The Standish Group Press Release --------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 8, 1997 - For immediate release Contact: Karen Boucher THE STANDISH GROUP INTERNATIONAL, INC. Phone: (508) 385-7500 E-mail: karen@standishgroup.com The Standish Group Responds to Microsoft Attack A recent advertisement by Sun Microsystems in The Wall Street Journal (Tuesday, August 19, 1997, Page A15) used a portion of our recent research effort, "SUN Also Rises: Solaris vs. NT." In a subsequent public release from the Microsoft NT Server team, Microsoft responded as follows: "Rather than respond directly to Sun, or the ridiculous Standish Group survey, Microsoft offers the following customer, press and analyst quotes as evidence that Sun and Standish have no idea how the industry as a whole views Windows NT Server." This personal attack on our research is utterly incomprehensible. We are astonished that rather than use the results of our independent analysis to better their product offering, Microsoft would choose to attack The Standish Group. Our report was based on two things: one was a complete feature/function comparison looking at over 250 discrete items. Second, the report was based on thirty personal interviews with users of both NT and Solaris operating systems. These users, sought out through our own efforts, represented a range of industries and company sizes. When Microsoft attacks this evaluation, they are attacking their own users. Microsoft was contacted with respect to assistance in our evaluation, and the results of these talks did not strengthen the NT story. In fact, these talks only substantiated our evaluation. Case in point: All the thirty users interviewed complained of NT availability concerns, stating the system often crashed for no apparent reason and required a reboot. When Standish asked Microsoft why NT had these availability problems, they responded stating they recently completed a new feature: the system will now reboot 50% faster. If the system never failed, why would Microsoft need to speed the reboot time? This is just one example. Our report stated what is widely known in the industry today - NT is just not ready for mission-critical applications. Is this a surprise? It shouldn’t be. Furthermore, it is not shocking that NT would not fare well against a UNIX platform like Solaris. NT is a much newer technology; Microsoft simply has not had the same amount of time as UNIX vendors to make their operating system mission-critical strength. It is not unreasonable that a more mature technology would receive a better grade than a relative newcomer. Rather than attack our research, Microsoft could have made use of it to improve the product. After all, this report is not our opinion, but an accumulation of user responses and a feature-by-feature comparison. Microsoft should use this report and other evaluations to repair the faulty features of NT, rather than to deem every bad mark "ridiculous." The full Standish Group report, "SUN Also Rises: Solaris vs. NT," is available on our web site at: http://www.standishgroup.com/syst.html For more information on this report please contact Karen D. Boucher, Vice President of The Standish Group at 508-385-7500 or via e-mail to karen@standishgroup.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- About The Standish Group International, Inc. The Standish Group conducts market and technology research for users and vendors in the mission critical open systems marketplace, with a distinct focus on electronic commerce. The Standish Group additionally provides custom consulting services to clients in the Fortune 500, government agencies and major universities. The Standish Group International, Inc. is located at 586 Olde King’s Highway in Dennis, MA. [Image]