Microsoft stakes future on .Net platform for Internet

By John Fontana
Network World, 06/23/00

Microsoft Thursday took the lid off its future, unveiling a top-to-bottom restructuring of its Windows platform called Microsoft .Net.

The company, which had been touting the plan as Next Generation Windows Service, plans to transform its entire software portfolio under an initiative that uses XML as its foundation for a new .Net (pronounced "dot-net") operating system, server applications and development tools.

"You could call this a bet-the-company strategy. The entire strategy is defined around the .Net platform," says Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect for Microsoft. "This is completely a new platform and will effect every piece of code written. There is no Microsoft product that won't be touched."

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, later laid out the bet saying, "We are betting on the transformation of the software industry. We are betting on XML. We are betting on developers' confidence. We are betting on Windows 2000, and we are betting that a subscription-based business model works [as opposed to traditional software licensing]."

The bet will be played over the next two years as Microsoft plans to deliver a new version of its operating system called Windows.Net and a new version of its development tools called Visual Studio.Net. The company also will transform its server applications along the .Net theme, including SQL, Exchange, BizTalk and others in the Windows DNA lineup. Even Office, the flagship productivity application, will be transformed into Office.Net.

The emphasis will be on XML, but also on creating new interfaces, user controls, privacy and security features, personalization features, intelligent clients, and applications designed to run on the Internet. And all of it will run on any device hooked to the Internet.

Gates said the experience would move users beyond the simple transactions of today's Web-based applications and into a world of sophisticated connectivity where applications code can be combined to create customized applications.

"We are connecting things together now, but not connecting intelligence," he said. Gates also said the transformation to .Net will require hardware breakthroughs. He demonstrated a Tablet PC that lets a user read books, write and edit documents, and use a handwriting interface that can convert longhand into system fonts.

The .Net transformation will begin this year when Microsoft delivers its XML-based BizTalk Server 2000 and Visual Studio 7.0, which will support the building of .Net applications using the Simple Object Access Protocol.

Next year, Microsoft plans to deliver the next version of Windows called Windows.Net 1.0, which will feature a number of extensions including transaction and queuing services. It will be followed in 2002 with another Windows.Net version that will incorporate user interface features such as handwriting and voice.

Also next year, Microsoft will deliver up to four .Net services, similar to its online authentication service Passport. The services run on the Internet and can be integrated into applications to provide such things as notification features. In 2002, Microsoft will offer other "building block" services, such as online storage. Also in 2002, the company will deliver Office.Net, a hosted version of Office and Visual Studio.Net.

"This is a long-term roadmap, but there are some short-term deliverables," Ballmer says. "This is not something that will happen in the next two days; it will take two years to develop."

Microsoft also introduced a host of new technologies it is developing to support .Net. The Universal Canvas is a client that integrates a browser, communications features and document authoring and annotation. Microsoft also plans to introduce an Information Agent that manages a user's identity on the Internet and controls interaction among Web sites, services and the user. The company also highlighted a Dynamic Delivery system for automatic software installations and updates and roaming and offline support.

Proponents of software as services hail Microsoft's support of the concept.

"It's not trivial that the largest seller of software is saying that software really is a service," says Jack Serfass, co-founder of BowStreet Software in Portsmouth, N.H. BowStreet develops Business Web Factory, which creates a directory of Web services that can be assembled on the fly. "Microsoft can play a major role, but I don't think one company will own the Internet platform like one owns the desktop operating system platform."

But while Microsoft waxed poetic about the big bets it is making, the biggest bet of all may come from enterprise customers, who are in the process of overhauling their Windows NT networks with Win 2000 and Active Directory, a project that could take up to two years. Now those enterprises are hearing about an entirely different Windows network.

"The scary part about this is that it could stop enterprises in their tracks in regards to migrations to Win 2000," says Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Giga Information Group on Cambridge, Mass. "It's a risk, but Microsoft had to show it has a future after Win 2000 and this is the coming out party for the new Microsoft."

Ballmer emphasized that .Net, which he admitted was heavily consumer focused, would be relevant for the enterprise providing innovation for e-commerce and work productivity.

"XML is the basis for better application integration and desktop to data integration," he said

Then Ballmer launched into an animated explanation as to why .Net will succeed.

"Why should Microsoft be successful?" Ballmer asked rhetorically. "We're software people, it's in our blood. The problems that we are talking about are software problems. Interface advancements, development advancements." He named Sun, IBM, Oracle and Linux as competitors then shot holes in each one. "Sun is primarily a hardware company. Sun, Oracle and IBM are not seeing the need for client-side intelligence. Linux is a phenomenon that works well when things are static, but I'm not sure it is good for this kind of transformation of computing." He did say, however, that he expects each to respond to .Net.

But one critic says Microsoft is not doing anything new with XML, it is only offering its version. And besides, that version will take up to three years to materialize.

"We're creating a platform for Windows applications so nothing runs on the client," says Shervin Pishevar, founder of WebOS, an operating system designed to run on the Internet. "We have 10,000 developers lined up for the WebOS API. We have XML support, wireless access, synchronization to Palm and Outlook."

WebOS also features application-to-application communication, "it's a vision we've had for two years," Pishevar says. He said the company also plans to add replication features for offline work. WebOS will launch next week. "We're not talking a two- to five-year plan here."

Ballmer also addressed the continuing antitrust trial against Microsoft, but only when questioned by reporters.

He said the focus at Microsoft remains on building the .Net platform and has not been modified at all.

"We are still pursuing our case and we think we will prevail," he said.