Microsoft Corp., the company that put its Windows operating system on nearly every household computer, is now promising big business its software can handle the most complex corporate tasks.
In a flashy launch last week at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, Microsoft unveiled a new line of high-end computer server systems that run Windows 2000, the latest business version of Windows. The servers are the first set of products in Microsoft’s “Dot-Net” initiative to bridge personal computing technology with the Internet.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer stressed the new server software, years in the making, was one of Microsoft’s most important product launches.
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“For 12 years we’ve been banging our head on this,” said Ballmer, adding that software sales to enterprises will become an increasingly important revenue source.
The products fulfill promises made at the launch of Windows 2000 last February by taking the operating system beyond low-end business computing. And the launch is a direct attack on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley rivals Sun Microsystems Inc. and Oracle Corp. Sun’s Unix-based computer systems run some of the busiest Web sites. Oracle’s database software, meanwhile, manages the reams of data at many Fortune 100 companies.
“They are at least five years behind us,” said Andy Ingram, Sun vice president of marketing. “Microsoft is clearly coming out at us with everything they’ve got. It’s nice to be liked.”
He said that even the new line of servers aren’t able to match the power of Sun’s systems, which can pack as many as 64 microprocessors into one machine. Microsoft announced a new 32-processor NetServer system from Hewlett-Packard Co. for the new Microsoft server software, which is called the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.
“With Windows 2000, Microsoft is at levels of scalability it has never had before,” said Al Gillen, an analyst at research firm International Data Corp. “But they still don’t have the levels of scalability that Unix has.” Sun runs Unix software.
Ballmer introduced eight new servers running on a family of Windows operating systems made for servers. Within the Windows 2000 family is the company’s new and most powerful operating system, Windows 2000 Datacenter, which has built-in support for the Internet programming language XML.
In June, Microsoft announced a sweeping initiative called Dot-Net to bridge the company’s software products with Internet computing. And at the center of the initiative is the company’s flagship operating system, Windows.
“These products build on the core foundation of Windows 2000 and make [Windows 2000] available for the most demanding chores at companies,” said Chris Atkinson, vice president of Microsoft’s Dot-Net Developer’s Solutions Group.