Transit keeps on rolling

By Keith Newman

Transit New Zealand's new network operating system has already proved its worth, with its main network server continuing to operate last week, despite a fault in a service pack upgrade.

Technicians from operating system provider Novell worked around the clock after a "service pack" module failed to load and the system defaulted to older software.

Transit recently upgraded to Novell's Netware 5 after evaluating the rival offering from Microsoft's Windows NT.

"Although we had a problem with our main server the wide area network kept on going.

"If we had gone with Windows, NT connections would have been cut between all servers. It kept us on-line," said Transit's computer services manager David McLachlan.

One of the reasons the organisation chose to remain with Novell was its robustness.

In an internal report Transit New Zealand systems administrators said guarantees of system uptime were a significant factor in the decision.

Transit New Zealand is responsible for $10 billion in assets, including the 10,500km of roads in the state highway network.

"We are trying to build a platform that will be flexible enough so the business can do anything it wants, without being strained by technology," said Mr McLachlan.

The upgrade to NetWare 5 is part of a move to standardise software and hardware across the organisation. Since the upgrade reliability has increased from 95 per cent to 99 per cent.

He said the scalability and features, including easy management, better performance, greater control of printing jobs and flexibility for future expansion were pivotal and would help to reduce the cost of ownership.

Previously 15 to 20 per cent of all queries to Transit's help desk were related to printing.

With NetWare 5 print management allowing individual users to have more control there had been "an almost total drop-off" in such inquiries.

Using Novell's Netware directory service (NDS) and its ManageWise software, the network manager can respond to individual users and manage their desktop resources, regardless of where they are.

The $1 million-plus cost of the year-long upgrade was absorbed within the company's annual technology budget.

Transit has 240 PCs and 200 users dispersed across the country.

"We used to take the lowest bid for computers and we had ad hoc machines and servers all over the place which were always having problems," said Mr McLachlan.

Transit has now standardised on IBM Netfinity servers and PL 350-550MHz PCs.

He said a key benefit was that parts were interchangeable, support was easier and the cost of ownership lowered.

Transit is also testing a secure virtual private network using Novell's NDS.

Meanwhile Transit has moved its wide area network capacity from Telecom to Clear which "doubled the capacity for the same cost." It is also evaluating a move from Lotus Notes to Novell's GroupWise groupware and e-mail package.

Mr McLachlan said while there were plenty of Lotus Notes developers it was still hard to find anyone who could support the product here.

There is also a high cost of ownership, "for every Novell server we need a Notes server as well," while GroupWise did not have the same capabilities, he said.

At present Transit runs Windows NT servers and Windows 95 at desktops and is deciding whether to move up to Windows 2000 next year.