When Microsoft Corp. rolls out its Windows 2000 Datacenter Server on Sept. 16, it won't be the technology alone that separates the operating system from previous versions of Windows.

It's also going to be the manner in which the product is packaged and delivered through qualified hardware partners that will boost its chances in the enterprise, users and analysts say.

Datacenter Server is Microsoft's most serious attempt yet to scale its technology into the glass house -- a territory long controlled by mainframe and Unix vendors.

The operating system is being targeted mainly at high-end database, server-consolidation and application service provider markets.

Datacenter will support as many as 32 processors in symmetrical multiprocessing configurations and up to 64GB of memory. It will also include several availability and reliability features, such as four-node clustering, partitioning and dynamic load balancing.

Features such as these promise to bring new levels of reliability, availability and scalability to the Windows environment, says Bruss K. Bowman, founder of Quality Care Solutions Inc. (QCSI), a Datacenter beta tester and a provider of claims and benefits administration software for the health care industry.

"These attributes primarily allow us to have database servers capable of handling the largest health plans without having to split our database across multiple servers," adds Stephen Piazza, a senior software engineer at Phoenix-based QCSI.

Datacenter will offer QCSI "enterprise-class performance at both the database and business-process tiers," says Bowman.

Hardware Vendors Key

But a lot of its success will depend on Microsoft's hardware partners, who will preload, sell and support the operating system, say analysts.

In a significant break with tradition, customers won't be able to buy the software directly from stores or from Microsoft. Rather, they will only be able to purchase the application preloaded on qualified hardware sold by vendors that are part of Microsoft's Windows Datacenter Program.

Under the program, Microsoft and its server hardware partners will deliver Datacenter as a package of hardware, software and support services.

Only hardware vendors that have tested their products under a Microsoft program will be certified to license and support Datacenter Server.

The goal is to improve reliability and application uptime, says Paul Sinton-Hewitt, a U.K.-based manager at Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys Corp.

"It's a process that is equivalent to the kind of testing that IBM does on its mainframes," says Sinton-Hewitt. The idea is "to stress-test for a period of 14 days any element of the configuration that touches the kernel of the operating system."

As a result, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server "is not [about] Microsoft's technology per se . . . it is the unique packaging," says John Enck, an analyst at Gartner Grooup Inc. in Stamford, Conn.

"There has been a lot of really intense work to test out Datacenter [on

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