Microsoft Reinforces Commitment to ISP Success at ISPCON Spring ’99

BALTIMORE, April 27, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. today reinforced its major commitment to the success of ISPs, cable operators, telecommunications companies and Web hosting companies with an array of solutions, programs, services and partners spotlighted at ISPCON Spring ’99, the world’s largest gathering for the Internet’s professional community.

In addition to the compelling line of ISP solutions currently available from Microsoft – from powerful Internet support in the Microsoft® Windows NT® Server 4.0 operating system to Web-specific solutions such as the Microsoft Commercial Internet System (MCIS) – the company said it plans to release a series of new products for ISPs and related companies over the next year.

“The Internet is the future of computing, and the ISPs, RBOCs, CLECs, Web hosters and other professionals here are on the front lines of the effort to make that future a reality,”
said Thomas Koll, vice president of the Network Solutions Group at Microsoft.
“Microsoft is very interested in meeting the needs of ISPs and others in this customer segment to help them grow their business and maximize their revenue opportunities.”

Large and small businesses are demanding Windows NT Server hosting and related services. Not only are such services becoming a requirement for ISPs, but they allow ISPs to move from low-margin businesses (e.g., access and simple Web hosting) to higher-margin businesses providing value-added services. The Microsoft Windows NT platform – including such products as the FrontPage® Web site creation and management tool, the Visual InterDev
™
Web development system, FrontPage Server Extensions, Microsoft SQL Server
™
and Site Server Commerce Edition – provides the scalable path to these more profitable businesses.

“Our business customers want tight integration of Microsoft products like FrontPage, Visual InterDev, Microsoft Exchange Server and Small Business Server, with the Internet,”
said Rich Bader, president and CEO of EasyStreet Online Services Inc., Oregon’s largest independent ISP focused on businesses, offering Internet access, e-mail and Web site hosting, and one of the 10 fastest-growing technology companies in the region.
“EasyStreet’s success is built on making those customers happy by hosting Windows NT Server 4.0 with Internet Information Server, SQL Server, and FrontPage server extensions in our data center and by partnering with Microsoft Solution Providers for easy, reliable ‘seamless solutions.'”

“The Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 platform with SQL Server and Site Server has been a crucial factor in our development as a provider of Web-hosting services to businesses with complex, mission-critical Web sites,”
said Bobby Patrick, vice president of marketing and product development at Digex.
“Microsoft’s solutions have enabled us to move quickly from running static Web pages to deploying and managing secure, scalable, high-performance transaction-oriented Web sites. Our Microsoft-based servers are assembled, configured, tested and ready for content in a matter of hours. And as a result of this platform, we are able to offer our customers higher availability and higher service-level guarantees.”

Responding to enormous demand from customers, Microsoft in January introduced Complete Commerce, a packaged electronic commerce solution for medium-size to large enterprise businesses looking to host commerce-enabled Web sites through hosting service providers. Microsoft, Compaq Computer Corp. and Intel Corp. are teaming with 10 premier commerce-hosting service providers to offer customers an all-in-one hosting solution that covers the spectrum of electronic-commerce needs.

These service providers are establishing relationships with Microsoft Certified Solution Providers to deliver solutions where in-house services are not offered. Complete Commerce includes consulting, Web development, hosting services, entire order processing and delivery, a well-defined delivery timetable, and an attractive price point.

The Internet community is responding with increasing enthusiasm to Microsoft’s Internet solutions platform. For example, more than 1 million customers use MSN
™
LinkExchange solutions to grow their online traffic and sales. And MSN.com is the most widely distributed portal brand in the world, providing local content to more than 90 percent of the world’s online population in their native language.

Hundreds of small-business customers are using e-commerce solutions based on Microsoft FrontPage and eight third-party e-commerce shopping cart add-ons for FrontPage are now available.

More than 130 Internet service providers worldwide chose to offer their users Internet Explorer 5 at launch, making it the most broadly available launch version of Internet Explorer. These ISPs represent the full spectrum of service providers, from multimillion-user services to smaller regional ISPs and CD producers that serve thousands of the smallest ISPs. With Internet Explorer 5, Internet service providers can offer their customers the fastest modern browser, IntelliSense® technology that enables breakthroughs in Web usability, as well as broad support for Internet technologies such as Dynamic HTML. In addition, the Internet Explorer Administration Kit 5 offers a great way for ISPs to reduce support costs and differentiate themselves by easily customizing and deploying the browser.

Microsoft’s rich suite of support for the Internet community, including both large and small ISPs, includes programs such as LinkExchange, the FrontPage Web Presence Provider program, and the Direct Access Windows NT Server Community Development program. It also includes classes and education resources available worldwide through Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centers (formerly ATECs). This support is a tremendous advantage to distance-learning CTECs that provide online training and mentoring on Windows NT Server and Internet Information Server and other Microsoft Internet products at any time, from anywhere, and at the student’s pace.

Microsoft also provides support via Microsoft Press® certification programs including MCP, MCSE and MCSP designations, and always available resources online at the Microsoft TechNet ( http://www.microsoft.com/isn/ ) and DirectAccess ( http://www.microsoft.com/directaccess/ ) Web sites.

Microsoft is offering nine presentation sessions at ISPCON ranging from
“How to Integrate Windows NT in a UNIX Environment”
to
“Building From Static HTML to High-Performance, Dynamic Web Farms”
to
“Dell: Running a Multibillion Dollar Web Site on Windows NT.”
Sessions are conducted during general session times in meeting room 344 in the Baltimore Convention Center.

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, FrontPage, Visual InterDev, MSN, IntelliSense and Microsoft Press 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.

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