Microsoft Pitches XSOs To Ease Integration

A flock of Exchange Server Objects (XSOs) would help with the integration of outside applications with Exchange-based functionality, Microsoft said at its MEC 2002 event earlier this month. The next Exchange Server, code-named Titanium, is due next year, with XSOs slated to ship sometime thereafter.

While Microsoft positions XSOs as a way to offer tighter integration between messaging-centric Exchange applications and the outside world, some said they represent a retreat from the original plan that Exchange Server itself would be a full development environment for collaborative applications.

The currently shipping Exchange Server 2000 was positioned initially as a host and development environment for collaborative applications. As such, it was to offer an array of tools to take on the rich design capabilities available with Lotus Domino/Notes. But that game plan was changed within a year of Exchange Server 2000's shipment, and developers were told to host applications elsewhere.

As part of this shift, Microsoft stopped work on Office Designer, sources close to Microsoft said. In 1999, internal Microsoft documents said that proposed product would "compete head on with the Lotus Notes Designer. . . . This, along with Outlook and Platinum, is Microsoft's strategy to unseat Lotus Notes from its dominant position."

Chris Baker, Exchange group product manager at Microsoft, said the goal is still to offer "contextual collaboration" and characterized the strategy shift as evolutionary. "We were pushing in this direction with last year's Web Services Toolkit," he said. "You can still build applications on Exchange [where it makes sense. If you want to replicate across the enterprise, you should build on the public folders. But if it's more of a 'teamspace' application, we have SharePoint now," he said.

Baker said the XSO "managed API" will offer developers an easy way to locate and use Exchange-resident calendaring, contact and messaging-based services. "This is a great opportunity to make use of these things from other servers," he said.

At MEC 2002, Microsoft Senior Vice President Paul Flessner presided over the unveiling of XSO. A key benefit is that developers will be able to build collaborative apps using the Common Language Runtime and Visual Studio .Net, he said.

But some third-party developers and observers remain miffed over what they call a bait-and-switch tactic by Microsoft around Exchange Server's role as an application host and development environment.

The XSO move and Microsoft's plan to offer realtime collaborative infrastructure in Windows .Net Server rather than Exchange neuters the latter product, some said. "Exchange itself has become just a big mail switch," said Dana Gardner, an analyst at Aberdeen Group. This move "burned ISVs at a time when Microsoft desperately needs them to support its .Net framework."

At least one Microsoft partner disagreed. Andy Vabulas, president of I.B.I.S., an Atlanta-based solution provider, applauded XSOs. "They'll make it much easier for us to use Exchange from within our applications," he said.

The messaging and collaboration wars are being hotly contested by Microsoft and IBM's Lotus Software. With Lotus now shipping Domino and Notes 6, and with Titanium, expected to ship next year, a major theme is server consolidation and reducing total cost of ownership.