FRAMINGHAM (02/18/2000) - With its launch of Windows 2000, Microsoft Corp. this week unveiled its plans to better support Web development on that server platform in its Visual Studio 7.0 tool set.
Even as Microsoft makes a more credible play to enterprise application developers, its technologies still work best in Microsoft environments and with packaged applications, users and analysts said.
The next version of the popular tool set will include new Web form and services capabilities when it ships later this year. And the operating system itself contains features like Active Directory, which should make distributing and managing business objects easier.
Microsoft needs to offer the ability to develop more reliable large, distributed applications on its server operating system to help firms using the Web support application development, said Rob Enderle, an analyst at Giga Information Group Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.
"Everything is going to migrate to the Web sooner or later because of scalability, distribution of use and the thin-client aspects, so we need tools that will handle that," said Al Bradford, an information technology developer at SPX Corp., an industrial equipment maker in Muskegon, Mich.
Microsoft is also forging ties with dot-coms. Sound Dogs Inc., a sound-effects and production music company in Universal City, Calif., that operates an online sound library with more than 320GB of downloadable files, mainly relies on Microsoft to power its Web site and services. Rob Nokes, director of business development, said ease of use was the most important factor in choosing an all-Microsoft approach to add services to the site.
"If you're using Microsoft tools exclusively, it's going to get easier because Microsoft is working toward making their tools more user-friendly and useful for the Web, whereas if you are using a lot of different systems, it gets more complex," said Nathan King, IT integrator at Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC in Findlay, Ohio.
But analyst Dan Kusnetzky at International Data Corp. cautioned against a single-vendor approach. "Users like [Windows NT] because it's reliable and robust. But it's still based on Microsoft [application programming interfaces] and Common Object Model architecture, which is still a single-vendor standard," he said.