Sequent Computer Systems Ltd, Weybridge, Surrey, has announced some of the findings of a new privately-commissioned report on the future prospects for large corporate Unix-based computer systems in the UK, prepared by Benchmark Research Ltd, Orpington, Kent. One in five of the Times Top 500 companies were questioned for the survey, and 44% of the data processing managers responding said they would consider using Unix for any major new corporate applications – and 93% of these expect to do so within the next five years, while 30% of the sites polled would consider moving their current applications to Unix. Unix is currently being used on large systems at 11% of the sites surveyed, and interestingly it seems that the Department of Trade & Industry’s efforts to proselytise for Open Systems are not falling on totally deaf ears – nearly half of the sites were aware of the government’s Open Systems initiatives and 15% said that their organisations would pursue an Open Systems strategy more strongly. Separately, Sequent, which builds large-scale multi-processor systems for transactionintensive applicaations around the 80386 and the NS323532 chips, says it picked up 34 new UK customers in 1989.
