Windows Server Road Map

Microsoft turned the spotlight on Windows Server last week, unveiling plans to integrate the Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) add-on and advanced quarantine features in an update slated for 2005, plus mainframe-like options in Longhorn, now due in 2007.

While acknowledging that Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 is a more immediate priority, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows Server Division, said the Windows Server update, code-named R2 and due out next year, will integrate the RMS add-on and extranet features that support secure exchange of documents and e-mail between companies.

Beyond that, the next-generation server, code-named Longhorn, also stands to get key orchestration features derived from BizTalk Server, along with dynamic partitioning, the new WinFS file system and the Indigo Web services subsystem.

Muglia says Windows Server compares with commercial Linux servers on cost.

The Windows Orchestration Engine (WinOE) would provide basic workflow capability to manage the interaction of processes and services in distributed systems, said sources familiar with Microsoft's plans. The goal is to include that technology in the Longhorn server, which would enable it to be leveraged by products ranging from Microsoft's Office 12 and SharePoint to Microsoft or third-party content-management products.

Muglia confirmed that work is under way on such technology, but he declined to comment on how or when it would be packaged in the operating system. "Stay tuned," he said.

The more immediate Windows Server R2 is slated to integrate RMS and new identity-federation capabilities,developed as part of a project formerly dubbed TrustBridge,that will offer cross-company authentication, enabling more extranet and B2B transactions.

On the security front, the R2 update will offer new application-level remote-access features for mobile workers using Windows Terminal Services and file-sharing technologies, as well as a robust "quarantine" network defense for VPNs and wired and wireless networks, Muglia said. It will be based largely on the Windows Server 2003 code.

At the recent Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates focused heavily on the Longhorn client, which is slated to hit the market a year before the server.

Still, Muglia touted the future server's advanced functionality and seemed less worried about competing for dollars with the Windows client than with a Linux server. He said Microsoft aims to attack Linux from another angle: cost.

Including support and maintenance expenses, a Microsoft-based solution costs about the same as a commercially implemented version of Linux from Red Hat or Novell, Muglia said.

"Linux has now evolved to be a set of commercial products from commercial vendors," he said. "This concept that Linux is free? People are past that."

ON THE CALENDAR Highlights of Microsoft's server release schedule >> 2004 • Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 • Windows Small Business Server Service Pack 1 • Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit Extended Systems >> 2005 • Windows Server 2003 Update (code-named R2) • Small Business Server 2003 Update • Windows Storage Server (code-named Storm) >> 2007 • Next-generation Windows Server (code-named Longhorn)