Letters: Don't Alter Kernel

Don't alter Kernel

Thank you, Don MacVittie, for your interesting Sneak Preview of Microsoft Data Protection Manager ("DPM Breaks New Ground" Sept. 22). I have a question concerning an application one of my consultancy clients needs that's targeted for Microsoft Data Center Server 2003, a product used to manage DPM, on Unisys 3S7000. The systems integrator is saying that "for performance reasons," it plans to "modify the operating system" for the application.

It's been a long time since I've heard of any vendor advocating modification of a native OS to boost performance or achieve goals not supported by the OS. I've been all over Microsoft's OEM partner site and haven't read anything about using Data Center Server as an OEM product. Not even its predecessor, Data Center Server 2000, was ever available as a shrinkwrapped product; you had to have Microsoft services to implement it.

Have you ever heard of any vendor wanting to tweak the Windows kernel in order to support its application? Sounds risky.Larry Tenison
Project Director
Eclipse Solutions

[email protected]

Don MacVittie replies: Larry, your instincts are dead-on. Even in the Linux world, tweaking the OS for the application layer is generally considered taboo. There's just too much that can go wrong.

Are you sure the vendor is talking about making code changes to the kernel? Maybe what it has in mind is custom drivers, which are more acceptable, or a custom build, which is relatively common for OEMs.

If the vendor really does want to modify the kernel, you should tell your client to run away from it as fast as it can. There are enough good products out there to handle high-volume backups and replication without having to resort to such a drastic measure.

BPM Enthusiast

I'd like to congratulate and thank Network Computing, especially writers Doug Henschen and Lori MacVittie, for the July 7 cover stories "How To Win at BPM" and "BPM Rules". Informative and extremely well-written, these articles have achieved more for business process management than the likes of Forrester, Gartner and IDC.

Glyn C. Davies
Chairman and CEO
International Presence PLC
[email protected]

CorrectionIn "BlackBerrys and Treos and iPaqs, Oh My!" (July 21), pricing for Seven Networks' Seven Server Edition 6.0 mistakenly included the cost of the vendor's operator data plan. The product is bundled with that plan, making the setup fee the only additional cost for service. The adjusted pricing changes Seven's score from 4.0 to 5.0, yielding an overall score of 3.70 (B). We've corrected the report card, features chart and article text online.

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