Microsoft tells us it simply doesn't have the time or resources to port Active Directory as a client or server to any operating system outside the Windows product family. But we're suspicious; after all, the company has enough resources to hide 3-D adventure games inside Excel. Although you can't use AD as a unifying directory, it is interesting that a port to Unix is in the works by a rather unusual Microsoft partner: Cisco Systems will be porting AD to Sun Microsystems' Solaris and using it as a store for network policies and service-level information--much to the dismay of the Novell NetWare faithful.

A Serious Solution Clearly, Microsoft is up to its usual tricks, trying to make it painfully easy for us to convert our enterprises to all NT, and though its motives are certainly not purely altruistic, we can't overlook the fact that NT Server is now more manageable, more stable, more functional and more secure. As such, it deserves the attention that most of you are giving it. In a recent survey conducted by Network Computing and its CMP Media sister publications, we found 300 IT managers who were evaluating NT by the time we had contacted just 448 of them. Even in its limited beta form, NT 5.0 has already found its way into 67 percent of your shops, with the vast majority planning to deploy it widely, sooner or later (for more survey results, see the charts throughout this article.)

So go ahead, conduct careful testing of Microsoft's NT 5.0. But don't doubt for a minute that it will have a big impact on enterprise computing over the next few years. The server will find its place on your machine-room floor. An NT 5.0 Workstation will probably be your desktop operating system of choice within the same time frame. Even so, we don't think the task of managing your computing environment will be simplified significantly by the presence of NT 5.0 as a server and a workstation.

It's still a multivendor world, and Microsoft has left that particular door wide open.

Send your comments on this article to Art Wittmann at awittmann@nwc.com.