News
Super Tuesday: Microsoft Launches 8 Enterprise Servers
- By Scott Bekker
- 09/26/2000
Microsoft
Corp. held its Enterprise 2000 launch event Tuesday in San Francisco to introduce
its .NET Enterprise Servers product line. The launch event, with telecasts in
seven cities, is a bridge between what Microsoft used to call the most
important product in its history, Windows 2000, and what it now says is its
most important initiative ever, .NET.
Components
of the .NET Enterprise Server launch include SQL Server 2000, Exchange 2000,
Application Center 2000, Commerce Server 2000, Host Integration Server 2000,
BizTalk Server 2000, and Internet Security & Acceleration Server 2000. Microsoft
also officially launched Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.
The core
components of the enterprise server line evolved out of the Microsoft
BackOffice suite. While the BackOffice suite will continue to exist, Microsoft
is de-emphasizing the name and targeting the suite at small to medium-sized
businesses.
The
enterprise server name fits with Microsoft’s efforts, especially with Windows
2000 Datacenter Server and SQL Server 2000, to stretch beyond its image as a
producer of desktop products and small-capacity servers.
Microsoft
bills the launch as the first step in the evolution of its .NET platform.
Announced this summer, .NET is Microsoft’s effort to encourage developers to
begin including Microsoft technology-based externally hosted services into
enterprise applications. In Microsoft’s view, these megaservices could help
extend information to users anyplace they go in whatever format they choose.
The
connection to Microsoft’s fledgling .NET platform may be little more than
marketing at this point, but the new servers do represent some of Microsoft’s
most credible enterprise products yet. Released to manufacturing in advance of
the announcement were Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, SQL Server 2000, and
Exchange 2000.
Windows
2000 Datacenter Server is the final member of the Windows 2000 product set, and
the only one that is completely new. Coming more than six months after the Feb.
17 launch of the rest of the Windows 2000 family, Datacenter brings support for
up to 64 GB of memory, up to 32 processors, and up to four-node failover
clustering.
One
significant feature of Datacenter is that it won’t be sold by Microsoft.
Customers will only be able to obtain Datacenter as part of complete,
eight-processor capable OEM systems that are fully tested and supported.
Any update
of Exchange Server is important for Microsoft, but Exchange 2000 is a key
product for the company and the Windows 2000 platform. It is the first major
application to take advantage of, and depend on, Active Directory.
Microsoft
has been aggressively benchmarking SQL Server 2000 since well before the
Windows 2000 launch. The database’s performance looks impressive, and the
launch event means it is finally available.
Other
elements of the Enterprise 2000 launch event include Commerce Server 2000,
BizTalk Server 2000, and Host Integration Server 2000. For the Web farm,
Microsoft unveiled Application Center 2000 — a deployment and management
tool for Web applications — and Internet Security & Acceleration Server
2000, which combines a firewall and Web cache server.
One other
launch component that does fit more neatly into the .NET theme is
something Microsoft is calling Mobile Information 2001 Server. The product is
supposed to help mobile users access corporate information. Microsoft officials say the product will be available next year.
Many of the
enterprise server products follow a new per-processor licensing model that
Microsoft created earlier this year. – Scott
Bekker
For more detail on any component of the Enterprise 2000 launch, click on its name:
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
SQL Server 2000
Exchange Server 2000
Application Center 2000
Host Integration Server 2000
Commerce Server 2000
BizTalk Server 2000
Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000
Other related ENT stories:
End
Users See Benefits in New BackOffice Licensing Model
Microsoft
Tinkers with BackOffice Suite
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.