Microsoft To Ship CMS 2002

The software has been in beta since July, and Microsoft has touted its new XML and Visual Studio.Net support. Solution providers say CMS 2002 ties in better with Microsoft's server family and loses some of its NCompass Labs roots. Microsoft acquired NCompass in May 2001.

CMS 2001 was pretty much repackaged NCompass architecture,it still installed on the NC directory, said Richard Warren, chief strategy officer at Internosis, an Arlington, Va., solution provider. This new version brings CMS more into the Microsoft server fold, he said.

CMS 2002 promises big performance improvements in caching and a vastly improved placeholder structure for Web page layouts, Warren said. "Once everything's in memory, it runs like a scalded cat," he added.

Other observers say CMS 2002 represents another step toward Jupiter, Microsoft's planned server bundle of CMS, Commerce Server, BizTalk Server and Host Integration Server. Jupiter, designed to counter IBM's WebSphere product line, is led by David Kiker, Microsoft's general manager for e-business servers, Microsoft sources said.

At the conference, Microsoft also is expected to detail its next release of Exchange Server, code-named Titanium. Microsoft said this "interim" release will add support for mobile devices and offer volume shadow copy capabilities to aid recovery and restart.