WinInsider

Microsoft is working to meld its Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) channel into its larger Microsoft Solution Provider program, the company said. The software vendor said it has about 6,000 U.S. MBS partners. Those solution providers have their roots in Great Plains Software, a small and midsize business accounting applications vendor that Microsoft bought two years ago. Led by former Great Plains CEO Doug Burgum, MBS also absorbed the smaller U.S. reseller base of business app vendor Navision, which Microsoft acquired last year.

If you don't like the latest RTM date for Microsoft Windows Server 2003, wait a minute. The latest target date to start duping disks is now March 28, sources close to Microsoft said. A company insider also confirmed that this is the latest proposed release-to-manufacturing date. Previously, the RTM had been scheduled for March 19, which followed an earlier target date of March 12.

None of the Windows Server 2003 delays are expected to have a big impact unless they end up jeopardizing the product's official launch, slated for April 24 in San Francisco. At the event, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other company executives are expected to unveil the long-awaited operating system, along with 64-bit SQL Server 2000, to much fanfare. So it follows that Microsoft would want to have all of the relevant software products to be generally available as of that date.

Microsoft is reviewing proposals to address the pricing gap that Dell Computer enjoys on Windows and Office over Intel's premier systems builders. Kevin Wueste, general manager of Microsoft's SMB Channel Strategy Group, said the software giant is responding to the recent firestorm of criticism that the volume discounts it provides large OEMs such as Dell leaves systems builders at a great disadvantage.

"We have definitely heard the message, and we are looking to see if there are things we can do to create a better situation," Wueste said in an interview last week at CMP's Solution Provider Xchange in New Orleans. "It is a hard one. We are very sensitive to this. I am spending hours a day on this."

A flaw in Sun Microsystems' Web server software could allow hackers to gain control of Web sites, a security consulting company warned. Cambridge, Mass.-based @Stake issued a bulletin late Thursday on the vulnerability in Sun ONE Application Server. The hole is in the software's Connector Module, a Netscape server plug-in that links Sun ONE Application Server with Sun ONE Web Server, formerly known as iPlanet Enterprise Server. The module uses a buffer of fixed size to register information requests sent to the server. By sending an especially long string of data, an attacker could overwrite data on the server and so take control of the machine.

A curiously similar set of articles popped up online this week, describing Microsoft's latest Office suite, Office 2003, as Redmond's latest attempt to lock users in to Microsoft technologies and products. It's an odd claim, because Office 2003 is the first Office version to fully support open standards such as XML. But the charges are so obvious as to be almost comical in their simplicity: Because Microsoft "forces" you to use their technology across the board to get the best experience--Windows Server 2003, SharePoint and Exchange on the server; along with Windows XP and Office 2003 on the client--the company is obviously up to something evil. Folks, this is ridiculous, and I'd be the first person to rip into Microsoft if it weren't so. Here's the real story: Office 2003 will work with non-Microsoft, server-based data sources; all they have to do is support XML. That's it. This capability lets Office 2003 users work in a perfectly heterogeneous environment, maybe with Oracle or SAP on the backend, and Microsoft Office 2003--especially the InfoPath forms application on the client...

Microsoft will next week take on its key competitors with a new initiative for building self-managing computing systems. The Redmond, Wash.-based company plans to unveil the initiative, called Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), at a Las Vegas conference next week when it debuts its new systems management tools.

The initiative seeks to create business software that automatically responds to, and compensates for, fluctuations in computing demand. Such software would, for example, let a Web site automatically bring more servers online to respond to an unusually high number of visitors. Similar "autonomic" computing initiatives have also been launched by Microsoft's closest rivals, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

A consequential joust for power in Web services standards development will unfold this week with Sun Microsystems making a bid for one of two board seats being added to The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I). Sun's election bid is deemed significant, as the company did not participate in the February 2002 formation of WS-I after being initially denied a board seat. Sun did join last October when given the chance to run for a seat.

Ballots from the 166 member organizations can be cast from March 17 through March 21, with an announcement of the results expected on March 28. Whereas rivals Microsoft and IBM have permanent board seats, Sun's term would be subject to re-election, said Rob Cheng, marketing communications committee chairman at WS-I and an Oracle senior product manager. IBM said it is supporting Sun's bid, but Microsoft declined to comment on whether or not it will vote for Sun.

Microsoft will soon begin delivering software components for a new initiative aimed at reducing datacenter complexity, with the goal of making it easier for companies to deploy and manage applications across large groups of servers, the company said this week.

Dubbed the Dynamic Systems Initiative, the project aims to alleviate what Microsoft views as a "crisis in the datacenter," said Bob O'Brien, group product manager of Microsoft's Windows Server division. IT managers face a profusion of data, devices, applications and personnel, and need technology that will help them integrate and run their intricate environments, he said.

Microsoft Corp. has made changes to the licensing terms for some of its server software products, a move that could reduce costs for some enterprise customers. Under the new licensing model, which takes effect on April 1, enterprises that partition will generally pay only for the processors used to support the software rather than for every processor on the server. This move by Microsoft on Thursday comes hot on the heels of a recent report by Gartner analyst Alvin Park, entitled "Microsoft Server Changes Could Save You Money." Microsoft released the "First Take" of the report to the media on Thursday.

Microsoft is preparing an April Fools' Day announcement that's no joke. The company plans to change how it licenses the majority of server software, which could significantly reduce a company's cost of running large, multiprocessor servers. The new licensing plan, which goes into effect April 1, affects eight Microsoft server products, but not its flagship Windows Server operating system software, according to a company representative.

The changes will apply to Microsoft's Application Center 2000, BizTalk Server 2002, Commerce Server 2002, Content Management Server 2002, Host Integration Server 2000, Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000 and SQL Server 2000.