LAS VEGAS, May 9, 2000 — Today at NetWorld+Interop 2000, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates outlined his vision for how customers can build a solid foundation to Internet-enable their businesses. Gates addressed some of the biggest challenges facing networked businesses today and showed how ground-breaking advances in the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 operating system in the areas of security, reliability and interoperability are enabling businesses to take full advantage of the incredible opportunities offered by the Internet economy. In particular, Gates issued a call to action for the industry to commit to working together to eliminate economic and deployment obstacles to the adoption of stronger security measures that will enable more secure commerce and communications for business and consumers.
“Windows 2000 enables the secure networking our customers require, through support of such standards as PKI, Kerberos and IPSec,”
Gates said.
“We will continue to include improved support for important security technologies like smart cards, smart card readers and biometrics. Today, I’m asking the industry to join Microsoft in working to make it easier to purchase and deploy these security technologies.”
Security
Gates called for the industry to mobilize around reducing the costs of smart cards and biometrics technologies, so that over time the use of these technologies will increase the security of computing by eliminating the need for passwords, the weak link in any security architecture, and driving the pervasiveness of public key infrastructure (PKI). Specifically, Gates called for the following:
-
Hardware vendors to accelerate the integration of smart card readers into all systems
-
Business customers to begin deploying smart-card-enabled systems
-
Software vendors to integrate use of smart cards for authentication
Reliability
Microsoft is working with a variety of OEMs to provide high-availability solutions at a lower cost, in terms of initial purchase and simplified installation and operations. Today, Gates demonstrated IBM Netfinity Clustering Servers, a low-cost, preconfigured solution based on clustering services for Windows 2000 Advanced Server.
Windows 2000 Advanced Server clustering services offers customers all sizes of failover fault tolerance, nonstop rolling upgrade support and high-performance clustered computing, at a cost that makes it reasonable to deploy in most types of applications.
Interoperability
Gates also announced the availability of Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 2.0, underscoring Microsoft’s commitment to ensuring interoperability between Windows 2000 and other platforms running in a heterogeneous computing environment. Windows Services for UNIX 2.0 allows customers to preserve their investment in existing UNIX resources and expertise while simplifying network administration and account management in a mixed Windows 2000-, Windows NT® – and UNIX-based environment. Combined with Microsoft Interix 2.2, which launched in March, Windows Services for UNIX provides customers with a comprehensive family of solutions for rich interoperability with UNIX-based systems.
More information on pricing and availability of Windows Services for UNIX 2.0 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/sfu/ or in the Microsoft Pavilion at NetWorld+Interop, May 9 to 11.
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.
