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January 28, 2001

The inadequacy of enterprise-centric computing models when exposed to an Internet-centric environment was amply illustrated by Microsoft's DNS woes this week. Virtually all of Microsoft's domains — including microsoft.com, MSN.com and Expedia.com — became invisible to web surfers when technicians accidentally isolated its Domain Name Server (DNS) network from the Internet. Without the electronic signposting of DNS, other computers on the network could no longer locate Microsoft's web servers.

It took almost 24 hours to restore service, highlighting to the world that Microsoft kept all of its DNS on a single network with no fallback. Hackers paused only long enough to rub their hands with glee, before launching attacks to overwhelm that single point of failure with bogus traffic. Access to Microsoft domains remained sporadic for several more days, leaving the company's reputation as an Internet leader severely tarnished. See related story on internetnews.com, Microsoft's .Net Campaign Likely Finished.

Web experts were quick to point out that Microsoft could have avoided its discomfort by making sure that it had secondary DNS servers set up on separate networks. But it's easy to be wise after the event. Microsoft was following sound, enterprise-centric computing principles, which say that you must centralise your key computing assets where you can keep an eye on them, not distribute them across multiple locations so you create a management nightmare.

Effective Internet computing does the opposite. It not only distributes key assets, it also delegates the authority to manage them. If Microsoft were really as serious about Internet computing as its .Net image attempts to convey, it would already have outsourced its DNS to a DNS hosting specialist such as UltraDNS or EasyDNS, or at least delegated it to a high-end managed hosting provider with a suitably global network.

But it couldn't have done that without going against the grain of traditional enterprise-centric computing. That is the inherent contradiction at the heart of Microsoft's current strategy. It craves respectability in the enterprise market at the same time as being a leader in next-generation Internet computing. But the two are mutually incompatible. If it wants to break the mould with .Net it's going to have to break ranks with the mainstream computing mindset that it courts so avidly. Enterprises — Microsoft included — have got to stop trying to do everything themselves and get in a little expert help if they want to succeed on the Internet.

Network computer

Five years ago, Oracle's founder and CEO Larry Ellison announced the network computer, or NC, which some prophets predicted would obsolete the PC by the end of the millennium. Well, here we are in the third millennium, and the PC is still very much with us. But Larry Ellison is too, and this is a man who never gives up easily on an idea.

Lo and behold, then, the second coming of the NC, in the shape of the New Internet Computer, or NiC for short. See related story on internetnews.com, It's Back: New Version of Ellison-backed Network Computer.

The "new" NC actually came out last summer in a first version, but the new model announced this week is said by the Ellison-funded manufacturer to be the production version and as such has been receiving greater publicity than its precursor.

It may be that this time round is a more propitious moment to introduce such a device. Decent network-based applications didn't exist for the NC five years ago. Now functions like web-based email and online banking are commonplace and accepted, and even Microsoft accepts that you don't need a PC to be productive with the Internet. Perhaps Ellison will have the last laugh after all.

This review of the week's news highlights is by ASPnews.com founder and managing editor Phil Wainewright. A comprehensive news digest is published every month in the ASP News Review newsletter, available exclusively to subscribers.

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