Microsoft Services for UNIX 3.0, Microsoft’s Comprehensive UNIX Integration Solution, Released to Manufacturing

LAS VEGAS, May 8, 2002 — Today at NetWorld+Interop 2002, Microsoft Corp. announced that version 3.0 of its Services for UNIX (SFU 3.0) package was released to manufacturing this week. SFU 3.0, one of the key products developed by Microsofts India Development Center teams in Hyderabad, India, and Redmond, Wash., is being offered to meet the growing demand of UNIX customers wanting to take advantage of Microsoft Windows 2000. SFU 3.0 is a breakthrough version that incorporates new tools for rapid migration to Windows 2000 as well as new features for tighter platform integration in mixed environments. SFU 3.0 enables customers to optimize their previous investments in UNIX infrastructure, applications and people, while capitalizing on the value of Windows 2000 as an enterprise platform.

We know customers that have existing UNIX investments which are at the end of their life cycle or that want to move off UNIX to lower IT costs, said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Windows Engineering Services and Solutions Division at Microsoft. Services for UNIX 3.0 helps customers address these concerns by providing seamless interoperability between UNIX and Windows for effective coexistence in a heterogeneous network environment, as well as a powerful set of tools for smooth migration to Windows 2000.

Most organizations have a heterogeneous IT environment, said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of system software research at IDC. Microsofts Services for UNIX 3.0 offers powerful tools to help organizations integrate Windows and Unix environments without requiring a significant amount of staff retraining, reprogramming of custom applications or other costly activities. Simply put, with Services for UNIX 3.0, organizations are better able to select the best environment for the job at hand.

Migration From UNIX to Windows Made Easier

The most significant enhancement of SFU 3.0 over previous versions is the integration of the Interix subsystem technology. Interix provides a full UNIX environment that runs on the Windows kernel, giving organizations a universal platform to run both Windows and UNIX applications on a single system. Also included in the new product are more than 300 UNIX utilities and the most popular UNIX shells for UNIX command line administration on Windows. Whether the goal is for long-term integration or short-term coexistence, with this enhancement, customers are able to reduce system costs and development time, and leverage existing employee skill sets.

Seamless Interoperability Delivers Strong Business Value for Customers

SFU 3.0 lowers the total cost of ownership of IT systems by enabling customers to rapidly consolidate diverse platforms. Through easy-to-use integration and migration tools, customers are able to consolidate the number of platforms and platform vendors within their enterprise. With SFU 3.0, users can access files seamlessly between the machines running Windows and UNIX, using SFUs Network File System (NFS) components with significant improvement in performance. Also, through improved two-way password synchronization, user name mapping and SFUs Network Information Service (NIS) Server, organizations can integrate or centralize network management across UNIX and Windows platforms with the Windows Active Directory service.

Services for UNIX has helped us simplify management of our database environment, which runs on both Windows 2000 and UNIX, said Michelle Malcher, a database analyst at Leo Burnett Worldwide Inc. Using Services for UNIX, we are able to reuse our UNIX scripts on Windows 2000 and have seamless access to data across both platforms. As a result, we have significantly reduced the time it takes our technology department to maintain and monitor our databases.

ISVs Go to Market on Windows With SFU 3.0

Independent software vendors (ISVs) with UNIX applications can use SFU 3.0 to broaden their range of customers. Using the Interix subsystem technology, ISVs can port their existing UNIX applications to Windows, allowing them to quickly bring their applications to market on Windows while maintaining their original UNIX code base.

Acucorp has many customers with extensive investments in COBOL applications running on UNIX that want to take advantage of the Windows platform and move their applications onto Windows, said Steven Hjerpe, senior systems engineer at Acucorp Inc. Using Services for UNIX, we are able to port our solutions for supporting COBOL applications to Windows in a matter of hours, and we can move even difficult, highly customized applications with incredible ease.

SFU 3.0 is scheduled to be available in standard Microsoft distribution channels by the end of the second quarter of 2002, with a suggested retail price of $99 (U.S.). More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu/.

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