[H-GEN] Fwd: Telstra renovates to let the Sun shine in

[Arjen Lentz]

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[Telstra has made its choice:]


http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/08/1031115958960.html

Telstra renovates to let the Sun shine in

By Graeme Philipson
September 10 2002

Ten years ago I wrote a cover story for MIS magazine called "Telecom's
25,000-PC Man". It was an interview with Michael Bennett, Telecom's
national manager for desktop solutions, about the company's decision to
employ a standard operating environment (SOE) of Windows PCs for all
users.

A lot has changed since then. Telecom is now Telstra and is a public
company. Staff numbers have dropped from 77,000 to fewer than 50,000,
though the number of PCs has risen from 25,000 to 45,000. In other
words, 10 years ago only one in three of Telstra's employees had a PC,
but now just about all of them have one.

Back then, the big issue was standardisation on Microsoft Windows and
how it compared to OS/2, IBM's desktop operating system. The Apple Mac
was still in the race and there was a three-way tussle for the hearts
and minds of the corporate desktop user.

How times have changed. OS/2 is dead, Apple is a niche player and
Microsoft rules the desktop.

Or does it? The wheel turns. Telstra's new CIO, Jeff Smith, and its
managing director of IT hosting and Internet services, Andrew Johnson,
are overseeing a big shift in Telstra's IT strategy, towards a world
where Microsoft will be just another vendor and Telstra's main
technology partner will be Sun Microsystems.

Sun hardware and software will handle Telstra's "device and portal
management", its customer interface systems and all its internal
messaging systems.

This has important consequences throughout Telstra's infrastructure. The
giant telco is probably Australia's largest IT user (the Department of
Defence may be bigger, but is so fragmented that nobody can be sure).
Telstra has IBM mainframes, thousands of Unix and Windows servers and
more than 1300 IT suppliers.

Now Telstra will use Sun software and hardware to integrate its internal
systems, and those it offers to its customers, as much as possible.
There will still be room for Microsoft and IBM and other vendors, but
they will need to fit into a Sun-based architecture.

This will affect things from top to bottom, including at the desktop
level. Smith says he sees no reason why all Telstra desktops should
remain PCs.

"If someone is just doing one function, they don't need an expensive
PC," he says.

"Some of our desktops could be thin Linux clients running something like
Star Office. All they need is an IP connection, and we can deploy them
anywhere."

The deal is also important for Sun. If Sun can succeed at Telstra, it
opens up the possibility of similar deals with other telcos around the
world.

Telstra's move towards thin clients on the desktop, and towards Sun
operating environments elsewhere in the organisation, has received the
most notice. Telstra could well become one of the world's largest users
of Star Office, Sun's cheap alternative to Microsoft's bloated desktop
suite.

But the most important aspect of Telstra's new direction is its
commitment to Web services as its underlying architecture, both
internally and in the products and services it will offer its customers.

Web services allow the delivery of just about any business function over
the Internet. Its main champions are Sun, Microsoft (which is calling it
.NET) and IBM.

There remains a fair degree of cynicism about Web services. Magical new
technologies or standards come along every year or two. Many of them
disappoint. I do not believe Web services will be one of them.

Telstra's new direction articulates what computing will look like over
the next decade or so. It accepts the reality of the broadband Internet,
commoditised hardware, Web services and thin clients. Welcome to the
future.


-- 
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