ANAHEIM, Calif., Oct. 8, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. today announced at MEC 2002 the company’s vision for the connected business, which included a groundbreaking project code-named
“Jupiter.” The project will integrate and componentize the award-winning Microsoft®
e-business servers to help enterprises connect an IT ecosystem of information, people and business processes. The
“Jupiter” set of technologies will be delivered in two phases over the next year to 18 months and will include revolutionary business process management and monitoring capabilities, additional support for XML Web services standards, including Business Process Execution Language for Web services (BPEL4WS), and richer developer and information worker support through enhanced integrations with Visual Studio®
.NET and Office. Paul Flessner, senior vice president of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers, and David Kiker, general manager of E-Business Servers, outlined this evolutionary road map today in keynote presentations.
“The challenge with today’s legacy e-business software is that much of it can be characterized as proprietary, disconnected and overly complex. The ‘Jupiter’ project is focused squarely on addressing these issues,”
Kiker said.
“In unifying our best-of-breed applications, we are both simplifying the complexity of our customers’ infrastructure and providing them with a comprehensive, standards-based solution to connect, analyze and react to the information, people and processes that make up the extended enterprise. It’s this vision that will guide our current e-business customers forward and allow them to realize new business opportunity and potential.”
The Changing E-Business Landscape
Today’s e-business landscape is rapidly changing. With the proliferation of a host of new technologies, including XML Web services and portals, combined with the collapse of niche e-business market boundaries, building the connected business is becoming more complex and more crucial to success than ever. The lines between stand-alone e-business applications are blurring, and the industry is moving toward a more unified e-business infrastructure.
According to the Meta Group Report of June 26,
“Through 2004, vendors will continue to meld portal frameworks with process management/automation facilities, Web services standards and content awareness. Leading platform vendors by 2005/06 will be those that seamlessly unite these facilities, typically owning best-of-breed (or very close) capabilities in each one. This is a key concept: A vendor cannot afford to not play in any of these areas if it wishes to thrive.”
“
Jupiter
”
: Enabling the Connected Business
The
“Jupiter”
vision aims to enable the connected business by bringing Microsoft’s current e-business servers together into a more unified environment. That environment includes improved experiences for developers and information workers through integration with Visual Studio .NET and Office, integrated security, deployment, management and monitoring across the technologies, and improved XML Web services support for interoperability in the enterprise.
“Jupiter’s”
four principal design themes — business process management, integrated, interoperable and componentized — enable companies to connect information, people and processes.
-
Business process management. The truly connected business is unified around its business processes. A business process is the binding of endpoints and people, of capital investments, and constituents into a whole that is the very definition of the value a company offers to its customers. Companies comprise their people and their processes. Business process is central to the connected business and the key tenet for the
“Jupiter”
vision. -
Integrated. There are many tools and technologies needed to build the connected business. These tools must themselves be integrated with one another. The tools and components of
“Jupiter”
will be integrated with one another, and provide a common and seamless development, deployment, management and end-user experience. -
Interoperable. The connected business is connected no matter what hardware and software investments it has made, regardless of platform, language or the age of the investment. Corporations today have decades’ worth of technology investments, from mainframe and legacy systems to ERP and CRM systems. These systems today are largely isolated islands of data and functionality. The “Jupiter” vision aims to link these investments through XML Web services and application and technology adapters.
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Componentized. The connected business is connected using software tailored specifically to its business challenges. Companies that have tried to implement many modern e-business software packages have no doubt been frustrated by the lack of flexibility of these offerings. “Jupiter” will deliver the necessary components, based on XML Web services standards that will provide enterprises with the key pieces to build a customized e-business solution.
“
Jupiter
”
Timeline
The first set of technologies is scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2003 and will contain the following services for business process management, XML Web services support, and internal and external integration:
-
Process automation
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Workflow
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Integration technologies
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BPEL support
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Integrated developer experience
The second set of technologies is scheduled to be delivered in the first half of 2004 and will include all of the previous capabilities, with the addition of the following services for commerce and content functionality:
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Content management
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Commerce services
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Catalog management
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Campaign management
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Site management
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Site analytics
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Targeting
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Personalization
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Integrated information worker experience
Pricing and licensing have not yet been determined and will be available at a later date.
About MEC 2002
MEC 2002 is the essential Microsoft conference for planning, deploying and managing a connected enterprise for IT professionals and technical decision-makers. This year, 5,500 customers, partners and Microsoft technical staff and speakers will gather at MEC 2002 in Anaheim, Calif., to hear more than 200 breakout sessions and to explore 190 exhibitor booths. Platinum sponsors for MEC 2002 include Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. and Verizon Wireless.
About Microsoft
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.
Microsoft and Visual Studio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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