News

Major Apps Certified for Datacenter Server

• By Scott Bekker
• 09/26/2001

Several other major enterprise software companies are in the process of getting their applications certified for Microsoft's high-end server operating system, including Baan Company NV, Computer Associates International Inc., Crystal Decisions, J.D. Edwards & Co., SAS Institute and Software AG.

Microsoft announced the certification news on Wednesday, the one-year anniversary of Microsoft's launch of Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

The participation of SAP, CA, SAS and the others represents an important validation for Microsoft of its Datacenter operating system and its certification process, which is handled for Microsoft by the independent testing company, Veritest.

Hints of major application support for Microsoft's Datacenter Server began trickling in over the summer when IBM got several versions of its DB2 database certified. COM-based Customer Relationship Management software from Onyx was another enterprise application to get certified for Datacenter, aside from Microsoft's own SQL Server 2000, the first app certified for Datacenter Server, and Exchange 2000 Server.

Tools from NetIQ Corp., Veritas Software, BMC Software, CommVault Systems Inc. and other vendors have also been certified for Datacenter, although the key applications for Microsoft to build momentum on the platform tend to be the business applications, such as SAP's, which provide a reason for customers to move to Datacenter in the first place.

With the three newly certified applications, Microsoft's list of applications certified for Datacenter Server grows to 15.

To earn Microsoft's Datacenter certification, an application must survive a 48-hour stress test on a 32-processor configuration and a 24-hour four-node cluster failover test, while the vendor must document 24x7 technical support.