Microsoft will today unveil Next Generation Windows (NGWS), a
strategy that combines the operating system with Web-based
information and application services.
Cliff SaranMicrosoft is promoting NGWS as a software infrastructure that
will allow users to take any software and make it a manageable,
deployable, programmable service on the Web.
An aspect of the strategy, which the company describes as its
most important announcement in five years, is a new concept for
user interfaces that Microsoft describes as the Internet User
Experience (IUE). According to Microsoft IUE will provide users
with a way to store and share the information they need from any
computing device.
Ovum analyst Gary Barnett said the move shows Microsoft is
attempting to push Web-based services out to small and medium sized
enterprises through an application service provider (ASP) software
distribution model. "Microsoft sees a huge opportunity to be the
underpinning for Web services," he explained.
"Its ASP strategy had a tentative start," said Barnett, "But now
Microsoft is ready to build a Web-based infrastructure." Given the
depth of its middleware Barnett believes the Microsoft NGWS
strategy will become an important part of corporate IT.
NGWS builds on Windows DNA, Microsoft's existing middleware
platform for Windows 2000. It uses Microsoft technology such as
Commerce Server, Biztalk Server, SQL Server and Application Center
as Web application platform building blocks for new Web
services.
Microsoft sees such Web services existing as independent
building blocks, that are reusable and can be aggregated with other
services to build a next generation Web application.
n Users will be able to rent application and operating
environments remotely from Microsoft from this summer. With a
number of hardware partners, Microsoft will become an ASP when it
offers Exchange, SQL and Windows 2000 on a rental basis.
ASP analysis