“Next Generation Windows Services, or NGWS, as it
affectionately has been known for the past six months, is an
architecture, not a product. It’s not some newfangled version of
Windows or The Microsoft Network. It’s a framework for how
Microsoft is going to start offering software in the form of
revenue-renewable services. Think “subscription model.” Think
“hosting.” Think Microsoft Internet Strategy Day (Dec. 7, 1995)
revisited.”
“AppCenter Server. Likely to be christened officially
Application Center 2000. A collection of some of the enterprise
features that didn’t make the final cut for Windows 2000.”
“SOAP. Simple Object Access Protocol. This is the glue that aims
to allow Web applications to communicate across heterogeneous
platforms. For all you geeks, think XML over HTTP, and you’ll have
a clue what to expect from this Microsoft-backed protocol that’s
been submitted for standardization to the W3C.”
“ASP+. Active Server Pages Plus. Yeah, it’s confusing — ASP
also means “application service provider,” the folks who deliver
hosted applications from datacenters to consumers. But ASP+ is also
the next version of Microsoft’s programming environment that allows
developers to meld XML, HTML and scripting.”