“Microsoft later this month will detail how Windows 2000, COM+,
BizTalk Framework and Server, and the new Visual Studio 6.0a will
offer an easier, visual console-driven way to deploy distributed
Web applications from Component Object Model (COM) elements.”
“Microsoft’s interoperability strategy depends on widespread
adoption of XML by software vendors and developers as well as the
distribution of XML parsers via upgrades to many products
throughout the enterprise…”
“Microsoft’s reliance on XML-based ‘datagrams’ to facilitate
communication between disparate servers — a key to building
Internet commerce applications — means that a high level of
cross-platform functionality for applications built with
Distributed Internet Applications (DNA) and Visual Studio is
many months away due to XML’s relative immaturity.”
” ‘This is the same old Microsoft. I wouldn’t necessary call
something open or interoperable just because you use the XML word,’
said Tom Dwyer, an analyst at the Aberdeen Group, in Boston. ‘With
any of these approaches, you’ll have a set of companies that agree
on a set of XML schemas.’ “
“The new architecture, known as DNA 2000, subsumes the former
Microsoft Transaction Server into COM+ services, including
load-balancing, resource-pooling, and clustering capabilities.”
“Interoperability between DNA and non-DNA architectures,
however, will come principally from XML and associated schemas and
the upcoming Babylon server connectors, not from any Microsoft
embrace of CORBA or EJB.”
” ‘For this to work, you need Windows 2000, COM+, and XML,’
Dwyer said. ‘And a lot of companies say they don’t have
that.’ “