CLOUD

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- In his opening MEC 2002 keynote speech to more than 5,500 Microsoft customers and industry partners, Paul Flessner, senior vice president of the Microsoft(R) .NET Enterprise Server Division at Microsoft Corp., announced the forthcoming innovations within the Microsoft enterprise platform that will focus on driving a lower total cost of ownership and reducing complexity for customers as well as helping businesses better connect with their partners, customers and mobile devices. These innovations are included in Windows(R) .NET Server 2003 as well as the newest versions of a number of the .NET Enterprise Servers, including Exchange -- code-named "Titanium" -- and the e-business Servers -- code-named "Jupiter." "The primary goal of Microsoft's Enterprise software business is to drive the complexity out of IT through innovation," Flessner said. "For the benefit of the customer, Microsoft is working to make all the pieces of its enterprise platform collaborate seamlessly, as well as making it more manageable and approachable by extending the platform to include more value-added technologies, and by ensuring that the platform is interoperable with all the existing technologies within a customer's IT environment." Flessner also reported that customer anticipation and enthusiasm is rapidly building for Windows .NET Server 2003 release candidate 1. More than 200,000 customers have signed up for the product through the Customer Preview Program within the past 60 days -- the largest number ever on any Microsoft server product. Industry partners also are preparing for the arrival, with more than 75,000 Windows .NET Server 2003 Partner Guides, which includes RC1, distributed since September. Windows .NET Server 2003 Drives Down Storage Complexities Flessner reported broad industry support for the Microsoft Windows .NET Server 2003, Volume Shadow-copy Services (VSS) and Volume Disk Services (VDS) technologies. Leading enterprise hardware vendors have already committed to developing products that will utilize the new technologies and deliver innovative enterprise storage solutions to their customers. VSS and VDS are part of a storage architecture that provides heterogeneous interoperation of storage hardware, storage software and applications. VDS and VSS are the latest additions to the improved storage services architecture in Windows .NET Server 2003. "Titanium" Revealed Flessner announced that the next version of Exchange, code-named "Titanium," will deliver significant reduction in TCO and the best connected user experience whether online, across a range of network connections or offline. "Titanium" will offer XSO, the code name for a new managed API for adding collaborative functionality to .NET applications. XSO is designed to make it more intuitive for developers to integrate Exchange data and services such as e-mail notifications, calendaring, contacts and tasks into line of business applications such as sales force automation. And because XSO is remotely accessible, applications built with XSO do not have to reside on the Exchange Server computer. This allows more applications to use Exchange Server functionality from anywhere in the organization. Early projections show that with the combination of "Titanium" and Outlook 11, customers may realize an approximate fivefold reduction in servers through new backup technology, Volume Shadow-copy Services (VSS), and improvements to reduce and compress traffic between Outlook and Exchange. Further enhancements and tools ensure greater availability, with eight-node clustering and better manageability with the Exchange Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). Information workers also benefit from "Titanium"; with improvements such as MAPI over HTTP, a new Outlook(R) Web Access client and native support for mobile devices, the next version of Exchange delivers an unparalleled connected user experience. Content Management Server 2002 Launch and the "Jupiter" Vision David Kiker, general manager of E-Business Servers at Microsoft, joined Flessner on stage today to launch Content Management Server 2002 and outline the company's e-business vision, code-named "Jupiter." The "Jupiter" vision will be delivered in two phases over the next year to 18 months and will include revolutionary business process management capabilities; additional support for XML Web services standards, including Business Process Execution Language for Web services (BPEL4WS); and unprecedented developer and information worker support through enhanced integration with Visual Studio(R) .NET and Office. MSUM Drives Down Interoperability and Migration Complexity Introduced is the Microsoft Solution for UNIX Migration (MSUM), a set of tested templates and best practices on how to interoperate or move mission- critical business applications from UNIX to Windows. Current industry reports indicate that the Windows Server Platform continues to gain install base while the combined UNIX derivatives continue to decline. Industry partners are set to deliver services and support programs focused on aiding customers who want UNIX applications to interoperate with or migrate to Windows Server Platforms. It was reported that more than 100 of the largest enterprises worldwide are in various stages of migration, with more than 50 already completed.