It's taken me awhile to figure out why Microsoft wanted to hammer home this rather obvious point. Maybe it's because, when you think about it, Microsoft's app server line comes off pretty well in comparison with that of other vendors.
People don't think of Windows Server as an application server, even though that's what it is: It provides a platform for application development, where programmers can build, deploy, and share the functionality of reusable software components. And like BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, Oracle 9iAS, Sun iPlanet, and so on, Microsoft's application server is complemented by an integration server (BizTalk), a portal server (SharePoint), and an integrated application development environment (Visual Studio).
In particular, I think, Microsoft covets the central position that J2EE app server vendors also seek: the de facto platform for application integration in the enterprise.
The most obvious difference from the rest of the pack is that Microsoft's application server is an inseparable part of the operating system. But there's something else that distinguishes Redmond's offering: a productivity suite on every enterprise desktop. And that, I think, puts .Net in a unique position to create a fully connected enterprise.
What's the link between Microsoft Office and Microsoft's app server? Last week, the company unveiled future plans to turn a forthcoming version of SharePoint Portal Server into connective tissue. The revamped portal server will reach out to the desktop via tighter integration with SharePoint Team Services, Office XP's highly praised framework for workgroup collaboration.
At the same time, Office XP appears to be building a bridge toward the server. According to a ZDNet news report, the next version of Office XP will beef up support for SharePoint, enhancing the ability to publish to the portal server from within Office XP applications. Previously, I've been impressed by the little-noted Office XP Web Services Toolkit, which enables Office XP applications to consume Web services. But closer integration with the portal server could add a new dimension--making select information stored on people's desktops easily available to the rest of the enterprise.
Enterprises like to pretend that all information of value to the company is stored in centralised enterprise applications. But as long as there are PCs, people will lazily lock details beneficial to others in Word documents, emails, spreadsheets, and so on. Microsoft plans to make such deskbound data more easily shareable as information elements dubbed Web Parts--a SharePoint technology that will be built right into the much-anticipated Windows.Net Server arriving next year.
Increasingly, success among application servers is measured by how many enterprise applications they touch--legacy applications, database servers, other Web applications, and so on. The more data available from diverse sources, the more powerful the apps built on the platform have the potential to be. Both the integration server and the portal server provide the connective infrastructure--and so far, BizTalk's reach in the enterprise has been fairly limited. But if Microsoft can pull it off, two-way connections to desktop data via SharePoint and Web services could give the company an edge that other app server vendors will have difficulty duplicating.
