ZAW, the centerpiece of the NetPC, will provide administrators with only a small slice of centralized management. Users will have to wait until NT 5.0, due in the first half of 1998, for more robust management features, including a superset of Microsoft's Active Directory that mirrors a user's information onto a server, allowing administrators to read a user's configuration and data without visiting the system. Other Intel executives acknowledged the infrastructure gaps but said the company is trying to bring corporations to the starting line. Until that infrastructure is in place, and until a clearer picture of the NetPC's long-term benefits emerges, many IT managers are steering clear. It's a great idea, but I'm going to wait for someone else to prove it works.
Trailblazers sometimes wind up with arrows in their backs.
What IT managers should know before committing to NetPCs this year Medium or large NetPC deployments will require server modifications such as additional bandwidth and more capacity. The ZAW tool kit for Windows NT 4.0 will plug up some management holes but will not address others, such as mirroring a user's configuration on a server, automatic system updates and operating system-based software distribution. Several third-party management tools are expected later this year, and Intel promises interoperability with those tools, but it's not saying when. NetPCs are a subset of Intel's forthcoming Managed PC architecture. The IT jury is still out on IBM's NetPC and others like it.