Microsoft on Thursday will launch the most ambitious version yet of its Windows server operating system, as the company looks to push aside Unix servers and mainframes in the enterprise. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will officially launch Windows Server 2003 at a press conference in San Francisco. The company's customers have had the software since early April, when a code key capable of unlocking potentially tens of thousands of copies of the software leaked out onto the Internet. Microsoft released final, or gold, code at the end of March.
Also on Thursday, Microsoft plans to launch Visual Studio .Net 2003, a new version of its development tools, and SQL Server 2003, an update of its database server software.
Microsoft's much-ballyhooed Windows 2003 Server product launch is no quick fix but could help turn the tide on the current IT spending slump, according to industry executives.
"It is not a magic bullet, but everything they are announcing is going to help accelerate and reduce the road blocks to clients buying [in the enterprise market]," said Peter Samson, vice president and general manager of enterprise server market development at Unisys, a Blue Bell, Pa.-based computer maker. This week Unisys introduced a new Windows server that mixes and matches 32- and 64-bit processors to run as much of a data center as possible.
"In a down economy clients are looking for cheaper ways to do things they have got to do anyway." Windows 2003 Server provides a strong punch in the server consolidation market where return on investment is definable, he said.
In advance of the formal launch of Windows Server 2003 on Thursday, Microsoft and NEC posted record-setting results on the most important independent scalability benchmark in the industry on Wednesday.
Together the companies, using a 32-processor NEC server running 64-bit Itanium 2 processors with 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, broke the record for raw performance in the Transaction Processing Performance Council's OLTP benchmark, the TPC-C.
The result was a 13 percent improvement over the previous best -- a combination of Fujitsu hardware and the Solaris operating system that had stood since August 2001. The NEC/Microsoft result came at about a third the cost of the Fujitsu/Solaris result.
Microsoft claims more than 1 million customers downloaded the Windows Server 2003 preview code through the Corporate Preview Program prior to the server's launch, which is scheduled for Thursday in San Francisco.
"[It's] the highest level of distribution for any server in the history of Microsoft," the company said in an announcement Wednesday. The release of the number is designed to demonstrate momentum around the operating system, which is a relatively minor upgrade of Windows 2000 compared to the massive changes between Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000.
Based on preliminary tests by customers and industry groups running beta versions of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft claims the new product is the best performing Windows server operating system to date when compared with previous versions. Additionally, it represents the largest software development project in the company's history. It totals about 50 million lines of code -- the work of more than 5,000 developers and 2,500 testers over a three year period.
Security is the primary reason for Windows Server 2003's 16 to 18 month delay, according to Laura DiDio, analyst with The Yankee Group.
"Windows Server 2003 is the highest quality Windows server operating system ever released. It was designed and built with security as the top priority," Bill Veghte, vice president of Microsoft's Windows Server Division, said when he announced the operating system's release to manufacturing in March.
Microsoft dug its roots a little deeper into the music business Wednesday, as copy-protection company Macrovision agreed to license its Windows digital rights management technology for CDs. The software giant has gained considerable ground over the past few months in its bid to have its audio technology loaded on every copy-protected CD sold by record labels. While labels have yet to make any significant copy-protected releases in the United States, Microsoft is poised to have its technology onboard if they do.
Macrovision said its new relationship with Microsoft could help diminish labels' reluctance to release copy-protected CDs in the United States, because it would allow consumers more flexibility to use music from those discs on computers and MP3 players.
Microsoft tends to look outside Redmond to beef up its Xbox game titles, and has snapped up some rising game developers over the past several years. Now, Japanese game maker Sega is entertaining offers from corporate suitors, and Microsoft is thought to be one of the interested parties. Japan's Yomiuri newspaper this week reported that Microsoft has approached Sega about buying a stake in the company. Microsoft and Sega will not comment, but the speculation has boosted Sega's flagging share price and given rise to much discussion about what such a partnership could mean.
Microsoft Business Solutions yesterday unveiled Great Plains 7.5, its latest customer relationship management (CRM) and collaborative information management offering. The software, which brings together Microsoft Business Solutions' Dynamics and eEnterprise applications, includes supply chain management and manufacturing features to help businesses improve customer service.
Great Plains 7.5 provides reporting tools for financials, supply chain management, project management and analytics, and offers inventory, distribution and order management enhancements.
After name changes and development delays, Microsoft Corp.'s newest operating system for servers finally hits the market tomorrow. Microsoft is banking on the new software -- for the computers that do networks' heavy lifting, database crunching and traffic management -- to push a host of add-on products that are collectively marketed under a new "Windows Server System" name.
These products, designed to integrate closely with its Office suite, include: a new version of SharePoint Portal Server, which encourages collaboration among teams; its new Real-Time Communications Server software to allow people to instantly message others on their team; and its SQL database management server.
Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on the beta code for the next release of its BizTalk application integration server, sources close to the company said. Code-named Voyager, the new integration server is the last major component of Microsoft's upcoming Jupiter E-business suite to be upgraded. Key improvements include tighter support and linkage to Microsoft's Visual Studio.Net application development tools. Microsoft plans to officially debut Visual Studio.Net 2003 on April 24, along with Windows Server 2003.
"The No. 1 thing here with Voyager is a better developer experience. They're doing away with the Explorer interface they had for connection," said one source close to Microsoft. Microsoft is hosting a technical preview of the code this week, the source said.