SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 1999 — Today in a keynote speech at the Application Service Provider (ASP) Summit in San Francisco, Tod Nielsen, vice president of marketing in the Developer Group at Microsoft Corp., said Microsoft’s Web development architecture is differentiated from its competitors by its unparalleled choice and flexibility. Nielsen spoke on the final day of the two-day summit, which attracted top executives from leading and emerging application service providers eager to learn more about the emerging ASP industry.
Nielsen clearly articulated Microsoft’s development strategy of providing ASPs with the platform, tools and services to take advantage of the opportunities in this rapidly emerging industry. In detailing Microsoft’s strategy and technology road map for ASPs, Nielsen drew sharp contrasts between Microsoft and its competitors.
Microsoft’s platform strategy for ASPs builds directly on Microsoft® Windows® DNA 2000, which was announced in September. Windows DNA 2000 is a comprehensive, integrated platform for building and operating state-of-the-art distributed Web applications as well as the next wave of Internet-based Web services. This new breed of Web services represents an evolution from today’s Web sites that simply deliver pages to a browser. Richer, more personalized and more proactive, these sophisticated Web services can directly link applications, services and devices over the Internet.
“Never in the history of the PC industry have the opportunities been greater than they are today,”
Nielsen said.
“We are at the dawn of a new era of computing — one in which the power of the Internet will change the way we run our businesses. This is a very exciting time for the industry and Microsoft. We are completely rebuilding our products and technologies to enable developers to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Nielsen emphasized Microsoft’s philosophical approach to its Internet development strategy and differentiated it from those of its competitors. Basically, he said, Microsoft’s strategy is about flexibility and choice.
Nielsen highlighted two elements that demonstrate how Microsoft’s vision for the next-generation programmable Web differs from others:
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Software scale. The Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system brings a new dimension to addressing the massive scalability required by today’s Internet applications. Windows 2000 lets users attack the problem both from hardware and software perspectives and provides the most cost-effective solution of any platform provider. In addition to being far more cost-effective than others, Microsoft’s software scale solution avoids the problem of a single point of failure that is inherent when very big single servers are used.
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Client flexibility. In an increasingly diverse and mobile world, users want their information available anywhere and on any device. Microsoft’s integrated platform and tools work with clients of all sizes and types, as opposed to adopting the
“terminal”
approach favored by proponents of the mainframe-class services school of application deployment.
“The choice has never been more stark,”
Nielsen said of the alternatives proposed by the leading competitors in today’s battle for Internet computing platform leadership.
“We believe that our approach makes lots of sense. By basing our approach on the high-volume, low-cost PC server, we offer users superior choice, flexibility and a much more cost-effective solution. This approach creates the most opportunity and promotes the kind of innovation that has made the PC industry what it is today.”
“Since September, when we first talked about our vision for a new platform to enable programmable Web services, our vision for a programmable Web based on software services has gained considerable momentum,”
Nielsen said.
Microsoft Windows DNA 2000 is the most comprehensive, integrated platform for building and deploying applications for the Internet. The core of Windows DNA 2000 is Windows 2000, an operating system with built-in Internet services that enable developers to focus on adding value to their applications rather than wasting time on the underlying plumbing. Other Windows DNA 2000 components include the Visual Studio® development system, SQL Server TM , the COM+ component and programming model and other application services — all best-of-breed products that take advantage of the deepest developer talent pool in the industry.
Nielsen singled out Pandesic, LLC and Digex Inc. as examples of customers who have embraced Microsoft’s ASP architecture to deploy their own cutting-edge solutions. Pandesic is the largest e-commerce application service provider, recently announcing its 100th live e-business utilizing the Pandesic e-business solution, a bundled e-commerce solution providing hardware, software, hosting and e-business services. Digex is the leading provider of managed Web and application hosting solutions.
“Microsoft provides us not only with the products and technologies we need to be the leading e-commerce application service provider today, but with the springboard to carry that e-commerce leadership into the future,”
said Ed Felton, vice president of Engineering and Operations for Pandesic.
“Microsoft gives us the best of both worlds: an innovative platform and the flexibility to choose from a broad range of other business partners to create the best possible solution for our customers.”
“The Microsoft DNA platform is a critical factor in enabling us to move quickly to deploying and managing secure, scalable, high-performance transaction-oriented Web sites,”
said Rebecca Ward, president of marketing, product management and engineering at Digex.
“The Microsoft platform is a perfect fit for our recently announced app-Link program that accelerates speed to market and quality of service for the ASP community.”
The Windows DNA 2000 family of solutions includes the following:
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Microsoft Windows 2000. The core Windows DNA services, including the COM+ component model and services, the high-performance Internet Information Services Web server, Active Server Pages, transactions, messaging, data access, clustering and IP load balancing services, are now integrated into the operating system for greater consistency, easier management and faster performance.
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Microsoft Commerce Server 4.0. The next generation of the industry’s leading packaged business-to-consumer commerce software provides deeper personalization, expanded site analysis and new product catalog features.
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Microsoft BizTalk Server. A business process integration solution that supports the BizTalk TM Framework, the BizTalk Server integrates applications within the enterprise and between businesses across the Internet through the exchange of XML-formatted business documents.
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Microsoft Host Integration Server. This provides bidirectional network, data and application integration with a variety of legacy hosts.
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Microsoft Application Center Server. A new product that makes deployment and management of Windows DNA-based applications across high-availability server
“farms”
as easy as managing a single server, Application Center makes it easy to configure and manage an array of servers. -
Microsoft SQL Server
“
Shiloh.
” The next generation of the popular SQL Server 7.0 database adds native XML support and integrated data-mining capabilities and takes full advantage of Windows 2000 for even greater scalability and availability. -
Microsoft Visual Studio. The world’s most popular set of development tools, spanning multiple languages, provides a common development environment for Windows DNA. It now includes the Windows 2000 Developer’s Readiness Kit so developers can take full advantage of Windows 2000.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows, Visual Studio and BizTalk are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries/regions.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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