REDMOND, Wash., July 14, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced cooperative development and go-to-market plans with Ensim Corp., a global leader in hosting automation software. Today, Ensim will begin shipping its Ensim Unify product, the first hosting operations support system (OSS) for service providers developed with Microsoft. With a shared commitment to enabling service providers to successfully deliver the next generation of hosted applications, Microsoft and Ensim combined the flexibility and agility of Microsoft® .NET technologies including Active Directory® , Windows Server (TM) and Visual Studio®
.NET with Ensim’s proven hosting process automation technology to develop the new OSS infrastructure for service providers.
“Collaboration between Ensim and Microsoft to deliver a rock-solid infrastructure for the successful management and delivery of hosted software is of great significance to the communication industry,”
said Andrew M. Schroepfer, president of Tier 1 Research.
“As the potential for the next generation of hosted services comes to fruition and broad consumer and small-business markets utilize such services in great volume, to ensure their success, service providers will need the efficiency, flexibility and rapid integration capabilities inherent in Ensim Unify.”
The collective capabilities and cooperative development efforts of Microsoft and Ensim resulting in Ensim Unify enable service providers to quickly offer their customers reliable hosted applications while efficiently managing, integrating and distributing the next generation of hosted software within their infrastructures. Addressing the immediate challenges faced by service providers, Microsoft and Ensim jointly developed the Ensim Unify solution to deliver the following components and benefits to service providers:
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Common hosting platform to centrally provision and manage multiple services. Ensim Unify delivers reusable hosting OSS capabilities — service resource management, provisioning, metering, monitoring, authentication and self-management — that work across multiple services and distribution channels. It also provides a single point of integration with existing business systems.
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Full support of wholesale and retail distribution of hosted services. Ensim Unify provides robust support for distributing hosted services through multitier reseller channels. That includes streamlined service delivery, customer self-management and Web services interfaces for integration.
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Out-of-the-box support for hosted Exchange 2003 Services and Web sites built on ASP.NET. Ensim Unify provides ready-to-deploy software for hosting Microsoft Exchange 2003 and Web sites built on ASP.NET, which allows the hosting industry to roll out these premium services without development risk.
“We see the infrastructure for the new generation of hosted services being driven by and created on Microsoft technologies,”
said Kanwal Rekhi, president and CEO of Ensim.
“The scalability and agility of Microsoft’s development tools help ensure our success as we satisfy customers demanding increasingly complex and higher value services.”
“Ensim offers hosters exceptional expertise, experience and the robust, rich products necessary to operate a successful hosting business today,”
said Pascal Martin, general manager for the Communications and Mobility Solutions Group at Microsoft.
“Our joint development on Ensim’s Unify solution offers service providers the infrastructure they need to profitably deliver the exciting new generation of hosted services to consumers and small- business markets.”
Ensim’s products are currently used worldwide by more than 12,000 customers, including service providers and their resellers, to automate the provisioning and management of hosting services. More than half of the top U.S. service providers rely on Ensim to efficiently deliver hosting services to their customers.
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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