To view the Report card.
We brought the top DTP products into Network Computing's University of Wisconsin lab for a hard look at how each stacks up. For three months, we tested BEA Systems' BEA TUXEDO Release 6.3, NCR Corp.'s TOP END (distributed by Entersoft), IBM Corp.'s IBM Transaction Server for Windows NT version 4 and Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Transaction Server (MSTS) v1.1, both on a local segment and over ou r WAN. Products were tested on NT and, where appropriate, Solaris.

Since our testing began, IBM has released Encina version 2.5. Both Microsoft (with version 2.0) and Sybase (with the much-anticipated Jaguar Transaction Server) have DTP monitors in beta.

Leader of the Pack Top honors in this round go to IBM Transaction Server, which placed at the top or ahead of the pack in nearly every category. BEA TUXEDO came in a close second: It is an impressive product. Although NCR's TOP END is an enterprise-class product, we found that it lacks the attention to detail that made the top products a pleasure to work with. Microsoft's Transaction Server offers a great amount of detail, but it falls short on necessary enterprise capabilities.

IBM Corp. IBM Transaction Server for Windows NT version 4
Some would say IBM is synonymous with transaction processing. However, the company lagged behind in distributed transaction processing systems (as opposed to single system transaction processing) until it purchased Transarc, and coupled Transarc's Encina with its own technology. With that acquisition and its experience, IBM has put together a tough-to-beat package.

IBM Transaction Server is really two products in one--Encina 2.2 (now 2.5) and CICS version 4. Because of the product's client/server origins, we focused on the Encina component of the IBM Transaction Server. The CICS components are simply an application interface to the Encina infrastructure--appropriate for those environments that have CICS systems. With its roots in Big Blue's mainframe world, CICS does not represent state-of-the-art network computing. Nevertheless, we aren't dismissing its importance. A vast majority of the world's data is stored on IBM mainframes, and IBM, of course, integrates CICS tighter than anyone else.

DCE Base Encina is built completely around the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). As expected with DCE systems, Encina integrated into our existing DCE cell without a hitch. The Transaction Server ships with a full complement of DCE management tools, but these can be safely ignored if you have DCE management systems in place. And, while Encina derives much of its inherent value--network transparency, communication, security and naming, for example--from the underlying DCE system, Encina also has the goods to support critical transaction-processing functions.

To download an Adobe Acrobat .pdf format version of the Distributed Transaction Processing Monitors Features chart, click here.