Mind the Windows Gap

The software behemoth recently scaled back the next-generation operating system, dropping plans to include within Longhorn its new WinFS file system. That was done so that Microsoft will be able to ship Longhorn in 2006. (More specifically, the client version of Longhorn will ship in 2006; the server release is due in 2007.)

But WinFS was the original raison d'etre for Longhorn. It was envisioned as a unified file system with innovative search features, to cut through the desktop clutter that makes navigating our PC workspaces a daily challenge.

Building WinFS was apparently proving just as tough as describing exactly how it would work. (In the "give credit or blame where it's due" department, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was the original proponent of a smart, searchable file system to end all file systems, and he hasn't been able to deliver on that vision either.)

Nevertheless, by jettisoning WinFS, Microsoft seems to have let a lot of the air out of the anticipation surrounding Longhorn. That shouldn't be the case. When Longhorn was originally proposed, there was no real rationale for a new OS. Web services, wireless networking and mobile computing hadn't yet become entrenched. As a result, a fancy file system was seen by Microsoft as something it was going to need to get people to upgrade yet again.

That's no longer true. Today, it's the non-WinFS stuff that the industry really needs. This includes Longhorn's Avalon graphics subsystem and its Indigo Web-services component. Also important is Yukon, the next-gen version of SQL Server. Though not specifically in the OS, Yukon is part of the broader Longhorn environment.

For VARs, which technological components will or won't be part of Longhorn isn't the issue. The challenge for resellers is more concrete: What are you going to sell between now and 2006?

Right now, that's not a significant problem, since there's still a lot of headroom for uptake of Windows Server 2003. But it will emerge as an issue as that OS starts to permeate the market. Microsoft's partners also need products to stave off Line, which continues to grow as a force to be reckoned with.

As one software VAR explained it to me: "I think the gap that all core Microsoft people have to look at is, Windows Server 2003 is making a giant push in the market. If we get the market saturated with that product, what are we going to do to bridge the gap until Longhorn?"

Getting gap-filling products in the pipeline to Microsoft's VARs is clearly in everybody's interest. During the past two years, Microsoft has retooled its channel program into a force that its 775,000 business partners are pretty happy about. Indeed, Redmond now spends $1.7 billion annually on its partner programs. As a result, Microsoft's resellers want to stick with the company. But, since revenue is the better part of valor, they need to see an interim roadmap plan from the vendor.

Microsoft has come up with a fix of sorts, which it began explaining to its partners beginning in May at its TechEd conference. To fill in the space until Longhorn is ready in 2006, an update to Windows Server 2003, dubbed R2, will roll out next year.

In global terms, R2 is focused around what Microsoft is calling "streamlined and secure information access." It will implement "anywhere access" features, which will allow users to get into their applications remotely via secure Web-browser connections, as opposed to the VPN links popular with corporate users today.

R2 will also extend Microsoft's Active Directory, making it less proprietary and more compliant with industrywide standards. This will facilitate the integration of directories among different installations and users.

On the security front, R2 will add a network-access protection feature, which Microsoft is also calling "quarantine." This will do things like buzzing out connections for viruses and automatically download patches.

A second leg of R2 is focused on enabling companies to remotely support the IT setups at their branch offices. "The long-term goal is to try to make it so that branches are something where you just ship out the box, and no one ever really has to touch it," says Samm DiStasio, group product manager for Windows Server.

To that end, R2 will update the way the OS manages its file replication services, to support more efficient data handling.

While R2 could be an answer to the prayers of Microsoft's resellers, they'll also be able to make hay out of the upcoming versions of Windows fitted with support for AMD's and Intel's new processors with 64-bit instruction set extensions. And a number of VARs say they're also working on selling third-party backup storage and application-management software as a way to fill in any Windows gaps.

As for the WinFS file system, it's not completely off the Longhorn list. Though it won't be delivered when the OS first ships in 2006, it will follow as a separate deliverable sometime after that. And that will undoubtedly give VARs a whole new set of thorny deployment and integration issues on which they'll have to advise their clients.