Bellevue, Washington-based Exodus Technologies Inc says it will be first with a Windows application server that will enable a network computer, terminal or personal computer with a Java interpreter or Java-enabled browser to access Windows applications via its NTerprise application server. The company, which is due to ship version 1.2 of NTerprise on February 5, has also refuted the claims of Coral Lakes, Florida-based Citrix Systems Inc (CI No 3,073) that NTerprise is unable to support server-side clustering. Exodus’ chief executive Steve Kan-gas says that NTerprise has offered server-side clustering since its launch in July 1996. But he says that there has been no demand shown for the clustering, as customers are more interested in scaling the application sever up by running it on a more powerful application server – version 1.2 supports Digital Equipment Corp’s AlphaServer platform as well as Intel Corp’s Pentium and Pentium Pro and Motorola Inc’s Power PC – than by tying servers together. He also contradicts Citrix’s claims that NTerprise does not offer users a protected address space. Citrix had said that the lack of a protected address space in NTerprise meant the potential for a super-user who could dominate the application server. Not so, according to Kangas. NTerprise, he says, allocates address space according to demand on the fly rather than it being allocated by a systems administrator in advance. That does mean a first come, first served allocation of address space: someone who comes to work last might find they can’t access the NTerprise server. But it also means that address space is less likely to be wasted, Kangas says, since address space cannot be reserved for a user who doesn’t actually come in to work at all. Kangas admits that, so far, NTerprise does not offer dial-up or Internet access to Windows applications like Citrix’s WinFrame. Exodus is, for the moment, concentrating on attacking the large corporate market along with their local area networks.
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