Microsoft Strikes Major .Net Alliances With Exodus, Akamai

Microsoft Cable and Wireless/Exodus Akamai Technologies

At Tech Ed 2002 here Wednesday, the software giant announced a major alliance with Cable and Wireless' Exodus division. As part of the alliance, Exodus will host Microsoft's distributed Microsoft .Net application platform.

Exodus' corporate customers and channel partners will be able to access hosted infrastructure and managed services for building, deploying, managing and monitoring XML Web services. These and future services hosted by Exodus will combine Microsoft's .Net servers such as Windows.Net server, Visual Studio.Net and .Net application services, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is also signing deals to speed up the delivery of forthcoming .Net services.

At Tech Ed 2002, Akamai, said it plans to develop with Microsoft a new EdgeSuite service at the edge of its network to speed up the delivery of XML Web services and Web applications built on .Net. EdgeSuite for Microsoft.Net, which will be available to all customers developing .Net, will live on the edge of the network to speed up Web service delivery to customers.

McAfee.com is currently pilot-testing the .Net service from Akamai. Using EdgeSuite for .Net, customers can access the antivirus software company's XML Web services much faster than in the past, the company said.

Akamai is also pilot-testing a new Web service security standard based on Microsoft's XML efforts. The security model will enable Akamai to offer federated security options to customers such as third-party authentication and authorization, the company said.