Microsoft sounds Web services drum

December 29, 2000 —

MICROSOFT WON'T put its Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) in the spotlight until the week after next, but the software giant's strategy for Web services -- and keeping Windows relevant in the Internet era -- is beginning to emerge.

The attendees at Microsoft's TechEd conference this week in Orlando, Fla., got a lesson on how to build middleware and applications that enable Windows to leverage Web services, particularly enhancements to Microsoft's development tools, server applications, and knowledge management offerings.

For example, Microsoft showed off BizTalk Orchestration, a tool that will reside on the XML-based BizTalk Server that allows developers to create any number of business processes by simply diagramming them. Through Microsoft's use of XML, developers can share that business process across multiple environments.

The tool then allows developers to connect these services to existing components that are "actually doing the work," said Dave Wascha, BizTalk product manager.

Although Microsoft is hardly first to market with orchestration, a report from consultancy Zona Research, based in Redwood City, Calif., gave BizTalk Server -- which isn't expected to ship until the end of 2000 -- high marks for adopting the flowchart model of Visio, the graphical tools company Microsoft bought last year.

Microsoft also unveiled a baby step toward Web services, a feature called Web Parts for its Digital Dashboard corporate portal technology. Web Parts will allow developers to structure the delivery of Web-based content and services.

Based on an XML schema, the components will provide end-user customization needed by knowledge workers who want to manipulate available data based on its importance to them.

"Microsoft is offering a blueprint ... that leads to [component] reuse," said Sam Patterson, CEO of ComponentSource, a Marietta, Ga., company that has a Web site with 2,700 components. "[Customers] cannot build it all themselves."

NGWS will take Web services to another level, Patterson predicted, and could lead to a new category of "component service providers" cashing in on the services rush.

Microsoft also unveiled a new security server for Windows 2000 users. Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 will let network managers protect company data from intruders by controlling access and traffic. Its caching features will also enable companies to store frequently accessed Web pages locally and thus increase browsing speed for users, reduce network traffic, and lower stress on Web servers, officials said.

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