ARC Operating Platforms: Slim Win For Redmond

While challengers assembled in the wings, Microsoft leveraged its hold on the desktop and low-end server operating system and applications market segments with a narrow win over second-place players Novell and SCO.

With Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server, Microsoft now tops Transaction Performance Processing Council benchmarks, providing mission-critical solutions and going where it has never gone before, says Doug Miller, group product manager for Windows servers.

IDC research shows a huge ramp-up in sales growth of Microsoft server system software, from $141 million in 1994 to $2.7 billion in 1999 to $6.4 billion in 2004. "Organizations are increasingly building complex computing solutions from interconnected and distributed low-end or midrange systems," says IDC analyst Dan Kuznetsky.

Adoption rates for its Windows 2000 Advanced Server version are well above sales targets set for the fiscal year that began July 1, Miller says. Microsoft sells into Unix, Linux and NetWare installed bases, with products designed to add value with its new Windows 2000 technology, particularly Active Directory. Users can run Linux or Unix versions on top of Windows and take advantage of Active Directory, Windows' core directory services, and its ability to streamline the management of large groups of users.

"A new person can be restricted or have access to certain applications, no matter what machine they have access to," Miller says. "You don't have to micromanage every user on your network."