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Conclusion

We took a solid UNIX environment and layered NT desktop services on top of it and created a rich, tightly integrated environment of NT and UNIX computers. It was critical to base our architecture on open standards for protocols rather than specific applications. We then could choose the server based on our needs of reliability, scalability, and manageability and let customers independently choose their clients based on their needs of platform (NT or UNIX), features and preferences. We selected Sun Solaris (or other UNIX variant) or NetApp for almost all of these back-end platforms. We only resorted to NT Server for PDC's, BDC's and NT Print Services. We provide support for the client applications we have evaluated to be the best business choice and require self-support for all others. This encourages conformity to our recommendations without being fascist. The result is an extremely manageable, reliable and scalable NT desktop service and extremely happy customers.



Tom Limoncelli
6/13/1998