Microsoft has sought to regain ground that it's in danger of losing to competitors with a promise to knit together its diverse technologies into a "megaservice" of downloadable components for future Web applications.
Dubbed DNA 2000, for Distributed interNet Architecture for the Windows 2000 operating system, the set of technologies will counter what Microsoft terms the lack of tools and shared conventions of other vendors' products for building Web applications. In doing so, it is bidding to keep its Windows OS as the dominant cornerstone of the Web as well as the desktop, Microsoft President Steve Ballmer said at an announcement of Windows DNA 2000 on Monday in San Francisco.
"We're focused on the best tools and infrastructure to enable an explosion of services similar to the explosion of applications brought about by the PC and the explosion of content brought about by HTML [HyperText Markup Language]," he said.
Microsoft will concentrate on ease-of-programmer Web development, using a wide array of building blocks. Paul Maritz, group vice president of the Developer Group, said one cornerstone of its approach will be eXtensible Markup Language, or XML, in the form of a BizTalk JumpStart Kit, available immediately for free download from its BizTalk Web site. Microsoft's BizTalk site has been a proving ground for about 100 XML schema proposals for business-to-business communication in Web applications.
Microsoft Consulting Services and other parties have generated the BizTalk Framework for rapid development of applications running on different platforms but able to exchange documents, forms and catalogs.
DNA 2000 will include BizTalk Server, a server that uses BizTalk Framework to integrate applications across businesses. The server recognizes Framework-formatted documents and does the XML parsing to send and display them. "XML is a key enabler of a new generation of opportunities," Maritz said.
Several vendors, such as Bluestone Software and Object Design, already offer XML parsing servers.
Among the elements of Windows DNA 2000, as described by Ballmer and Maritz, is Microsoft AppCenter, a new application server. Able to manage browser traffic across several servers, the server will offer Microsoft technologies a greater potential for scaling up to Web traffic volumes. It will have to compete with general-purpose servers from Bluestone, Silverstream and the Sun Microsystems/Netscape Communications Alliance, supplier of the Netscape Application Server and the NetDynamics Application Server.
Microsoft has designated its Visual Studio as its development environment for DNA 2000, offering developers popular tools for programming in C, C++ and Java. It will have to compete with Java development tools from Sun Microsystems, which recently acquired toolmaker Forte, and IBM, maker of the VisualAge multilanguage tool.
Microsoft also said its "Shiloh" next generation of SQL Server 7.0 will be part of DNA 2000. It will add XML support and data mining capabilities, Maritz said. It will be competing with DB2 from IBM and Oracle8i from Oracle.
Babylon Integration Server will be the middleware providing bidirectional integration of applications with legacy hosts, allowing them to exchange data.
Commerce Server 4.0 will package applications for business-to-consumer e-commerce, offering stronger personalization and site analysis features, Maritz said.
Windows 2000, the next version of Windows NT, is on track to be out by year's end, Microsoft spokesmen said.
