customer-

focused applications allows Intrawest to

identify guest preferences—from ski boot

size to pillow firmness—and ensure guests

enjoy personal treatment as they move

from property to property. The strategy is

working. In the last couple of years,

Intrawest has grown at an enviable 35

percent rate, with more than 7 million

skiers gliding down its mountains.

Store more, do more

In Intrawest’s Vancouver, B.C., headquar-

ters, the IT department—known as the

Tech Center—is responsible for keeping

the company’s technology infrastructure

agile, scalable, and powerful enough to

maintain growth. “A big part of what

makes Intrawest successful is a constant

stream of new ideas from the business

units,” says Steve Johnstone, vice presi-

dent of IT operations for Intrawest. “IT has

to be prepared to support these new

opportunities by moving them to market

quickly and cost-effectively.”

For example, one business unit recently

launched a new online marketing applica-

tion. Using the Dell™ storage platform,

Intel® Xeon™ processor-based servers, and

Microsoft® tools, the Tech Center staff was

able to launch the application in weeks.

“Such a fast ramp-up and delivery was

just not possible two years ago because of

restrictions imposed by direct attach stor-

age,” Johnstone says.

In this dynamic, idea-driven environ-

ment, storage was becoming a real problem.

Intrawest had long depended on direct

attach storage, which had managed to meet

the company’s needs, although storage was

expanding by 30 percent each year.

“We had about 1.5 TB of direct attach

storage and the capacity to put in an addi-

tional 2 TB,” says Philip DeConnick,

systems architect in Intrawest’s Tech Center.

“However, direct attach delivered such low

utilization for us—about 25 percent—that

we didn’t net a great deal of expandability.”

In early 2002, Intrawest decided to

implement a customer relationship

management (CRM) system, which

demanded a whopping 1 TB of storage.

“We instantly knew we needed a SAN,”

DeConnick says. “The type of data we

would be acquiring and the way we would

be using it would not be best served by

direct attach; it’s not flexible or reliable

enough for us. Nor

was it cost-effectively

sharable or scalable

enough for our

purposes. We knew

we could manage a lot

more data on a SAN.”

Intrawest [ Customer Spotlight ]

» CHALLENGE Find an agile, scalable storage

platform that will allow Intrawest to get new

ideas to market quickly and cost-effectively

» SOLUTION Replace direct attach storage with

a Dell|EMC storage area network (SAN) consist-

ing of 3 TB of raw storage and two clusters of

Intel� Xeon™ processor-based Dell™ PowerEdge™

6650 servers; consolidate 25 Microsoft� SQL

Server™ databases onto the SAN, eliminating

servers and paring software licenses

» BENEFIT Increased agility to respond to

business demands; 20 percent reduction in

storage costs and 100 percent increase in

storage capacity; 30 percent decrease in

server hardware and server management

costs; improved guest services

INTRAWEST

C u s t o m e r S p o t l i g h tIntrawest has turned play into big business. Asthe leading developer of village-centered desti-nation resorts in North America, Intrawest is theproud purveyor of “Great Playgrounds of the Western World”—Whistler Blackcomb in BritishColumbia, Copper Mountain in Colorado, SandestinGolf and Beach Resort in Florida, and other poshproperties. In all, Intrawest owns or is involved in14 mountain resorts, 19 golf courses, 7 clubresorts, and 200 retail stores in North Americaand Europe.

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 4 9


Dell | EMC SAN offers consolidation savings

Intrawest looked at all of the leading stor-

age vendors and selected a Dell | EMC

storage area network. “Dell’s SAN product

was technically superior to the other SAN

offerings we evaluated—with no single

point of failure, 2 Gigabit throughput, and

easy expandability,” says Ciy Young, the

Intrawest technology vendor manager who

participated in the decision. “We liked the

fact that the Dell | EMC SAN was offered

as a complete Dell solution with local

service and support. Also, the Dell SAN

had a low entry price and was radically

less expensive to grow than the nearest

competition.”

Dell Professional Services helped

Intrawest meet an aggressive deployment

schedule timed to match the rollout of

the new CRM system.

“Dell Professional

Services helped us

install and configure

the SAN, transferring

SAN know-how to our

staff every step of the

way,” DeConnick says.

Intrawest’s new SAN is a Dell | EMC

FC4700 with 3 TB of raw storage.

Intrawest also purchased five Dell

PowerEdge™ 6650 servers, each containing

four Intel Xeon processors MP operating at

2 GHz. The rack-optimized 4U PowerEdge

6650 provides tremendous performance,

cost-effective scalability, and high avail-

ability through redundant hot-plug drives,

power supplies, and fans.

Intrawest has created

two clusters from

the Intel processor-based PowerEdge 6650

servers; one is a massive Microsoft SQL

Server™ 2000 database and the other

stores data for CRM and e-commerce

applications. “We’ve consolidated more

than 25 SQL databases onto the one clus-

ter, which has reduced our server hard-

ware and server management costs by

about 30 percent,” DeConnick says. “We’re

also looking at consolidating about 10

messaging servers onto the SAN, which

will further increase savings.”

Twice the storage at lower cost

Intrawest’s move to a Dell | EMC SAN not

only has produced savings in servers, soft-

ware licenses, and server management, but

it has doubled the company’s storage

capacity. “With the Dell | EMC SAN, we

expect to save 20 percent on storage costs

over three years, yet gain twice the storage

capacity,” Johnstone says. “We now have a

huge storage ceiling, limited only by the

capacity of the SAN, which is increasing

as disk technology advances.”

Yet another source of savings: easier

storage management. “We now have just

two clusters to look after versus 130 indi-

vidual servers,” DeConnick says. “That

requires much less management. Over

three years, we expect to save hiring three

new full-time employees performing disk

management.”

Backup is faster and easier, too.

Intrawest uses a StorageTek® L700

tape backup unit with five

LTO® drives to back

up its SAN.

“Previously, we were running out of times

when we could perform the backup

because Ethernet backups were so time

intensive,” DeConnick says. “With the

Fibre-connected SAN, backups have been

reduced from 17 hours to five hours.”

More business agility

Best of all, Intrawest’s new Dell | EMC

SAN gives the fast-moving company more

agility in rolling out new customer-focused

applications aimed at boosting guest

loyalty. Recently, the CRM group ran a

promotion that generated a huge response.

Unfortunately, the Tech Center found out

about the campaign just two hours before

it happened. “We had to double the

amount of disk space to handle the

response,” Johnstone says. “But the SAN

made it easy—we were fully reconfigured

and ready to go in less than an hour. Our

old direct attach model would have

required us to order additional disks, then

install and configure them—three to four

days minimum. We just wouldn’t have

been able to respond.”

These kinds of requests from business

units are becoming routine, and, according

to Johnstone, “The business units just

expect that we can do anything. Now,

rather than telling them to come see us in

six months, we can deliver.”

[ Customer Spotlight ] Intrawest

“The Dell SAN had a low entry price and was radically less expensive to grow than the

nearest competition–about 50 percent less expensive”5 0 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3


Dell High PerformanceComputing Clusters.

Want to reinvent your data center? Follow the leader.

Dell servers use cost effective, industry-standard technology such as Intel® Xeon™ processors.

High performance computing that can lower TCO. Easy as

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The world of supercomputing has changed. No longer does a business have to rely on expensive, proprietary systems to run

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within your organization that goes far beyond IT. What can Dell High Performance Computing Clusters provide your business?

• Instant scalability. Dell HPCCs give you the ability to grow in overall capacity and to meet high usage demand as the need arises.

• Enhanced availability. With a Dell HPCC, the system as a whole stays highly available, even with the removal of any single

failure point in hardware or software.

• Enterprise-level service and support. Full, 24/7 commitment from design to implementation to on-site1 or online support.

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For nearly 20 years, we’ve revolutionized the way the world buys and manages technology. Now see how we’re revolutionizing the world

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51_DellHPC_Ad.qxd 3/20/03 9:35 AM Page 51

La Madeleine

satisfies its

appetite for fresh

data using Intel

Xeon processor-

based Dell servers

and a Dell|EMC SAN

5 2 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

robustscalab

AConnoisseur

of

52-55_LaMadeleine 4/7/03 12:38 PM Page 52

la Madeleine [ Customer Spotlight ]

W hen native Frenchman Patrick

Esquier landed in Texas in

the early 1980s, he sorely missed the

French tradition of enjoying morning

coffee and croissants at the neighborhood

café. So Esquier opened his own—la

Madeleine French Bakery and Café—in the

middle of Dallas near Southern Methodist

University. Esquier’s civilized way of start-

ing the day caught on with students and

other Texans. Today, with 62 stores in six

states, la Madeleine is considered by fine

dining guide Bon Appetit to be one of the

top 10 U.S. bakeries.

Old gear runs out of steam

La Madeleine’s recipe for success includes

Intel® Xeon™ processor-based Dell™ servers,

a Dell | EMC storage area network (SAN)

and Lawson enterprise resource planning

(ERP) software. A beefier, centralized stor-

age back-end allows the company to gather

more data from restaurants, process it faster,

and distribute it to managers within 24

hours—all of which is expected to result in

better decisions and healthier profits.

The Dell | EMC SAN is part of a plan to

move la Madeleine back into high-growth

mode. After a spurt of entrepreneurial

expansion through the ’80s and early ’90s,

la Madeleine fell into debilitating debt.

Unable to upgrade IT systems and make

other improvements, the board of directors

finally sold the company to a private

investor in early 2002.

Realizing that its croissants were only

as fresh as the data feeding its bakeries, la

Madeleine used a chunk of its newly raised

capital to upgrade information systems. Its

old UNIX®-based systems and legacy appli-

cations were slow, out of storage capacity,

and out of touch with la Madeleine’s

managers, who were hungry for fresh data.

A glacial 30 days passed before the

company could close out an accounting

period—but each period was only 28 days

long, meaning that managers operated on

data that was a full period out of date.

“Managers didn’t have the numbers to

understand how they were doing,” says

Paul Merrifield, manager of enterprise

systems at la Madeleine. “Restaurant

operators were especially handicapped

because month-late feedback was useless

in making short-term adjustments to

staffing, food orders, and menu decisions.”

Also, la Madeleine wanted to switch

from its UNIX platform to an open,

standards-based platform that would be

less expensive to support and allow the

company to more quickly adopt best

industry practices. The company wanted

to move to applications—such as customer

relationship management (CRM)—that

the old gear couldn’t accommodate. La

Madeleine would have to kludge together

several third-party tools to pull data from

the old systems and feed it into newer

applications. This situation created a

support nightmare that Merrifield wanted

to avoid.

The systems also were a big challenge

to disaster recovery planning. “We were

dependent on mainte-

nance contracts with

our outside vendor

to make sure our

systems could be

replaced quickly,”

Merrifield says. “We

had no firm UNIX knowledge in-house.

Every small maintenance task required

outside help, which was just too expen-

sive. We wanted to spend those dollars

elsewhere.”

Dell proves all substance, no fluff

La Madeleine knew it needed a SAN for

maximum storage capacity and scalability,

as well as economy. The company enter-

tained visits from Dell, IBM, and Compaq.

“The Dell team was head and shoulders

above the others in terms of professional-

ism,” Merrifield says. “Not only did the

» CHALLENGE Find an agile, open, scalable

alternative to proprietary legacy equipment and

applications; make daily financial data immedi-

ately available to managers; grow storage

resources without growing server base or head-

count; and simplify storage management

» SOLUTION Replace direct attach storage

with a Dell|EMC� SAN with 360 GB of grow-

ing room; consolidate Microsoft� SQL Server™

2000 and Lawson™ ERP application onto two

Intel� Xeon™ processor-based Dell™ PowerEdge™

6450* servers

» BENEFIT Financial visibility speeded from

30 days to 1 day; more scalable storage

system; and more efficient backup and

disaster recovery

L A MADELEINE


ility

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 5 3


Dell team understand its prod-

uct, but it was able to offer

practical knowledge about our

options. My staff and I were

amazed at the amount of

teamwork that went into

Dell’s recommenda-

tion, purchase,

and configu-

ration

process. With IBM and Compaq, there was

a lot of talk-time, but Dell got right down to

brass tacks and devised a solution for us.”

La Madeleine decided to purchase a

Dell | EMC FC4500 SAN with 360 GB of

storage. Today, half of that capacity houses

active production data. “We haven’t gotten

to the more data-intensive part of our

installation yet,” Merrifield says. “We have

additional Lawson modules to bring in and

are about to embark on a data warehouse

and data mart project that will generate a

lot of data.”

Connected to the Dell | EMC SAN

are two Intel Xeon processor-based Dell

PowerEdge™ 6450* servers. One is a four-

way database server running Microsoft®

SQL Server™ 2000, and the other is a

two-way application server running the

Lawson ERP software. Both are powered

by Intel Xeon™ processors running at 700

MHz, and run the Microsoft Windows®

2000 operating system. A Gigabit network

connects the two servers to the SAN.

Dell professional services gets down to business

La Madeleine contracted with Dell

Professional Services to architect, config-

ure, and install its SAN. “Dell moved very

quickly from signing the deal to getting

the system configured,” Merrifield says.

“Dell consultants walked us through a

straightforward configuration process in a

series of phone calls, had us fill in a few

blanks, and then mapped out the whole

design. The architecture definition process

took about three days. Making adjustments

to accommodate our budget took another

week. And getting it installed required

another two days.”

The Dell Professional Services team

has years of experience in designing and

deploying high-performance SANs. The

team provided la Madeleine with compre-

hensive design documentation, project

management, training, and a seamless tran-

sition to storage experts in Dell’s technical

support area. The SAN design itself allowed

la Madeleine to leverage Dell’s distillation

of industry best practices without having to

acquire SAN expertise in-house.

“Everyone at Dell was on the same

page all the time, very proactive, and

very efficient,” Merrifield says. “When

the installation team arrived, we showed

them the server room and left. Dell did it

all. Dell’s involvement saved us a lot of

time and money and ensured that we got

a state-of-the-art SAN and a thorough under-

standing of how to use and maintain it.”

Scalable storage yields business agility

Using its new Dell | EMC SAN and Lawson

financial software, la Madeleine is creating

an information portal that will allow

managers to log onto a corporate intranet

and, based on their roles and responsibili-

ties, view piping hot sales figures from

the previous day’s sales. The ability to see

up-to-the-minute numbers for an individual

restaurant, a region, or a state will allow

managers to adjust labor staffing, food

orders, advertising, menu items, and other

business variables to improve sales.

“A restaurant manager will be able to

see immediately where sales are weak and

either eliminate certain menu items or

possibly run specials. He can see what

times of the day or week he has too many

workers on the floor and what supplies he

needs to reorder,” Merrifield says.

“Regional managers can more easily iden-

tify under-performing

stores and see if the

performance is

related to manage-

ment, advertising, or

something else.”

“The centralized

storage is so much easier

to manage than direct attach

storage that we’re managing

800 GB more storage than we

were two years ago with the

same number of people”

“Everyone at Dell was on the same page

all the time, very proactive, and very

efficient. Dell’s involvement saved us a

lot of time and money and ensured that

we got a state-of-the-art SAN”

[ Customer Spotlight ] la Madeleine

5 4 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 35 4 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3


The one-day turnaround time for finan-

cial numbers is due in large part to the

Lawson software and the high-performance

storage back end. “As we move into a data

warehouse and data marts, the value of our

SAN will increase,” Merrifield says. “We’ll

be collecting vastly more data than before

and storing it centrally to allow managers

to build complex data cubes and OLAP

(online analytical processing) queries. Our

employees will have access to far richer

data than when crunching their own little

data stores on an Excel spreadsheet on their

own PCs.”

Company expands storage, not servers

By separating storage from server process-

ing, la Madeleine can grow storage inde-

pendently of server processing requirements.

This ability will help lower the company’s

server investment. “With direct attach

storage, we had to buy more servers just to

get more storage,” Merrifield says. “With

a SAN, we can expand storage without

buying more servers; or, we can purchase

smaller servers with lower drive capacity.”

Expanding the SAN is as simple as

adding another drive enclosure and popu-

lating it with disks—a task that takes a few

hours and can be done during normal

business hours without incurring down-

time. “This is something we anticipate

doing annually,” Merrifield says. “We

really don’t know how much storage we’ll

need with our move into data warehouses.

But knowing I have a virtually unlimited

amount of storage certainly helps me sleep

better at night.”

Dell provides a simple recipe for storagemanagement

Merrifield’s staff is lean—just 11 people.

But bringing in the Dell| EMC SAN and

two Dell PowerEdge 6450* servers has

caused nary a blip in headcount. “Even

with all of these new cutting-edge systems,

we have not had to increase our staff,”

Merrifield says.

“The centralized storage is so much

easier to manage than direct attach storage

that we’re managing 800 GB more storage

than we were two years ago with the same

number of people.”

La Madeleine also plans to use Dell

OpenManage™ server management capabil-

ity to simplify the management of its Dell

servers and SAN. “Instead of being reac-

tive to server problems, as we were in

the past, we can be proactive with Dell

OpenManage,” Merrifield says.

Dell OpenManage, which ships free of

charge with all Dell PowerEdge servers

and storage systems, provides around-the-

clock monitoring of critical hardware

components and automated management

of problems when they occur.

Solution makes data safer

Down the road, the Dell | EMC SAN

should allow la Madeleine to improve

backup and disaster recovery. As the

company’s storage demands escalate, tradi-

tional backup strategies such as network

writes to tape will not be adequate. “The

Dell SAN offers us options, such as disk

mirroring and data snapshots, to overcome

those obstacles,” Merrifield says. “We

expect a dramatic speedup in backup

times when we implement features like

EMC® SnapView™ and EMC MirrorView™

backup and disaster recovery software.

“Also over the next year, we want to

build in some of the redundancies that

we had to strip out at purchase time for

budgetary reasons—redundant host bus

adapters and switches for SAN connectiv-

ity, for example,” he continues. “Once in

place, we’ll have an ironclad disaster

recovery plan.”

Now that the company has a Dell | EMC

storage solution firing its information

ovens, la Madeleine can better tune its

sandwiches, soups, and salads to customer

appetites and watch profits rise.

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 5 5

la Madeleine [ Customer Spotlight ]

“As we move into a data warehouse and

data marts, the value of our SAN will

increase. We’ll be collecting vastly more

data than before and storing it centrally

to allow managers to build complex data

cubes and OLAP (online analytical

processing) queries”

* Newer models available at www.dell.com


[ Customer Spotlight ] K & N Kenanga

5 6 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

K & N Kenanga providestrading brokers with real-

time access to informationby using Intel Xeon

processor-based Dellservers and Dell storage

The difference between profit and loss

in the world of stocks often lies in

up-to-date information. But even more

important is how quickly brokers can

access that information. Time is money in

the fast-moving world of stocks, and

brokers depend on fast access to informa-

tion to keep ahead of the competition.

K & N Kenanga Bhd is among the top

three stockbroker firms in Malaysia and

has offices in the Malay Peninsula and

East Malaysia. The company performs

stock and share brokering, futures broker-

ing, research analysis, asset management,

unit trust management, and the provision

of nominee, custodial, underwriting, place-

ment, and corporate advisory services.

Real-time

The

56-58_K&Kenanga 4/7/03 11:24 AM Page 56

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 5 7

K & N Kenanga [ Customer Spotlight ]

K & N Kenanga faced

the challenge of provid-

ing real-time informa-

tion to its remisiers.

These licensed dealer

representatives work

on a part-commission basis and provide

value-added services to the company’s

clients. The company needed to process

and make available research information,

video-streaming content, a short messag-

ing service (SMS) for trade confirmation,

Web access to financial news providers,

trade information, and other alerts.

K & N Kenanga takes stock of its information

Before the turn of the millennium, K & N

Kenanga remisiers received information

from a variety of channels, such as paper

printouts and computer terminals.

Although research materials from the

company’s in-house team were available

to all remisiers at various branches, this

data was photocopied each morning and

only available for use hours later.

According to Ker Chew Hua, vice presi-

dent of information technology at K & N

Kenanga, the company needed to dissemi-

nate information much more quickly to

enhance the effectiveness of the remisiers.

In fact, the capability was critical to the

business. “The management understood

this need and decided to search for an

integrated system for the dissemination

and retrieval of information, which would

empower remisiers to better service their

clients,” Hua says.

Dell becomes the preferred vendor

In 2000, the company began evaluating

hardware requirements to run the portal

called KenBridge. “We knew what we

wanted, but we also wanted a joint devel-

opment approach to build an optimal

solution,” recalls Hua.

The company implemented an in-

house pilot project with approximately 20

terminals. This project provided remisiers

with the look-and-feel of the portal and an

opportunity for the company to obtain

their feedback. The favorable response

encouraged K & N Kenanga to request

vendor proposals for the system. The in-

house evaluation team rejected the first

round of presentations, so the company

called for a second round.

Dell, among the three vendors for this

second round, responded within days,

submitting a recommended solution and

proposal. “We were very impressed with

Dell’s proposal, recommendations, and

ability to work closely with us. Dell was

the only vendor that demonstrated the

commitment and capability to meet a very

challenging implementation lead time set

by K & N Kenanga,” Hua says.

A new portfolio includes high-poweredservers and a SAN

The Dell™ solution comprises an extensive

portfolio of Intel® Xeon™ processor-based

Dell PowerEdge™ servers, including

several two-way servers and one four-way

server. It also includes a Dell PowerVault™

storage system installed in various offices

throughout Malaysia.

The Dell team preloaded PowerEdge

servers with Microsoft® Windows® 2000

Server and Windows 2000 Advanced

Server. These servers formed a Microsoft

Exchange 2000 cluster for messaging and

K & N Kenanga [ Customer Spotlight ]

» CHALLENGE Improve information access,

speed up information dissemination, consolidate

time-sensitive information, and centralize stor-

age for applications and databases

» SOLUTION KenBridge, a Web-based portal

using Intel� Xeon™ processor-based Dell™

PowerEdge™ servers running Microsoft�

Windows� 2000 Server and Windows

2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Exchange

2000 for messaging, and a Dell storage area

network (SAN)

» BENEFIT Fast, convenient access to reli-

able, up-to-date information from a central

repository; efficient access to real-time

research materials; increased profitability

resulting from better analysis and better

advice to clients

K & N KENANGA

C u s t o m e r S p o t l i g h t Deal

56-58_K&Kenanga 4/7/03 11:24 AM Page 57

[ Customer Spotlight ] K & N Kenanga

provided the management

tools to run the storage area

network (SAN).

The team structured a

single domain with two

domain controllers for high

availability and fault tolerance,

and configured Microsoft

Active Directory® directory

service to store information

about network resources

(users and computers). The

team installed other servers

and configured them as

members of the domain.

The PowerEdge

servers can support up

to 9.5 TB of data storage

when connected to the

PowerVault storage

system. A network inter-

face card (NIC) and a

PowerEdge Expandable

RAID Controller 3, Single

Channel Integrated (PERC

3/Si) help to lower costs

and provide better

price/performance.

The Dell SAN meets

the storage requirements

of the K & N Kenanga

high-availability clusters.

“We were looking for a

storage solution with high

availability and we liked

the redun-

dancy features

offered in the

Dell SAN,”

Hua says. Clustered servers need access to

the same data so they can work together

and keep applications up and running.

The SAN provides a central location for

shared data because data is separated from

the clustered servers and placed on the

SAN. A SAN also simplifies the process

of attaching, expanding, and reallocating

storage among multiple servers.

Using the Dell SAN, the stockbroker

firm can share and consolidate Fibre

Channel storage devices and multiple

heterogeneous servers as well as attach

high-performance centralized tape backup

to the SAN. Highly available centralized

storage helps to improve application

performance across a network, deliver

virtually uninterrupted access to data,

perform fast data backup, and provide

enhanced disaster protection and data

management capabilities.

Smooth implementation yields results

Implementation proceeded smoothly and

swiftly. “The Dell team was committed

and stayed around to ensure a successful

implementation. They met our deadlines

and expectations,” Hua says.

Because the competition also was

trying to install similar systems, K & N

Kenanga recognized the importance of

making the system available on time. “We

needed to get KenBridge up and running

fast and be able to offer our remisiers

something better than the others to get the

competitive edge,” notes Hua. “We inte-

grated the back-office functions and devel-

oped an alert link via SMS so clients could

be notified when stocks of interest to them

hit a certain price.”

The system, which can be accessed at

the office or at home using the Internet,

offers remisiers access to nearly seven

years of historical data. Satisfied with what

they saw, remisiers began requesting access

to more information, such as unit trust

information and real-time world indexes.

Within the first three months, more than

100 remisiers bought PCs so that they

could reap the benefits of KenBridge.

Convenience and timeliness improve profits

KenBridge greatly reduces the time neces-

sary to deliver information to remisiers.

What once required hours is now available

online instantly. The Web-based system

also is easy to learn and use. It offers

convenience, saves time, and improves

profitability. “Faster access to information

is a great incentive for remisiers. The time

saved enables them to generate more prof-

its. They now have more time to analyze

information and to interact with their

clients,” explains Hua. “The Malaysian

market is so news-driven that having the

latest information via the Internet gives

our remisiers the edge.”

K & N Kenanga has now extended

KenBridge to its branches in Sarawak. Dell

cache servers speed up information

retrieval for the company’s East Malaysian

offices; the company also has added a new

two-way server for SQL clustering. Accord-

ing to Hua, the current system has ample

room to cater to future business growth.

K & N Kenanga gains asset with Intelprocessor-based Dell hardware

The system has been

available for more

than a year, and Hua

has experienced no

problems with the

Dell hardware. “The

servers are durable

and robust. We also are pleased with Dell

service, which is very prompt and reli-

able. That makes Dell an easy choice for

us if we need more hardware.”

“The servers are durable and robust.

We also are pleased with Dell service,

which is very prompt and reliable”

5 8 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

56-58_K&Kenanga 4/7/03 11:24 AM Page 58

©2003 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Novell is a registered trademark and Nterprise is a trademark of Novell, Inc., in the United States and other countries.

You already have an infrastructure. You don’t want someone selling you a new one. But you need to get all those different systems working together. So talk to us.

We live and breathe mixed environments. That’s why our NterpriseTM solutions are just what you need. Scalable. Reliable. Always available. Our consultants and

partners have years of real-world experience getting diverse systems to play ball together. So, to get your diverse systems working towards a common goal—creating

revenue—call us at 1.888.321.4272 or visit http://www.novell.com/nterprise. w e s p e a k y o u r l a n g u a g e .

59_Novell_Ad 4/7/03 1:02 PM Page 59

6 0 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

Applications

Dell helps ASPGulf, a leading application service provider in

the Middle East, improve its infrastructure to meet the region’s growing IT needs

Internet hosting services for software

applications are big business—and small-

to medium-size firms that have limited IT

budgets find such services particularly

attractive. For those companies providing

the services, demands on their own IT

departments and data centers are extraor-

dinary: They require the greatest availabil-

ity, scalability of equipment, and

flexibility in the IT infrastructure.

ASPGulf is such a hosting service. As a

leading application service provider

(ASP) in the Middle East, ASPGulf

enables access to world-class busi-

ness applications without the tradi-

tional costs and challenges.

Founded in April 2000 and head-

quartered in Dubai, United Arab

Emirates (UAE)—the Middle East’s

technology hub—ASPGulf has

introduced a new method for

accessing and operating IT systems

in the region.

60-62_ASPGulf 4/4/03 1:22 PM Page 60

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 6 1

ASPGulf [ Customer Spotlight ]

ASPGulf’s mission as an application

provisioning service is to provide best-of-

breed Arabic and English enterprise appli-

cations over the Internet. The company’s

services are designed to reduce the

complexity and total cost of ownership

(TCO) of enterprise computing while

improving the quality of IT services for

small- to medium-size businesses in the

Middle East. In addition, ASPGulf offers

clients in-depth understanding of the

complexities associated with running

today’s heterogeneous IT infrastructures

and the special business requirements in

the Persian Gulf region.

Building the data center and a partnership

ASPGulf provides financial and human

resources, procurement, distribution,

customer relationship management (CRM)

applications, productivity tools, and

messaging and collaboration tools on

a rental basis for a monthly fee. The

company’s services

are underpinned by

networking services

provided by Dubai

Internet City (DIC),

which offers modern,

fully serviced office

space that caters to the specific needs

of today’s new-economy companies,

including the need for both wired and

wireless networks.

“At Dubai Internet City, we have set up

the first live data center in the Persian Gulf

region to address the region’s increasing

interest in and demand for hosted applica-

tions,” says Duncan Watson, CEO of

ASPGulf. The DIC data center also is the

first complete IT and telecommunications

center in the world built inside a free

trade zone.

“We have used the leading technolo-

gies to build a state-of-the-art data center

that includes server farms, networking

components, physical security, the

ASPGulf Operation Centre, a storage area

network (SAN), operating system and

databases, network management platform,

and other components required to provi-

sion applications and hosting services,”

Watson says.

Refurbishing the infrastructure with Dell

Early on, ASPGulf began working closely

with Microsoft to lay the groundwork for

the operating system and applications for

ASPGulf’s product offerings. In evaluating

hardware options, Watson says, “We

believe it is critical for us to own and

manage the hosted environment; that is

»CHALLENGE Create a robust, scalable IT

environment that can meet the demands of a

growing ASP market

» SOLUTION A flexible three-tier architecture

based on Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers running

Intel� Pentium� III Xeon™ processors, Dell

PowerVault™ storage, and Microsoft� software

solutions

» BENEFIT Enhanced infrastructure reliability

and scalability and renewed preparedness for

future growth

ASPGULF


for rent

“At Dubai Internet City, we have set up the firstlive data center in the Persian Gulf region toaddress the region’s increasing interest in anddemand for hosted applications”

60-62_ASPGulf 4/4/03 1:22 PM Page 61

[ Customer Spotlight ] ASPGulf

a critical component behind delivery of the

service. We want to ensure that we’re offer-

ing the most robust environment possible.

“When looking at hardware vendors, we

wanted a company that would partner with

us and be truly interested in the success of

our business and provide the right support.

We reviewed proposals from virtually all of

the big players in the enterprise storage

and server market,” Watson says. “We

chose Dell for several reasons, but particu-

larly because Dell was not just trying to

sell us a solution. The sale was only the

beginning of our relationship; we now

meet with our Dell representative regularly

to review our technical requirements and

resolve any current or future issues.”

Intel® processor-based Dell™ equipment is

fully certified on the Microsoft® Windows®

2000 platform, and the strength of the Dell

and Microsoft global alliance means that the

two companies can quickly provide compre-

hensive support as technology evolves.

“The key differentiator was Dell’s over-

all approach and responsiveness. Dell was

able to provide a multitier architecture to

fit our needs,” Watson says.

Designing the three-tiered infrastructure

ASPGulf worked closely with Dell to

design its three-tier infrastructure, which

provides the scalability and flexibility

necessary for the company’s future growth.

The first tier, which supports Web services,

runs on Intel processor-based Dell

PowerEdge™ 2450* servers. PowerEdge 2450

servers also are used for the company’s

application servers on the second tier. On

the back end of the infrastructure, the

Microsoft Active Directory®, e-mail, and

database services run on the Intel processor-

based PowerEdge 2450, PowerEdge 6450*,

and PowerEdge 8450 servers.

The company also selected Dell storage

products to support its services, including

the Dell PowerVault™ 650F*, a highly

available and scalable Fibre Channel

RAID storage system, and the PowerVault

630F* storage expansion enclosure. In

addition, ASPGulf implemented Dell

PowerVault 56F high-speed Fibre Channel

switches for the SAN interconnect storage

and the SAN-attached PowerVault 130T*

DLT tape library. Together, these products

allow unattended backup and recovery of

up to 2 TB of compressed data.

Emirates Computers, a technology

company based in the UAE, supplied

and supported the Dell servers and stor-

age systems.

Offering more than just a supplier-buyerrelationship

Rapid deployment was a key issue for

ASPGulf. “The ability to source, build,

test, and install equipment within three to

four weeks is phenomenal,” Watson says.

The relationship between ASPGulf and

Dell is “not a normal supplier-buyer rela-

tionship,” Watson adds. “We meet with

Dell about every two weeks for technology

refreshes and quarterly to review the prod-

uct portfolio. We engage with Dell on

every complex customer requirement;

Dell is very helpful in this area. And as

part of our alliance, we have an on-site

certified Dell engineer for a full 18 months.

He has provided an enormous transfer

of knowledge and become one of our

team members.”

Watson continues, “One of our objec-

tives is to meet the strong demand in the

Middle East markets and give advantages

to mid-size businesses in each location.

We plan to adopt new technologies

because of the efficiencies that can be

achieved with new product

lines, and Dell is a key

component of those

expansion plans.”

Gareth Williams,

general manager of

Dell Computer FZ LLC

in Dubai, says, “Dell

believes that ASPGulf is delivering a

highly important new service in the UAE,

and that its first-mover advantage will not

only help to grow the Middle East ASP

market, but also will give rise to enor-

mous growth in ASPGulf’s business. We

are taking an active role in supporting the

company in that period of growth.”

Using critical relationships to establishreliable services

ASPGulf’s relationships with DIC,

Microsoft, and especially Dell have

enabled the company to deliver reliable IT

services to businesses throughout the

Middle East. “We are confident,” Watson

says, “that the solutions provided through

ASPGulf and our partners will deliver the

absolute reliability in services that we

need in order to give our customers the

absolute reliability that they expect.”

* Newer models available at www.dell.com

6 2 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

“We plan to adopt new technologiesbecause of the efficiencies that canbe achieved with new product lines,and Dell is a key component ofthose expansion plans”

60-62_ASPGulf 4/4/03 1:22 PM Page 62

Contact Dell today to learn more about how LTO backup and restore can help you.1-800-www-dell or visit www.dell.com

1Compressed at a ratio of 2:1

Dell, the Dell logo, and PowerVault are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation.LTO is a trademark of Hewlett Packard, IBM and Seagate.

TM

Problems with capacity? Concerned about long-term storage?

Dell understands your issues. And Dell™

PowerVault™ tape backup systems, based ongeneration 1 LTO technology, deliverexceptional value to meet your enterprise storage needs.

The Dell PowerVault 110T LTO tape driveand PowerVault 122T LTO tape autoloader,combined with Dell LTO tape media, provide areliable and robust solution with all of thescalability you could want,allowing you the flexibilityto be truly proactive in yourenterprise storagemanagement.

Enterprisingstorage solutions

PowerVault 110T LTO Drive • A competitively-priced drive bearing the open standard of LTO technology• 200GB capacity1 with a maximum backup rate of 108GB/hr1

• Ideally suited to departmental and enterprise server environments

PowerVault 122T LTO Autoloader• A Generation 1 LTO autoloader designed to deliver a cost-effective automated backup solution• 1.6TB capacity1 with a maximum backup rate of 108GB/hr1

• Ideal for small to medium enterprises, and remote offices or workgroups

63_DellLTO_AD 4/7/03 12:52 PM Page 63

in syncon storage

6 4 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

64-65_Qlogic 4/4/03 1:30 PM Page 64

The astronomical growth of data used every day by large

corporations and on the Internet has led to the storage area

network (SAN) model for networking large volumes of stor-

age. The scalability of a SAN allows network managers to move

storage away from servers to commonly accessible locations

where administrators can easily maintain and update the SAN

as storage solutions and user needs evolve. For end users, SANs

provide seamless access and speedy data sharing—regardless of

their hardware or software platforms.

Recognized experience

QLogic simplifies the process of establishing networked storage by

providing the only complete SAN infrastructure in the industry.

QLogic produces the controller chips, host bus adapters (HBAs),

fabric switches, and management software that compose the back-

bone of storage networks for many Global 2000 corporations.

Like Dell, QLogic has a strong financial model that has led to

continued growth, even in a tough economy. Non-stop technical

innovation, years of customer experience, and a commitment to

fiscal responsibility have led to QLogic’s appearance on Forbes’

“Best 200 Small Companies” list for four consecutive years and

Fortune's “100 Fastest Growing Companies” list for three

consecutive years.

The power of two

The relationship between Dell and QLogic is a natural one.

The companies have long worked together to address customers’

storage needs with low-cost, high-value products that simplify

IT life: Dell has offered industry-leading QLogic® SANblade™

HBA technology since the launch of the first Dell™ PowerVault™

Fibre Channel attached storage. Today, award-winning QLogic

SANblade HBAs are certified with Dell PowerEdge™ servers as

well as Dell PowerVault™ and Dell|EMC storage systems.

QLogic SANblade HBAs enhance Dell|EMC storage solutions

by enabling them to boot directly from the fabric and by provid-

ing support for clustered environments and stand-alone applica-

tions. QLogic also ensures superior SAN performance. In fact,

independent benchmark testing confirms that SANblade 2 GB

HBAs are the leading transaction-process host adapters. Network

Computing recognized the SANblade 2 GB HBA with “Editor’s

Choice” and “Product of the Year” awards for its impressive

performance, superior driver implementation, and ease of use.

Dell also relies on QLogic’s industry-leading management

controller products, which monitor and control the physical envi-

ronment within server and storage enclosures. QLogic Zircon and

GEM controllers detect the presence or absence of functional disk

drives, power supplies, and fans. They also monitor the tempera-

ture within the enclosure and pass information back to a system

for display or programmed action so customers can make sure

that overheated systems are handled quickly.

SAN satisfaction

QLogic technology powers SAN solutions from the world’s lead-

ing storage vendors such as Dell. Last year, QLogic shipped more

than 7 million chips inside server, networking, and storage prod-

ucts. More than one-third of all SAN infrastructures are powered

by QLogic HBAs. The SAN industry depends on QLogic to

simplify storage networks with native Fibre Channel support and

to create innovative solutions for networked storage through

emerging technologies such as Virtual Interface (VI), Fibre Down™,

and Internet SCSI (iSCSI).

Dell and QLogic are committed to helping customers better

manage their ever-increasing storage needs through the combina-

tion of award-winning Dell servers, Dell|EMC storage solutions,

and QLogic SANblade HBAs—ensuring that customers continue to

benefit from the synergistic relationship of two industry leaders.

For more information:www.qlogic.comwww.dell.com

Dell and QLogic work together to deliver low-cost,high-value SAN solutions to enterprise customersaround the world

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 6 5

In sync on storage [ Partner Profile ]64-65_Qlogic 4/4/03 1:30 PM Page 65

. Visit www.dell.com/blades

Smarter consolidation solutions. Easy as

Dell, the stylized E logo, E-Value and Latitude are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation. Intel, Intel Inside and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States andother countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. ©2003 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.

Introducing Dell Blade Servers.It’s amazing what your business can accomplish when you think small.

PowerEdge™ 1655MC Blade ServerCost-Effective Consolidation Solution• Up to 2 Intel® Pentium® III Processors at 1.26GHz Per Blade• Up to 84 1655MC Blades Fit into One Standard 42U Rack• 128MB - 2GB 133MHz ECC SDRAM• Supports up to 2 High-Performance SCSI Hard Drives with

PERC4/im Integrated RAID• Hot Plug Redundant Power and Cooling Standard• Integrated Management Module and Keyboard,

Video and Mouse Switch• Integrated Layer 2 Managed Ethernet Switches

Consolidate with Dell Blade Servers and dramatically lower TCO. Dell PowerEdge™ 1655MC Blade Servers,

powered by Intel® Pentium® III processors, represent the future of server design as well as a more cost-effective

way to start consolidating your web, network infrastructure and application servers. Our small, 3U/6 blade chassis

is cutting-edge, and it easily fits into your existing power rack and administrative infrastructure. With Dell

PowerEdge MC Blade Servers, you can expect:

• Modular Flexibility: Consolidate multiple applications in a fraction of the space required

by traditional rack designs.

• Superior ROI: The 1655MC’s smaller, modular design can help improve your ROI when buying three or

more. And they’re easy to install, maintain and service.

• Infinite Scalability: Buy only the number of blade servers you need, without the investment

and overhead of much larger, more expensive chassis designs. As your needs grow,

simply plug in new blade servers.

So go to www.dell.com/blades and discover the easier way to get on the consolidation bandwagon with Dell

PowerEdge MC Blade Servers.

66_DellBlade_Ad_CMYK.qxd 1/13/03 12:00 PM Page 66

M AY 2 0 0 3 D E L L I N S I G H T 6 7

News Briefs

Dell’s fourth-quarter shipments,revenue, operating income set company recordsROUND ROCK, TEXAS

Dell ended its fiscal 2003 by posting best-ever quarterly product shipments,revenue, and operating profit in the period ended January 31.

The company’s strength spanned all customer and product categoriesaround the world. Dell gained almost three points of global market sharefrom one year ago—more than three points in servers—and nearly five sharepoints in the United States.

Fourth-quarter unit shipments were 25 percent higher. Shipments instrategically important countries such as China, France, Germany, andJapan increased a combined 39 percent. Dell™ server growth in thosemarkets was 47 percent.

Quarterly revenue was $9.7 billion, up 21 percent from last year.Company earnings were 23 cents per share, an increase of 35 percent. Full-year net earnings were $2.12 billion, on record revenue of $35.4 billion.

Dell gains customers in Latin AmericaROUND ROCK, TEXAS

The increasing acceptance of the Dell™ direct sales model by customers inLatin America helped the company gain an important share of the market inthe past year, according to worldwide research firm Gartner. Latin Americancustomers increasingly prefer ordering custom-configured computer tech-nology and enjoy a one-to-one relationship with a company that understandstheir unique requirements.

With 51 percent growth rate in Latin America, customers made Dell thegrowth leader among top-tier hardware vendors in the region last year. Newbusiness customers in Latin America are turning to Dell for its leading effi-ciency and innovation with standards-based technologies.

According to Gartner Dataquest’s research, Dell increased its regionalmarket share by 2.6 percent in 2002 when compared to 2001, and Mexicoaccounted for 43 percent of the company’s total regional sales.

Lycos Europe Internet portal opens doors for Dell ROUND ROCK, TEXAS

Dell has signed an agreement with Lycos� Europe, one of the leading Euro-pean Internet portals, to supply servers and storage systems to support itsInternet presence in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.

Dell was selected after a highly competitive bidding process, beatingfive other vendors to the contract. It will provide Lycos Europe with morethan 800 Dell™ PowerEdge™ rack servers, as well as 127 Dell PowerVault™

220V storage arrays. The deal brings the portal’s German, Danish, andSwedish operations in line with its office in France, where Lycos Europe hasbeen using more than 500 PowerEdge servers since 2002.

67-68_NewsBriefs 4/4/03 1:36 PM Page 67

6 8 D E L L I N S I G H T M AY 2 0 0 3

[ News Briefs ]

ROUND ROCK, TEXAS

Dell’s first handheld computer brand, the Dell™ Axim™ X5, is now shipping tocustomers throughout Europe. The Axim X5 will be available in two configu-rations and in five languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

The Axim X5 is based on the Microsoft� Pocket PC 2002 software andboth configurations feature dual-slot expansion capability, sleek ergonomicdesign, and a 3.5-inch transflective TFT color display, a technology thatenables superior readability in both low- and bright-light conditions. Bothunits will be offered with a wide variety of accessories, such as folding andsnap-on keyboards and leather carrying case.

More customers embrace Dell standards-based computing ROUND ROCK, TEXAS

Dell has signed agreements with several high-profile customers in Europe toprovide high-performance computing cluster (HPCC) solutions. The newcustomers include University College, Cork in Ireland; MTU Aero Engines andTRW Automotive in Germany; Fiat Research in Italy; and Compagnie Généralede Géophysique in the UK.

HPCC links standards-based servers together to act as a single, power-ful compute engine. By using off-the-shelf standardized components, Dellcustomers can expand their clusters easily with new technologies to meetincreased demand.

Dell supercomputing clusters help Oxford Universityunravel mystery of the universeROUND ROCK, TEXAS

Oxford University’s world-renowned physics department will implement a Dell™

high-performance computing cluster (HPCC) solution to conduct research thatwill assist in a project aimed to unravel the secrets of the universe.

The cluster of Dell PowerEdge™ servers will analyze and store data usedto investigate mass, inertia, and antimatter, thereby helping to understandthe behavior and effects of elementary particles on the universe.

The Dell HPCC solution at Oxford University will provide computingpower and data storage to a larger study being jointly conducted at Oxford,Liverpool, UCL, and Glasgow universities. It will combine the particlesresearch with proton research and analysis from Fermi National AcceleratorLaboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois.

Dell receives Dupont SourcingSupplier Recognition Award ROUND ROCK, TEXAS

Dell has been selected by DuPont™ Global Sourcing and Logistics toreceive its Supplier Recognition Award for outstanding service to thecompany in 2002.

Dell has served as DuPont’s primary supplier of desktop and notebookcomputers for the last two and a half years. DuPont also uses Dell|EMC stor-age, Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers, and Dell Services for a variety of enterpriseapplications. In addition to providing significant cost savings, Dell continuesto meet or exceed all of Dupont’s supplier metrics,such as on-time delivery, warranty responsetime, and customer satisfaction.

The award was presented during the firstDuPont Global Suppliers Conference in Orlando onMarch 20–21. Hundreds of suppliers from throughoutthe world met with DuPont to determine how they can workmore effectively to improve service and cost containment.

For more information, please visit www.dell.com

Dell handhelds launch in Europe

67-68_NewsBriefs 4/4/03 1:36 PM Page 68

insight run java faster - dellmultiple languages and diverse cultures in europe, the middle east,...

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