Managing Computers in Large Organizations

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Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the original work has been recomposed from XML files created from the original paper book, not from the original typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths, word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific formatting, however, cannot be retained, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution. PERSONAL COMPUTING, NOT PERSONAL COMPUTERS 131 our approach might not work for a company with 14,000 people in one building. Currently, each of our 6,000 account executives has a single terminal on a desk. These terminals are called branch information-processing system terminals (BIPs). The terminal comes out of a dual-port CPU (central processing unit), and data comes from two different networks, Bunker Ramo and our own. When our system is complete everyone in the firm except telephone operators and porters will have a terminal. Everyone. The multipurpose use of this terminal is the most important aspect of our system. We have a limited amount of space on a desk, and we are going to accommodate it by having one terminal. That one terminal may be supplied by Data General, by IBM, by Wang, by Bunker Ramo. But no matter who makes it, each terminal will have access into all the databases. The secondary function of each terminal determines the reason for selecting a particular product. For example, the Bunker Ramo terminal is selected because it is a market data system, the Wang terminal because it has certain word processing capabilities, the Data General terminal because it ties into our operations and communications. How are our operations and communications tied together? We start with head-end computers that create the databases and supply information at corporate headquarters. The next level down consists of about 35 Data General Eclipses located at regional offices around the world. Why do we have a distributed network around the world? Most people involved with personal computing know that when you hit the button and have to wait any length of time for a response, you're in trouble. The reason for the distributed network is very simple: hit the button, get a response. Obviously, when the computer is in the branch you can talk much faster. This part of the system provides only the data. There is nothing fancy about the technology, no state-of-the-art breakthroughs. We have simply recognized that if having data in a central location does not give adequate response time economically, we must move the data out. At the next level is the branch information processing system. It is the integrated architecture of the network. It consists of 400 Data General MV-4000s, one in each branch. The MV-4000 is larger than the computer that ran all of E.F. Hutton's communications a dozen years ago. It is basically a 2- megabyte machine, .6 Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the original work has been recomposed from XML files created from the original paper book, not from the original typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths, word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific formatting, however, cannot be retained, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution. PERSONAL COMPUTING, NOT PERSONAL COMPUTERS 132 MIPS (mega-instructions per second), and 350 million characters of storage. This is an awesome box, and it is sitting in a branch office. The terminal hangs off this box, with high-speed, dual mode printers and local database for very rapid response time and for personal computing. At the bottom of the hierarchy, the terminal level, the branch information processing system has the ability to grow whereas the personal computer does not. And the system can grow in the same box, for the terminals do not need to change. They are essentially just a light bulb and a screen. The brains of that terminal sits in the branch office. We estimate that one MV-4000 can accommodate 30 to 35 terminals. And, in general, we have three terminals to one letter quality printer. These levels—headquarters, region, branch, and terminal—are the fabric of our communications and data processing capability, and they are all interconnected. The host complex controls the distributed information system and the distributed information system controls the branch processing. Users can reach around it or through it to get to whatever level they want. From my perspective, the frequently asked question of who owns the data is the wrong question. We ought to ask who maintains the data. With our system, who “owns” it is irrelevant, since anybody who wants it and is approved can get it. This system makes data available to anybody anywhere in the world. Each machine is individually addressable and assignable and has its own name, and each user has his or her own sign-on code. The end result is that one computer communications resource is providing information to approximately 10,000 terminals. Basically, the hardware is secondary; primarily what we do is provide a terminal, and the person using that terminal has the smarts of the computer behind it. One of the problems we used to have involved gateways. In the past there was only one way out of a branch office. That was via a teletype system that was part of our network. Information was passed from functional areas to communications areas and then out. The new system solves that problem. Everyone who has a terminal has a gateway out of the office. One of the most important management issues is that beyond a certain point you can't pay people more money to do a better job. And people who are capable of doing a better job won't necessarily stay with a company just for more money. To solve the problem Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Managing Computers in Large Organizations

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