April 19, 1999
Low-cost server appliances will shake up the market
By Bob O'Donnell
One of the more interesting trends to hit the PC market in a while is the notion of the
free computer. Every other day, it seems, yet another company is hopping onto the free PC
bandwagon, betting that somehow, the cellular phone business model -- where you give away
the product and charge for the service -- can also work in the computer industry.
Many in the IT community have undoubtedly watched these developments from afar with a
bemused though detached attitude. Some were probably thinking it was an interesting
concept, but they also recognized that the products weren't for them or their businesses.
At last week's Spring Internet World trade show, however, that all changed with the
introduction of the first free server. Yes, a free server.
Encanto Networks, which is headed by former Novell CEO Bob Frankenberg, announced that
it would be giving away its e.go Web server, as long
as a customer is willing to sign up for a two-year service contract priced at $69 per
month. In exchange for that total commitment of $1,656 you get a Cyrix MII-powered box
with 32MB of RAM, a 2GB hard drive, a four-port Ethernet hub, and a 56Kbps modem -- not
exactly a bargain. In addition, however, you also get the built-in software, which runs on
a version of BSD Unix but can be configured through an attractive browser-based interface.
The software bundle includes a Web and e-mail server, as well as tools for building a Web
site and software that supports electronic commerce.
Most important, the price also includes two years of the company's InstantConnect
Service, which gives users of the e.go access to credit card transaction processing for
its online store, as well as Encanto's dedicated proxy/caching servers. This is critical
because the e.go serves Web pages over its 56Kbps modem connection, which at first glance
seems ludicrously slow. The InstantConnect service, however, caches e.go server-based
pages and only dials up to grab pages over the 56Kbps connection when necessary. All in
all, it seems like a very clever way to get around what at first appears to be a big
problem (as well as one of those things that makes you say, OK, that's why it's
free ... ).
In addition to the Encanto products, there were several other low-cost Web servers
making their presence felt at Internet World. Cobalt Network's Linux-based Qube
2 and QubeRaq 2, for example, although not free, provide a robust intranet/Internet/e-mail
server and open-ended architecture in a tiny, 250-MHz MIPS processor-based package for
less than $1,000. Like Encanto, the Qube products are designed to be opened up, connected,
and started in about 15 minutes -- a radical departure from most server setups. In
addition, the Qubes come with HTML-based administration applications that can be run from
any connected PC.
For small business, these new types of server appliances are ideal solutions. In
addition to their low cost, they're extremely easy to set up and configure. Plus, they
provide multiple solutions in one server -- including an e-mail server, a shared-access
device for a network, on-site Web hosting, a firewall, and more.
In fact, with products like these, traditional server vendors are going to have to make
some serious adjustments to their product lines (not to mention prices) if they want to
capture any of the small to midsize business market.
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Copyright 1999, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld,
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