Microsoft To Unveil Commerce Server 2002

Microsoft

At TechEd here, the company will show off the new version, which will feature tighter integration with Visual Studio.Net and BizTalk Server, Microsoft confirmed Thursday.

Longer term, Microsoft is working on a "suite" of server products that will more tightly integrate Commerce Server with Microsoft's Content Management Server, Host Integration Server and BizTalk, according to sources close to the company. BizTalk is a big piece of Microsoft's application integration strategy, offering integrators a way of tying legacy applications to Web services.

One West Coast Microsoft business partner said an integrated BackOffice-type suite could be a winner. "BizTalk and Host Integration Server fit well together and extend the legacy integration story around BizTalk--consider it an adapter to mainframe and AS/400 systems," he said.

Content Management Server, which is based on Microsoft's acquisition of Ncompass technology, and Commerce Server also "are a reasonable fit as they both deal with Web site management--[Content Management Server from the design side to manage content development and Commerce Server for the runtime environment," he noted.

A Microsoft spokesman said that tighter server integration is always a priority but knew of no plans for a suite per se. He acknowledged that an integrated bundle could be part of a solution coming out of the Microsoft Solutions Organization (MSO), however.

Last January, for example, MSO delivered Microsoft Solution for Internet Business. The offering promises to help integrators build customized online sites for their customers. The solution includes BizTalk and utilizes .Net Enterprise server technologies as well as custom templates and site-building tools.

These solutions, which use existing prebuilt code and architectures, are "a way for us to quickly build a solution that works right away and then add capabilities as needed," said a Microsoft solution provider partner.