Marking a significant change of direction for the formerly struggling company, computer giant Unisys has announced that it will partner Microsoft to help make the operating system Windows NT "enterprise-ready".
Unisys, formerly known best as a provider of powerful mainframe computers used by large organisations, has refocused itself on the growing NT market. To date, NT - which Microsoft has pitched as a lower-cost replacement for the UNIX operating system - has received a lukewarm reception from large organisations.
Although it is cheaper to run and is compatible with desktop computers running on Windows, critics say Windows NT can't easily accept growing demands from an increased number of users on a system, is more difficult to manage than UNIX, lacks the ability to handle large numbers of transactions, and isn't adequately secure.
However, analysts predict that demand for NT will skyrocket over the next decade. Unisys hopes to capitalise on that growth by offering "middleware" - software which sits on top of the NT operating environment - which will compensate for NT's shortcomings and make it satisfactory for enterprise demands.
"This partnership between Unisys and Microsoft allows us to create a comfort zone for our clients," said chairman, president and chief executive officer of Unisys, Lawrence Weinbach. He said Unisys will focus initially on financial and government sectors.
