Windows.Net Server 2003 Pushed Back To April

At Comdex Sunday night, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates announced Release Candidate 2 (RC2) of the Windows.Net Server 2003, with revised plans to ship the server upgrade in April.

Channel sources expected the RC2 announcement but also expected that the final product would ship in the first quarter of 2003, based on Microsoft's indications to them at partner events.

This is the third time Microsoft has delayed the release of the server, which was promised for delivery first in late 2001, then at various times in 2002, and finally, at the product's final renaming to Windows.Net Server 2003 last August, to the first quarter of 2003.

Bob O'Brien, Microsoft's group product manager for Windows .Net server, confirmed this is the first time the company has stated the month of delivery and acknolwedged that it will ship beyond the first quarter. He said the product will be released to manufacturing in March. "The key is NT 4 customers who've been on that platform for 5 to 7 years," O'Brien said. He cited IDC numbers estimating that about 30 percent to 40 percent of the Microsoft server installed base is still on NT 4.

In addition, the slip pushes back the release of Microsoft's realtime communications (RTC) technology, code named Greenwich, and digital rights management (DRM) technology, code-named Tungsten, to between 60 and 90 days after the release of Windows.Net, sources said.

RTC technology originally was promised to be embedded as part of the server OS. In recent months, Microsoft has said the RTC and DRM technology would be available as separate services that would run on top of the server OS.

The latest slip of Windows.Net to April--the beginning of the second quarter--was met with a yawn by channel partners. From a practical viewpoint, the soft IT spending environment makes the latest and slight delay a nonevent, they say.

"Big deal," said Mark Alexander, president of ISC, a Tallahassee, Fla., Microsoft solution provider. "I am in no rush to upgrade to Win.Net, except for [Microsoft Sharepoint v2, which isn't scheduled for release until later in 2003."

"I don't see a huge pent-up demand for .Net. I think most people are viewing it as more of an incremental release," said Michael Cocanower, president of IT Synergy, a Microsoft solution provider in Phoenix. "We are still dealing with a lot of Windows 2000 and Active Directory migrations and deployments at this point. I don't think Windows.Net is even on the radar screen [of customers at this point. It was the discontinuation of support for NT 4 that finally pushed them to Win2K."

"I'm hearing that organizations are still not through with their Windows 2000 migration," said Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst at IDC. "I'm not at all certain that organizations are ready to migrate once again. So I suspect that if there is a delay, many IT executives will breathe a sigh of relief."

However, observers are concerned about yet another missed milestone for Microsoft as it attempts to establish its .Net technology in the marketplace. While the company successfully delivered Visual Studio.Net and plans an upgrade optimized for Windows.Net in April, Microsoft has not only encountered several delays to Windows.Net but had to go back to the drawing board on its .Net MyServices Web services platform, another major piece of its .Net platform.

"While it generally is better to do servers right than fast, this one is starting to look like it has significant problems getting to market," said Rob Enderle, research fellow at Giga Information Group. "It suggests problems in Microsoft that are having a serious impact on their delivery schedule and creating a significant potential drag on the server market. This product won't really be able to ramp up until late next year now. Linux may be looking better and better to many as a result."

Another analyst, however, said he expects the Windows.Net server to ship during the first half and noted that customers don't need Windows.Net server to do .Net development. "You don't need this server for development and deployment, only optimized deployment," said David Smith, an analyst at Gartner Group. "Windows.Net is right in line with expectations, only one month [late."