MICROSOFT: THE ROAD MOST TRAVELED

摘要

Microsoft is making big promises. Pledges of beefed-up security, including combined antivirus and anti-spyware by midyear; less dra-conian licensing structures; and major collaboration and storage initiatives are all meant to expand Redmond's relationship with your business. But is the company's marketing machine writing checks its software can't cash? To find out, NETWORK COMPUTING technology editors Bruce Board-man, Michael J. DeMaria, Curtis Franklin Jr., Don MacVittie and Lori MacVittie spoke with Microsoft execs across a variety of groups, from SQL Server to Real-Time Collaboration to Windows Storage. In the network and systems management arena, we explore the state of Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative, which is poised to take on Hewlett-Packard's Adaptive Infrastructure and IBM's On-Demand. If Microsoft uses its clout to make DSI a true heterogeneous management platform, things could get interesting. In business applications, Redmond's "Office as Platform" strategy and, in the near-term, improved SOL Server 2005 could make a true service-oriented architecture a reality.