Microsoft Announces Windows DNA 2000

Extends Platform to Enable Programmable Web Services

 

REDMOND, Wash. - Sept. 13, 1999 - - Laying the foundation for a new era of Web development, Microsoft Corp. today announced Windows® Distributed interNet Architecture (Windows DNA) 2000, a comprehensive, integrated platform for building and operating state-of-the-art distributed Web applications as well as the next wave of Internet-based Web services. This new breed of Web services represents an evolution from today's Web sites that simply deliver pages to a browser. Richer, more personalized and more proactive, these sophisticated Web services can directly link applications, services and devices with one another over the Internet. Uniquely, Microsoft is creating tools and infrastructure to make Web services into reusable, universally programmable building blocks that can be easily created, combined and augmented by the millions of developers around the world. Once programmable, Web services become another piece in the assembly of solutions that can span multiple software components, business processes and applications anywhere on the Internet.

With the Microsoft® Windows 2000 operating system as its cornerstone, Windows DNA 2000 advances the core Windows DNA platform with new products, tools and technologies. As the next generation of Windows DNA, the Windows DNA 2000 family of solutions preserves and amplifies both existing customer investments and the core values that have made Windows DNA popular. It provides a comprehensive and integrated set of application services that work well with one another. The platform is flexible and allows rapid development and adaptation of sophisticated applications. And high-productivity tools support multiple programming languages and skill sets to tap the deepest developer talent pool in the industry.

Further, it extends the platform to support the development of programmable Web services that stitch together multiple applications, services and devices anywhere on the Internet, forming a new breed of "megaservice" that works behind the scenes to perform actions on behalf of other Web sites and services. While companies are eager to interconnect services and integrate applications with business partners over the Internet, the solutions available are difficult to implement and suffer from a lack of tools and common conventions to span the heterogeneous makeup of the Internet. The new industry standard eXtensible Markup Language (XML) offers a lingua franca for integration across the Internet that is not constrained by the Internet's diversity of underlying operating systems, object models or programming languages. Windows DNA 2000 builds upon XML as its fundamental foundation to put the resources of the entire Internet within reach of developers.

With Windows DNA 2000, Microsoft is focused on providing developers with a consistent programming model to harness the smallest devices, personal computer software and Internet-based megaservices to work together in a single solution. The technical approach leverages existing hardware and software investments in a way that preserves their strengths and enables developers with the broadest variety of skills to take advantage of the platform. The programming model embraces the key philosophical tenets of the Internet, such as simplicity, decentralization, message-based communications, and universal reach through protocols and formats. The result is an environment that is easier to program, easily accessible to the development community, builds on the intrinsic scalability and reliability of the Internet, and relies on open Internet standards for interconnection with resources anywhere on the Internet.

"Just as 'browsing the Web' provides access to an almost infinite array of content, 'programming for the Web' will give developers an almost infinite array of building blocks to enhance or combine in any fashion to create exciting new solutions," said Steve Ballmer, president of Microsoft. "Making developers successful is central to Microsoft, and with Windows DNA 2000 we're focused on providing the very 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."

Windows DNA Today

Today the Microsoft Windows DNA platform, including technologies provided by the Windows NT® Server network operating system, SNA Server, Site Server Commerce Edition, Microsoft SQL Server™ and the Visual Studio® development system, is one of the most widely used and fastest-growing Internet platforms. Of the top 500 Web sites according to Media Metrix (July 1999), 26 percent of their home pages are built on Windows NT, the most popular platform of any vendor, and this number has increased 25 percent in the last six months. Among sites offering more sophisticated services like e-commerce, adoption of Windows DNA is even higher. Netcraft statistics show 43.5 percent of secure Web sites on the Internet as a whole are built on Windows NT. Further, of the top 50 "shopping sites" reported by Media Metrix, over half run on Windows NT, including e-commerce heavyweights like Buy.com, Dell Computer Corp., Drugstore.com and Ticketmaster.

"The Microsoft platform was a clear choice for us," said Tom Page, MIS manager for Nordstrom.com. "It had all the key elements we were looking for in one integrated platform: the ease of implementation, the extensibility and development tools, the speed, the scalability, and the ability to customize site features to fit what we need today and next year. And we have the confidence that Microsoft is addressing the needs of the Internet commerce marketplace."

Windows DNA 2000

Windows DNA 2000 extends the platform in several new directions. There is an across-the-board investment in XML for integration and interoperability as well as transparent integration with a wider variety of legacy systems. BizTalk™ Server brings business process integration capabilities to the platform, and the new AppCenter Server simplifies deployment and operation of Windows DNA-based applications across high availability server "farms."

The Windows DNA 2000 family of solutions includes the following:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000. The core Windows DNA services, including the COM+ component model and services, the high-performance Internet Information Services Web server, Active Server Pages, transactions, messaging, data access, clustering and IP load balancing services, are now integrated into the operating system for greater consistency, easier management and faster performance.
  • Microsoft Commerce Server 4.0. The next generation of the industry's leading packaged business-to-consumer commerce software provides deeper personalization, expanded site analysis and new product catalog features.
  • Microsoft BizTalk Server. A business process integration solution that supports the BizTalk Framework, the BizTalk Server integrates applications within the enterprise and between businesses across the Internet through the exchange of XML-formatted business documents.
  • Microsoft "Babylon" Integration Server. This provides bidirectional network, data and application integration with a variety of legacy hosts.
  • Microsoft AppCenter. A new product that makes deployment and management of Windows DNA-based applications across high availability server "farms" as easy as managing a single server, AppCenter makes it easy to configure and manage arrays of servers.
  • Microsoft SQL Server "Shiloh." The next generation of the popular SQL Server 7.0 database adds native XML support and integrated data-mining capabilities, and takes full advantage of Windows 2000 for even greater scalability and availability.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio. The world's most popular set of development tools, spanning multiple languages, provides a common development environment for Windows DNA. It now includes the Windows 2000 Developer's Readiness Kit so developers can take full advantage of Windows 2000.

Windows 2000 is expected to release to manufacturing this year. The other server products in the Windows DNA 2000 family will enter beta testing this year and are expected to be available by the middle of 2000.

 

  
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