Microsoft speeds development of Net server
Jason Romney (jromney@werple.mira.net.au)
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 01:27:00 +1000 (EST)
PC Week Online
September 25, 1995
MICROSOFT SPEEDS DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNET SERVER
By Mary Jo Foley
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Worried about falling far behind its myriad Internet competitors,
Microsoft Corp. is accelerating the timetable for its Windows NT-based
Internet server, code-named Gibraltar, and could release beta code as
early as this week.
Gibraltar is the first of at least four new NT server applications
Microsoft plans to add over the next few years to its BackOffice
applications suite. Others include a continuous media server
(code-named Tiger), a telephony server, and a transaction server,
sources said.
At NetWorld+Interop in Atlanta this week, Microsoft is expected to
provide glimpses into its five-year plan for BackOffice and NT as part
of the keynote speech given by Jim Allchin, senior vice president of
Microsoft's business systems division, in Redmond, Wash.
Until recently, Microsoft officials had cautioned users not to expect
Gibraltar until the third or fourth quarter of 1996, sources close to
the company said. Microsoft could release a commercial product early
next year.
Gibraltar, which has been in alpha testing during the past couple of
months, is designed to allow customers to create their own secure
Internet servers. It will include an Internet browser and firewall
technology, as well as direct links to Microsoft's Exchange Server and
SQL Server products, sources said. It also will work with a number of
other Internet browsers currently on the market, sources said.
The product's firewall technology will help Microsoft distinguish its
Internet server from others. "Gibraltar will provide a way to filter
incoming IP addresses because it is a proxy server -- meaning it
separates the actual Web server from your NT server," said a
consultant with a large NT site who requested anonymity. More
importantly, he said, the firewall will also operate in reverse,
providing administrators with a way to prevent their users from
indiscriminately surfing the Internet.
The Internet is of growing importance to Microsoft, and Internet
access will be a key piece of every Microsoft application and
system-software product introduced in the coming year, sources said.
Microsoft is working to establish its publishing and development
tools, file formats, directory service, and distributed Object Linking
and Embedding technology as Internet standards in the coming years.
Users were upbeat about Microsoft's plans to integrate an Internet
server with BackOffice, but they questioned whether bundle pricing
would lead to immediate acceptance of the product.
"It's so cheap now to rent space on the Web vs. building your own
[Internet] node for multiple thousands of dollars that Microsoft will
have to make a really compelling case for us to consider buying an
Internet server from them," said Brian Moura, San Carlos, Calif.'s
assistant city manager.
In the Works: Microsoft is developing media server, transaction
server, and telephony server applications for BackOffice.
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JF