Microsoft's next version of the Windows Server operating
system will include business process orchestration features to
allow users to link together web services, among other tasks,
without the need for additional middleware.
The technology will be lifted from BizTalk Server, which is
designed to help companies integrate disparate business
applications and connect to business partners.
Microsoft has shared few details of its plans for a new Windows
Server product, which is expected after the release of its next
Windows client, codenamed Longhorn, probably in 2006.
The Windows Server version of Longhorn will include web services
middleware, codenamed Indigo, will include the orchestration
technology.
Microsoft, together with IBM and BEA Systems proposed a standard
for web services choreography last year, with orchestration support
called Business Process Execution Language for Web Services
(BPEL4WS). BizTalk Server 2004, due out in the coming months, also
supports for BPEL4WS.
"There is core BizTalk orchestration capability that we're going to
put into the OS," said Valerie Olague, director of Windows Server
System marketing at Microsoft.
The addition of orchestration features makes sense as part of the
plans for the Indigo web services layer in Longhorn, said Current
Analysis principal analyst Shawn Willett.
By putting basic web services related infrastructure software in
the operating system, Microsoft is trying to
"co-opt" the market for web services middleware, which includes
players such as BEA, webMethods, Tibco Software and SeeBeyond
Technology, Willett said.
Orchestration capability would be a welcome addition to the
operating system, said Bill Evjen, technical director at Reuters
America, a Windows Server and BizTalk Server user.
"The more you can put in the core operating system the better. Then
we would not have to add another box to the architecture," he said.
"It is easier to manage, requiring a more singular skill set. Right
now we have a BizTalk guy."
Microsoft has adopted capabilities from BizTalk Server in the
Windows server product in the past, such as message queuing, but
this does not mean that BizTalk capabilities will be absorbed in
the server operating system.
"The OS is the place where these common kind of services need to
reside. The focus for BizTalk is in more specialised areas.
Orchestration is very general," said Olague.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service