Microsoft is preparing a Standard Edition of its Content
Management Server 2002 product to generate more sales to small and
medium-sized businesses.
Content Management Server is a content management system for
websites and is part of Microsoft's "E-Business Server" family. But
unlike the other products in that line, BizTalk Server and Commerce
Server, Content Management Server has never been available as a
Standard Edition, only in the more expensive Enterprise
Edition.
"Content Management Server is available today, but we are going
to provide another offering that is more appealing to the small and
medium-sized business space," said Trina Seinfeld, a product
manager with Microsoft.
The Standard Edition of Content Management Server will have all
the functionality of the Enterprise Edition, but is restricted to
15 users who can manage a single website and runs on a
single-processor server only, Seinfeld said. The software will run
on Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server.
Content Management Server Standard Edition is due out by the end
of the year. Pricing has yet to be determined, but will be in line
with the Standard Edition versions of the other E-Business Server
products, which are priced at $6,999 (£4,371), Seinfeld said.
The Enterprise Version of Content Management Server costs
$42,000 (£26,229) per processor.
Microsoft acquired the Content Management Server product when it
bought NCompass Labs in April 2001. The first Microsoft version of
the product, Content Management Server 2001, was released in August
2001. That initial product was succeeded by Content Management
Server 2002 in October last year. Competing products are sold by
Vignette, Interwoven and others.
Microsoft is in the process of unifying all of its E-Business
Server products as part of a project, called Jupiter. In June,
the supplier marked the completion of Jupiter's first phase with
the first beta of BizTalk Server 2004.
The release of Content Management Server Standard Edition is not
part of Jupiter, Seinfeld said. The second part of Jupiter, which
will include commerce, content and some portal features and
functionality, is slated for late 2004 or 2005.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service