Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Commercial Internet System 2.0; Comprehensive, Integrated, Commercial-Grade Server Suite

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Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Commercial Internet System 2.0; Comprehensive, Integrated, Commercial-Grade Server Suite

LAS VEGAS, May 6, 1998 — Building on the momentum of Microsoft® Commercial Internet System (MCIS) version 1.0, with worldwide commitments of several million subscribers, Microsoft Corp. today unveiled MCIS 2.0, a comprehensive Internet platform for Web hosting, electronic commerce, community and managed network services. Customers such as MCI Telecommunications Inc., British Telecommunications PLC, KPN Telecom, Time Warner Cable, Comcast Corp., DIGEX Inc., Telecom Italia Group and Canal Plus Spain have worked with Microsoft to design and deploy Internet access and hosting services on MCIS. MCIS 2.0 further enables ISPs and other commercial service providers (CSPs) to meet the growing market demand for outsourcing a variety of business applications while reducing the overall administration and management costs associated with Web hosting.

“We’re excited about working with other leaders in the Internet services industry, such as Compaq Computer Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp., to help commercial service providers extend their businesses by offering higher-margin, value-added services,”
said Anthony Bay, general manager, commercial systems division at Microsoft.
“We have already seen strong acceptance of MCIS 1.0 worldwide. MCIS 2.0 offers commercial providers even greater performance and functionality including e-commerce, Web hosting and dial-up services.”

Microsoft made the announcement here today as part of its Opportunities for Commercial Service Providers event at NetWorld+Interop ’98. The event, cosponsored by Compaq and Digital, highlighted Microsoft’s cooperation with a broad range of industry leaders to provide enhanced network solutions for Internet and online service providers, telephone and cable network operators and other commercial service providers.

“MCIS is a cornerstone of Digital’s successful initiatives in the ISP market,”
said Rose Ann Giordano, vice president of ISP business at Digital.
“As we work with ISPs around the world, we see a booming demand for Windows NT® and MCIS as a platform to launch value-added services. MCIS integration of core ISP services, coupled with Digital’s expertise and experience, enables ISPs to win the time-to-market race.”

“MCIS is an outstanding choice to complement Compaq’s Entrepreneur Solutions tailored for small- and medium-sized businesses,”
said Kenny Kurtzman, vice president, small and medium business division, Compaq Computer Corp.
“ISPs using MCIS and Compaq enterprise products can now offer state-of-the-art Web-hosting services, enabling growing businesses to create online storefronts at affordable prices.”

Commercial-Grade Services and Rapid Deployment

MCIS 2.0 scales to millions of users, supports Internet standards, and can be managed from multiple interfaces such as browsers, command lines and the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which enables commercial providers to easily grow their businesses. MCIS provides interoperability with UNIX systems, which preserves existing infrastructure investments.

“During the past year, MCI has worked closely with Microsoft to develop MCIS 2.0 as a carrier-grade platform for intranet services, including content management, messaging and simplified administrative tools,”
said Stephen Von Rump, vice president of enterprise marketing at MCI.
“Combining MCI’s quality network with the power of MCIS 2.0 will enable us to provide enterprise-strength, integrated hosting solutions that put application management and control in the hands of our customers.”

MCIS 2.0 enables commercial service providers to create and deploy new services quickly, due to its range of authoring and development tools, resource kit, unattended setup capability and MCIS Administration and Provisioning Services (MAPS), a framework for sign up, provisioning and delegated administration.

Comprehensive, Integrated Services

MCIS 2.0 includes the following features:

  • Membership system, the foundation for all MCIS services. It provides an integrated storage and management system for user accounts, user authentication and authorized access to content. Designed for Internet sites, it scales to tens of millions of users. Access to information in the membership system is provided with the industry-standard lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) version 3 as well as the Microsoft Active Directory Services Interfaces (ADSI).

  • Rich community services, to create and enhance communication and collaboration among users, including e-mail, news, chat and Microsoft NetMeeting
    ™
    -based multimedia conferencing.

  • Streaming media services, providing a platform for building rich business and entertainment applications.

  • Network access support with Internet Connection Services for Microsoft Remote Access Service Commercial Edition, which helps CSPs to build virtual private networks for businesses and to provide wholesale dial and roaming services for both businesses and consumers.

  • Web site hosting services, to publish, deliver and analyze content, usage and media. Wizards walk a CSP and/or their hosted customers step-by-step through the Web site creation process. The FrontPage® Web site creation and management tool and content deployment make it easy to stage and publish robust content.

  • Full-featured e-commerce platform, Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition, which is tightly integrated with personalization and analysis components to help businesses target their products and advertising more accurately. Wizards and sample sites enable commercial service providers to quickly deploy and host basic to sophisticated electronic commerce sites for their customers.

Microsoft Commercial Internet System 2.0 is a member of the Microsoft BackOffice® family of server suites and runs on the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 operating system with Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0. It is currently in beta and is scheduled to be available by summer 1998. Further information on MCIS is available at http://www.microsoft.com/mcis/ .

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, Windows NT, NetMeeting, FrontPage and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors : If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

Business Alliances for the Microsoft Commercial Internet System

Following is a list of independent software vendors and systems integrators committed to developing or deploying the Microsoft Commercial Internet System for commercial access and Web hosting services:

  • Atos

  • Cap Gemini Telecom

  • Compaq Computer Corp.

  • Datasiel

  • Digital Equipment Corp.

  • Finsiel, a company of Telecom Italia Group

  • Global Network Architects Corp.

  • GRIC Communications Inc.

  • HURLnET

  • ICL Retail Systems INEX Corp.

  • INEX Corp.

  • Intergraph Corp.

  • Inverse Network Technology Inc.

  • IPass Inc.

  • Lucent Technologies Inc.

  • MPACT Immedia Corp.

  • Network Associates Inc.

  • O/E Systems Inc.

  • Open Port Technology Inc.

  • Portal Software Inc.

  • Siemens Nixdorf

  • Stellcom Technologies

  • Trusted Information Systems

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