Get a Psion Netbook - EPOC OS (doesn't fall over), solid state (no moving parts to break down and a long battery life), PCMCIA slot (for wired or wireless networking) and CF storage (even takes IBM 1Gb microdrives).
Best of all it's got a full sized keyboard and is 'instant on'.
Having been the IS manager for a large organisation looking after 3.5k users, across 50 sites using 64k wan links and having Win95 and Winnt w/s vouch for the benefits of directory technology for the efficient management of the whole infrastructure.
This may not have gone down well with all the distributed IT functions, but my job was to deliver applications and systems access to users with the minimal amount of cockups, and at minimal cost to the company. Generally, the five man team managed to do everything required without moving their butts off their seats - suited them, suited the users, and suited the accountants.
While I developed this solution with my team and the vendors, my company (a large US based outsourcer) was, in parallel, developing an NT/AD based solution. My _development_ cost, including licenses, salaries etc was $200k (approx)., my companies budget was reputedly $10m.
Obviously I never stood a chance.
The new network went in with a blaze of publicity, along with increased staffing, increased wan links, and new (enourmous) servers at each location.
I left before it became clear that the cost savings promised from this solution were, frankly b.s.
The moral of this story is:
If someone senior to you in the organisation has staked enough money and his/her reputation on something, what they want is likely to come to pass.
I believe if you buy into it enough, you'll get all the help you need to deliver service to your users. The downside is that you may not be able to deliver service the way you _want_ to do it, and it may not be the best.
P.S. The directory technology used originally was NDS, and it worked on (nearly) all the platforms we wanted it to (apart from VMS!). I wouldn't attempt to build a large-scale / distributed network with anything else.
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Get a Psion Netbook - EPOC OS (doesn't fall over), solid state (no moving parts to break down and a long battery life), PCMCIA slot (for wired or wireless networking) and CF storage (even takes IBM 1Gb microdrives).
Best of all it's got a full sized keyboard and is 'instant on'.
Having been the IS manager for a large organisation looking after 3.5k users, across 50 sites using 64k wan links and having Win95 and Winnt w/s vouch for the benefits of directory technology for the efficient management of the whole infrastructure. This may not have gone down well with all the distributed IT functions, but my job was to deliver applications and systems access to users with the minimal amount of cockups, and at minimal cost to the company. Generally, the five man team managed to do everything required without moving their butts off their seats - suited them, suited the users, and suited the accountants. While I developed this solution with my team and the vendors, my company (a large US based outsourcer) was, in parallel, developing an NT/AD based solution. My _development_ cost, including licenses, salaries etc was $200k (approx)., my companies budget was reputedly $10m. Obviously I never stood a chance. The new network went in with a blaze of publicity, along with increased staffing, increased wan links, and new (enourmous) servers at each location. I left before it became clear that the cost savings promised from this solution were, frankly b.s. The moral of this story is: If someone senior to you in the organisation has staked enough money and his/her reputation on something, what they want is likely to come to pass. I believe if you buy into it enough, you'll get all the help you need to deliver service to your users. The downside is that you may not be able to deliver service the way you _want_ to do it, and it may not be the best. P.S. The directory technology used originally was NDS, and it worked on (nearly) all the platforms we wanted it to (apart from VMS!). I wouldn't attempt to build a large-scale / distributed network with anything else.