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Downsizing has arrived; MIS forced to change in effort to cut costs
Source: Software Magazine Published: Nov 1991
Some call the process downsizing. Others label it rightsizing. Whatever the process is called, observers say, the age of network and distributed computing has arrived. The long-expected shift from time-shared mainframe-class computers to network-based computing with clients and servers has finally become a major industry trend during the 1990s.
This comes as no surprise to many observers, who noted that MIS departments reached the point, during the late 1980s, where there was no choice but to cut costs. “Previous new technologies talked about increased capability; downsizing is the first technology I have seen that talks about cutting cost,” said George Schussel, president of Digital Consulting, Inc., Andover,
Mass., during the recent DCI-sponsored Downsizing Expo in Anaheim, Calif.
“The terms ‘downsizing’ and ‘open systems’ are almost synonymous,” contended Schussel. “It’s hard to imagine doing one without the other. In downsizing, hardware environments are open–DOS, OS/2, Novell Inc.’s NetWare and Banyan Systems Inc.’s Vines run on many brands of hardware. Software is open, too. There is a choice of different tool sets working on different databases. What is sold is not proprietary; it’s one’s own preference.”
