MB Foster will offer a webinar on the scheduling challenges for Windows managers today at 2 PM EDT. Migrating to Windows, or just pushing more production work to these ubiquitous servers, includes solving problems with what Microsoft doesn't provide -- the IT tools that HP included with MPE/iX. Birket Foster explains that his lab and company discovered Windows' shortcomings in this enterprise essential.

"The scheduler that comes with Windows doesn't understand how to start the next process, or how to send an email to someone to say something completed, or it didn't," he said. "We take all of that for granted because we've been in the 3000 business." He goes on to say that once you have a whole collection of processes called Day End, or Month's End, "how do you stop them all from starting at once?"

If your migration planning, or that push toward Windows, does not include answers to those questions, then about 45 minutes this afternoon, with a chance to ask questions, could be well spent. Concepts that have been in HP's scheduler like JOBFENCE have been migrated, if you will, into a product that's been in the field for more than a year now. Register and dial in and have a quick briefing. It may be well worth the spot in your schedule.