LAS VEGAS, May 8, 2002 — Today at Networld+Interop (N+I) 2002, Bill Veghte, corporate vice president for the Windows®
Server Group at Microsoft Corp., announced that Windows 2000 Server leads server market growth, fueled by enterprise customer adoption. Veghte highlighted the resounding success of customers and industry partners using Windows 2000 Server as an enterprise computing platform, noting that the Windows 2000 Server operating system has been the beneficiary of businesses movement away from UNIX, worldwide.
The economic slowdown is having a profound impact on IT spending. Given that, its great that all indications we have are that Windows 2000 Server adoption is still one of the highest priority items for enterprise customers, Veghte said. Its clear that Windows is playing an increasing role in the enterprise server space.
Technology analyst group International Data Corp. (IDC) said Microsofts installed base for the Windows 2000 operating system quadrupled in 2001 over 2000. Microsofts operating environments new license shipments were one of the brighter stories in the computer industry for 2001, said Al Gillen, research director, system software, IDC. Looking forward, it is likely that Microsofts new license shipments will continue to serve as a benchmark for other products in the industry to aspire to.
Veghte also announced that Microsoft Services for UNIX (SFU) 3.0 has been released to manufacturing and said the product will be available to customers early this summer. SFU 3.0 allows companies to more easily integrate Windows into existing UNIX environments, whether the goal is to improve system interoperability or facilitate the migration to a fully Windows-based network environment.
Customers Choose Windows 2000 Server Platform Value
Enterprise customers understand they have a real choice among computing platforms for their enterprise business, and many are finding compelling business value in moving to the Windows 2000 Server platform. Among the many customers selecting Windows 2000 Server are Commonwealth Financial Network, an investment brokerage firm with a network of more than 800 independent financial consultants; Paris-based Alcatel, the worlds largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, with operations in 130 countries; and the United States Department of Agriculture.
The City of Minneapolis recently consolidated 18 of its servers onto a 32-way Unisys system running Windows 2000 Datacenter Server for its e-government community access program. The city is so confident in the business value of the solution, it plans to standardize on the platform moving forward. The Microsoft platform on the ES7000 makes much more sense financially than AIX and Oracle, said Karl Kaiser, chief information officer for the city.
Veghte cited the adoption of Windows 2000 Servers Active Directory service as the overwhelming choice for new enterprise directory services and the move by companies to incorporate it as their outside-the-firewall authentication and directory service as further proof of the significant business value customers are finding in the Windows Server platform.
BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is migrating its nearly 1-million-customer extranet from iPlanet to Active Directory due to the lower total cost of ownership, said Bry Curry, director of .NET Systems at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.
Windows 2000 Addresses High-End Computing
Recent enterprise benchmark data substantiates the significant achievements made by Microsoft, especially in the area of server-system scalability. Microsoft holds the top spot in the SAP-SD tier-three benchmark, with 26,000 concurrent users, as well as the tier-two mark.
In the Transaction Processing Performance Councils competitive TPC-H arena, which measures Internet throughputs per minute, Windows holds the top record in the two most challenging categories: for large database sizes of 1 T-byte and 3 T-bytes. Also, four of the top five spots on the TPC-C benchmark, which measures transactions per minute, are held by clustered systems running either Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.
The strongest evidence of the high-end strengths of Windows, though, comes from customers. Sumitomo Mitsui, Japans second-largest bank, is running in production six high-end Unisys ES7000 servers with Windows 2000 Datacenter Server to handle all the banks ATM transactions up to 6,000 per minute and its cash management system. To help ensure uninterrupted access for customers, the solution must deliver up to 99.999 percent availability and cluster failover within one minute. Sumitomo Mitsui has fault-tolerant disaster recovery Datacenter clusters 300 miles apart in Tokyo and Osaka as well as two Datacenter systems for testing and development.
Windows Extensible Platform Creates Industry Opportunities
Veghte reiterated the importance of independent software and hardware vendors in further extending the business value of the Windows platform by building on its existing popularity. The success of Windows 2000 Server in the enterprise opens a broad range of opportunities that enable third parties to develop and sell solutions that further extend the value and capability of the platform, Veghte said.
Also today, Rogue Wave Software Inc. announced an agreement with Microsoft based on mutual customer demands to enhance the Rogue Wave SourcePro C++ product line, allowing customers to accelerate the smooth migration of their UNIX applications to Windows while enhancing interoperability of the two platforms.
Stratus Technologies International, another industry partner, is using the Windows platform to provide fault-tolerant servers to customers where uninterrupted processing, business continuity and reliability are vital. Most recently, Stratus announced that PEMCO Technology Services (PTSI), a subsidiary of PEMCO Corp. serving more than 250 credit unions nationwide, and Interflora Australia, an affiliate of Interflora Inc., have selected Stratuss Windows 2000- and Intel-processor-based, fault-tolerant servers to help ensure continuously available computing.
Windows 2000 Lays Foundation for Windows .NET Server
One of the most appealing aspects of Windows for enterprise customers, Veghte said, is its ability to evolve and grow simultaneously with the needs of the enterprise. Windows 2000 Server established a strong foundation of system reliability, scalability and performance. The forthcoming Windows .NET Server will build upon these strengths and deliver the most productive platform for powering XML Web services, allowing businesses to simplify and speed access to information across the enterprise and between enterprises over any network platform or device. With native support for XML Web services, a rich set of application services, and a reliable and scalable foundation, Windows .NET Server provides a strong platform for integration, greater developer and IT productivity, and operational excellence.
Having experienced the benefits of the Windows Server Platform, some Microsoft customers are already investigating the enhanced functionality provided by Windows .NET Server. To meet our vision of extending the Krispy Kreme experience to customers worldwide, we needed a scalable and reliable platform that could support and grow with our customer-facing Web presence, said Frank Hood, chief information officer at Krispy Kreme. Running Windows NT 4.0 Server, we saw incredible performance, availability and reliability benefits, which gave us the confidence that Windows .NET Server was the right platform for developing and delivering our future e-commerce vision.
JetBlue Airways also is taking advantage of the functionality Windows .NET Server offers to stay on the leading edge of the airline industry. Microsoft technology has enabled JetBlue to become the first airline to implement a paperless cockpit, which provides pilots with dynamically updated, electronic versions of flight manuals instead of standard paper copies. In another industry-leading trend, JetBlue is using Windows .NET Server technology to achieve greater security via the use of fingerprint biometrics embedded in smart cards.
More information about the Windows 2000 Server family and a complete list of related announcements can be found in the virtual pressroom at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass /events/ni02/default.asp . A transcript of Veghtes address will be available on the site on May 8 after 2 p.m. Microsoft is showcasing these Windows Server achievements at the N+I show in Booth 5389.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies 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.
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Q2 FY 01 to Q2 FY 02 (Q4 CY 00 to Q4 CY 01), Microsoft Windows Server operating systems up six percentage share points based on new server hardware shipments; UNIX overall down three, others down two (Most recent data; numbers rounded). IDCs Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, March 2002.
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IDC #26590; Worldwide Windows Operating Environments Forecast, 20022006: The Microsoft Machine Continues on Course. February 2002; Al Gillen.
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IDC #26307; Windows Operating Environments: 2001 in Review. December 2001; Al Gillen.
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