Microsoft Nixes 'Jupiter' Plans
As NASA begins its exploration of Mars, Microsoft has fallen short of Jupiter.
Jupiter -- Microsoft's vision to unify and extend e-business server technologies, as well as connect people, data and business processes -- will not be delivered as promised. Instead, Redmond will focus on shipping out BizTalk Server 2004, now in beta testing, which it feels meets the mantle of Jupiter.
Despite having shipped out a beta of the "first phase" of Jupiter last summer, a spokesperson has confirmed that product development has been suspended. Microsoft will instead work on ways to leverage existing Windows Server System and Office System assets to deliver upon the overall Jupiter vision outlined nearly two years ago.
Jupiter was poised to be released in two separate phases. 2003 was marked for delivery of process automation, workflow and integration technologies, BPEL support, and an integrated developer experience.
A 2004 phase mapped out the delivery of content management, commerce services and catalog management, campaign management, site management and analytics, targeting and personalization, and an integrated information worker experience features.
Although originally intended to complement the more ambitious Jupiter effort, BizTalk Server will serve as the cornerstone of Microsoft's desire to provide customers with what it has decreed "tangible business benefits" until the Longhorn wave of products materializes and completes the enterprise software ecosystem. It is unknown whether or not a unified suite will ship at that time.
At present, BizTalk Server 2004 provides single sign-on identity management and process management with a graphical interface for creating business rules and policies. BizTalk is also set to include support for Web Services and the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) for communicating across back-end systems.
Ron Schmelzer, a Senior Analyst with ZapThink, told BetaNews that BizTalk should operate well with Microsoft products built within the past two years.
All SKUs of BizTalk Server will include rights to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 and InfoPath. In addition, the server is also designed to interoperate with Visio, a collaborative tool that maps out concepts, processes and relationships into business and technical diagrams.
After a comprehensive analysis, Microsoft concluded that customers prefer to purchase integration and portal technology separately.
To assist customers in building portal technologies, Microsoft turned to the existing assets of its Office system portfolio, and recently integrated its SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) with its Content Management Server (CMS) through the SharePoint Extender.
"Portal customers have totally different concerns and don’t want to mix with integration products," said ZapThink's Schmelzer. "It is likely that these will remain separate products for a long time."