Digital Equipment is banking on a whole host of technologies, and a little help from Microsoft, in its quest to secure a strong foothold on the Internet. Its success on the Internet could determine whether the company whose minicomputers revolutionized the high-tech industry can lift itself out of the doldrums.

The recipe is simple: Digital hopes Internet Service Providers and big-site owners will use its high-performance 64-bit platform--armed with a high- performance Alpha microprocessor--as their Web server of choice.

"Not everyone needs a 64-bit Web server today, but the trend is inevitable," says Robert Palmer, Digital's chairman, adding that the 64-bit solution will be particularly useful in running such complex applications as Internet telephony, real-time video, and secure commerce transactions.

At the client level, Digital is pushing its StrongARM chip as an inexpensive but powerful engine running Network Computers from companies such as Wyse Technology, Boundless, and Oracle. Digital also plans to promote the StrongARM chip by placing it in large batches of vending machines, allowing operators to track their inventory nationally or internationally by linking all of them over the Internet. In addition, Digital has set up AltaVista Internet Software, a 200-person unit dedicated to build software products for firewalls, search engines, and tunnel products.

Finally, its army of 30,000-plus salespeople and service technicians have been assigned to promote software products from key ally Microsoft. Digital's endorsement of the Windows NT operating system suggests that whenever it calls on a corporate account to help build an intranet, NT will play a significant role. "We're going to grow like hell with our NT strategy," says Mike Gallup, vice president of worldwide systems marketing at Digital.

The relationship with Microsoft is yielding tangible benefits. For example, Digital and Microsoft have just won an order from Time Warner to install a bundled solution for the media company to deliver Internet access service to its cable subscribers. Starting this summer, Digital is going to supply Time Warner with an array of Alpha servers and support services, while Microsoft Normandy will be used as the back-end server in the project.

Source: ZD Internet Magazine