Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) -- a new set of software, services and solutions for Microsoft customers, built around the Internet, Windows and new devices - a unified platforms and tools effort - to build on the Windows 2000 generation of products to create breakthrough software and services. Microsoft's vision for the programmable Web - Microsoft's strategy for Next Generation Web Services (NGWS) that will simplify the development of enterprise Web applications. Key to this strategy are Windows 2000 and new Web Services, Windows DNA 2000, ASP+ Web Forms and a number of language innovations. - Formal Name: Microsoft.NET
Microsoft Introduces New Internet Products - Microsoft announced a bevy of new Internet initiatives Thursday aimed at transforming the company's wildly popular software and operating systems into Web-based services for personal computers and wireless devices. The new products and services, known collectively as Microsoft.NET, is the formal name for the "next-generation Windows services" that have often been mentioned by Bill Gates, the company's chairman, and other executives. Our goal is to move beyond today's world of stand-alone Web sites to an Internet of interchangeable components where devices and services can be assembled into cohesive, user-driven experiences," Gates said. For consumers and businesses, Microsoft.NET will introduce a variety of ".NET" software and functions integrated through the Internet. The backbone of the plan will be Windows.NET, the next generation of the company's Windows operating system, slated for release in 2001. Other new .NET software and services will include MSN.NET, which will combine the content and services of the company's Microsoft Network, a service that delivers news, information, online shopping and other content. The company also plans to build a number of new premium .NET applications that will build on existing Microsoft consumer software in the area of entertainment, games and education. And Office.NET will offer portable and more integrated versions of Microsoft's popular Office programs such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint for use on various devices inside and outside offices.
Microsoft to unveil NGWS - Debut of new Web-based software tools aimed at online businesses. Microsoft takes the wraps off its latest Internet software initiative on Thursday, as it makes the shift away from a PC-focused company to a Web-centric firm. The company's newest Internet software and applications project, Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS), aims to provide services to businesses such as records storage, billing, personalization, voice-to-text translation and other capabilities delivered via the Internet rather than by way of a local server. Plans for the project were first announced in January, when Gates relinquished his CEO title to Steve Ballmer. Gates said he would take on the roles of chairman and chief software architect, and devote more time to overseeing the team driving NGWS. The NGWS project has been cloaked in secrecy, with few details forthcoming from Microsoft. From what little information has been given, it appears Microsoft has developed tools and applications that support Internet services for Web developers, and will be rolled out during the next two to three years. "They'll discuss XML (extensible markup language), as the language to support e-commerce transactions. They'll talk about the deployment of NT and Windows 2000 in support of Internet service providers (ISPs) and applications service providers (ASPs). And they'll discuss Microsoft Exchange as an infrastructure platform to support collaborative services such as e-mail and calendaring," Banc of America analyst Paul Dravis said in an interview with CNNfn.com "We are going to use XML as a starting point to allow messages to be exchanged between computers," said Gates in a recent presentation. "XML will allow users to get a rich and synthesized view on the Web." Gates described using XML to manage finances, enabling users to see information from brokerages, bank sites and insurance providers in one place. "Tasks that we thought in the past as impossible will now be rather simple," said Gates. "We are going to lead the way in XML advances."
Microsoft cites antitrust case in delaying NGWS rollout - Six days before Microsoft Corp. was to launch Next Generation Windows Services, the company abruptly postponed the event until late June. Microsoft cited the possibility that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson would enter the final decree in the ongoing antitrust suit against the Redmond, Wash., company as the reason for moving the event from June 1 to June 22. "We are very excited about sharing [NGWS] with you," reads a prepared statement released Friday. "However, there are strong indications that the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., may enter its final decree next week in our continuing antitrust matter, an event that we feel would distract attention and focus from our event next Thursday. As a result, we have reluctantly decided to reschedule Forum 2000 for Thursday, June 22." NGWS was originally promised by April 1 by CEO Steve Ballmer when he took over that position from Chairman Bill Gates in January.
Microsoft treads carefully with NGWS - The plan to broadly outline new types of Web services with next week's NGWS launch is complicated by its antitrust defeats. With the splashy rollout of its newest software initiative just 10 days away, Microsoft Corp. is still trying to figure out how to explain it to the public. The strategy involves a complicated, somewhat esoteric new set of technologies. It essentially will try to reposition Microsoft's Windows operating system and certain Microsoft applications and services for the Internet age. Microsoft also is expected to broadly outline new types of Web services, similar to its existing Passport service for online user authentication, which can run across different applications and non-PC devices. Some analysts say the NGWS strategy meeting, scheduled for June 1, won't be as important as the strategy day Microsoft held in December 1995.
Next-generation Windows struggles for definition before it meets public - The strategy involves a complicated, somewhat esoteric new set of technologies. It essentially will try to reposition Microsoft's Windows operating system and certain Microsoft applications and services for the Internet age. Microsoft also is expected to broadly outline new types of Web services, similar to its existing Passport service for online user authentication, which can run across different applications and non-PC devices.
Microsoft to discuss the future of Windows on June 1 - Microsoft announced that it would hold Forum 2000 -- where it will detail Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) -- on June 1 on its Redmond, Wash. campus. NGWS will be Microsoft's move to keep its Windows operating system relevant in a high-tech world that increasingly is moving away from desktop computing in favor of alternatives, such as wireless devices. NGWS will aim to bring the software giant to a services-based model that blends Windows seamlessly with the Internet. "We want to infuse into our system the services the way we infused Internet technology," Jim Allchin, a vice president who oversees Windows development, said in an interview with InfoWorld in February.
Microsoft: The next generation - Microsoft's forthcoming services architecture, Next Generation Windows Services, or NGWS - products and strategies - Platforms Group vice presidents Jim Allchin and Paul Maritz, Business Productivity Group VP Bob Muglia, and Consumer Group VP Rick Belluzzo -- working in conjunction with Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates - megaservices and app hosting - a framework -- slike IBM's Systems Application Architecture - software as a service - automating software delivery via a service dubbed "Windows Tone," or WinTone.
Microsoft initiates minor reorg in anticipation of NGWS - Microsoft will merge its Windows and Developer groups, paving the way for the company's Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) platform. Microsoft is slated to unveil the details of NGWS -- its plan for providing software as a set of services accessible through Windows -- in late May at an event it has dubbed Forum 2000. As part of the reorganization, Group Vice President Paul Maritz steps back into the limelight, taking greater responsibility for systems software development, with Group Vice President Jim Allchin now focusing more on future software development.
Windows, the next generation - Ballmer opens up on NGWS - NGWS will consist of Windows 2000 ("the cornerstone of Windows DNA," but in its Blackcomb future rev), Visual Studio 7, which will incorporate Web Services, ASP+Web Forms, and language innovations for Visual Basic. The Web development tool will have "deep XML support" and "complete object-oriented programming capabilities", supposedly eliminating the need for using VB script, which will be mixed news to those who have wrestled with it. Visual Studio is to include VB7, with new ASP technology called Web Services to link applications, services and devices using HTTP, XML and SOAP. ASP+Web Forms is to be based on XML and COM+ in a drag-and-drop environment, and since all the programming is to take place on the server, "applications run on any browser and platform".