Microsoft's newly minted multistage plan to create a comprehensive Windows management platform is a grand undertaking that might require a decade or longer to complete, but customers say at least the software giant is headed in the right direction.

Long criticized for its incomplete and immature tools to manage Windows environments, Microsoft responded last week with the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), a wide-ranging plan to develop self-managing Windows environments based on applications capable of demanding the network resources they require.

"This has been a long time coming, and I like to see this focus on management," says Soon Huat Ang, computer systems officer with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.

But it will take time for Microsoft to realize its goal, which is long on vision and short on products. The company also needs to explain how its development tools, management products, server applications and operating system work together under DSI, and how the company will integrate support for non-Windows platforms.

Under DSI, Microsoft says it is developing an XML technology called System Definition Model (SDM) that will be the glue for tying together applications, servers and management tools to create a self-healing computing environment. The company says it will also include a software deployment tool that will run on Windows Server 2003 and updates to its current software distribution and server management products.