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TABLE OF CONTENTS, Part 1

The Evolution of Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing
Extending the Enterprise
The Microsoft .NET Platform

• The .NET Development Platform


• Microsoft .NET and Integrative Technologies


• The .NET Enterprise Servers

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Manufacturers and their partners face formidable technical challenges when they attempt to integrate systems and processes across multiple enterprises. They must agree to share a broad range of technologies, such as networking protocols, data formats, device and application interfaces, business-related document formats, and more. Given the plethora of operating systems and component architectures available today, agreeing on one solution across multiple enterprises is a daunting prospect.

To eliminate many of the problems associated with business-to-business (B2B) and application-to-application (A2A) integration, Microsoft is defining a new approach to software design that enables the flow of information between applications regardless of platform, object technology, or development language. This new approach is based entirely upon open standards, particularly the eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

XML is a data description format that has given rise to the reality of a programmable Web. Just as TCP/IP provided universal connectivity for the Internet and HTML provided a standardized language to display information on a wide variety of platforms for human consumption, XML provides a standardized language to exchange data for automated consumption. Being able to represent data in a widely accepted format that enables computers to send and receive data in a predictable style that enables programmability that extends beyond closed, controlled systems. XML is liberating because its simplicity and extensibility lets you define just about anything with room to expand later on. One of the fundamental building blocks of the programmable Web is Web Services.

The Microsoft .NET platform will provide a comprehensive set of applications, tools, and services to enable the fastest time-to-market for building and deploying Web-based solutions.

While Microsoft's vision for the .NET platform is not yet fully realized, a wealth of products and technologies are already available. At the time of this writing, Microsoft is the only company that offers such comprehensive support for XML: Examples of the XML-enabled products include the Windows 2000 operating systems, SQL Server 2000™, Host Integration Server 2000, BizTalk™ Server 2000, Commerce Server 2000, and Exchange Server 2000.

Microsoft .NET will become truly useful to manufacturers when it is combined with new or upcoming standards that are specific to the manufacturing and enterprise domains, such as OPC-XML, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), the BizTalk Framework, and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing facilitates the implementation of these technologies, enabling manufacturers to integrate the plant floor, the enterprise and broader e-manufacturing solutions such as collaborative product commerce and supply-chain integration.

With Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing, you can extend your enterprise to include your suppliers, customers, and other partners engaged in your manufacturing process.

The Evolution of Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing

The need to increase efficiency and multiply profits is never satisfied. To meet this need, companies are increasingly focusing their business on areas of core competency. Manufacturers are working together more closely today than ever before. Suppliers are managing their customers' inventories, engineering firms are outsourcing entire production processes, and e-commerce portals are expanding the concept of the supply chain. In order to take advantage of these trends, increased system flexibility and open standards have become vitally important.

For years, manufacturers deployed computer-based solutions as islands of automation. Enterprise systems managed the business, manufacturing execution systems (MES) managed production, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) ran equipment, but there was very little automated interaction between these systems. Recently, Windows DNA for Manufacturing (DNA-M) has been used to connect the many tiers of the enterprise into a cohesive information architecture.

Microsoft launched Windows DNA over three years ago to enable the integration of Internet technologies with existing client/server architectures. At the time, the Windows DNA was based on the Microsoft Windows NT® operating system, the Visual Studio® development system, enterprise servers such as Internet Information Server (IIS) and SQL Server, and various COM-based technologies, such as Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ).

Manufacturers have system and information requirements that are unique to their domain. To control equipment, computers must provide real-time response to interrupts. To plan production, scheduling systems must consider sales commitments, routing costs, equipment downtime, and numerous other variables. Microsoft introduced DNA-M to include additional technologies specific to manufacturing along with the basic Windows DNA platform. For example, Windows CE provides the deterministic performance required by control devices, COM-based technologies like OPC servers minimize the problem of multiple device-level protocols, and data-sharing technologies like OLE-DB enable the integration of production and business applications.

Though Microsoft products and technologies supply a significant part of a manufacturing solution, DNA-M also depends upon products from industry partners. Third-party vendors like ABB, AspenTech, Rockwell, and Honeywell have been helping manufacturers to build cars, brew beer, and process oil for decades. These companies understand the manufacturing environment and use their expertise to solve some of the toughest manufacturing problems.

Today, manufacturers can choose from thousands of proven, off-the-shelf applications. They have the freedom to combine "best of breed" applications to meet their requirements, they can select hardware from the vendors of their choice, and they can even create their own solutions using standard development tools.

This combination of Microsoft and third-party applications enables the integration of the manufacturing enterprise. Information can flow freely from the shop floor to the top floor, where business managers can make decisions based upon accurate, up-do-date information. Information about those decisions can flow back down through the enterprise so they can be acted upon.

As powerful as the DNA-M platform is, manufacturers and their partners still face challenges when they attempt to integrate systems and processes across multiple enterprises. Companies must agree on numerous technical details: common networking protocols, data formats, event notification models, device and application interfaces, application integration methodologies, and business-to-business (B2B) message formats. While these issues might be easily solved if every manufacturer used the same operating system and the same middleware, more likely, multiple enterprises will have multiple operating systems and multiple component architectures.

Now, Microsoft builds upon Windows DNA-M with the Microsoft .NET platform and, specifically, Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing.

While DNA-M emphasized the importance of tightly-coupled applications on an internal network, the Microsoft .NET platform expands upon this with support for loosely coupled applications both within the enterprise and over the Internet.

In a tightly coupled environment, Microsoft technologies such as COM, OLE DB, and Visual Basic for Applications help ensure support for mission-critical applications. For example, you might implement OPC servers to link an HMI system to PLC devices in a tightly coupled manner to ensure, for instance, that information about an alarm is exchanged within milliseconds of the alarm's occurrence, allowing the computer system or the operator to take immediate action.

In contrast, an ERP system used to order raw materials from external suppliers does not require real-time response. (Purchase orders must be sent and their acknowledgements received in an accurate and reliable manner, but they can wait seconds, minutes, or even hours without affecting the efficacy of the system.) For example, a loosely coupled application could enable data to be transferred from a SCADA system to an ERP system, triggering an order for more inventory to be placed electronically when network traffic is minimal, after business hours perhaps. Here, a loose coupling is sufficient (i.e., still efficient) for external communication between enterprises.

The integration of a tightly coupled interface-based architecture and a loosely coupled message-based architecture is made possible by the Microsoft .NET platform.

Additionally, the Microsoft .NET platform eliminates many problems associated with system integration across enterprise boundaries. The platform includes a wealth of new technologies, many based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), an industry standard that enables information-rich data exchange. Other technologies include business process orchestration, scalability across multiple processors and multiple servers, and many levels of fine-grained security to meet the challenges of the Internet-enabled business environment.

This comprehensive set of .NET application services enables the fastest time-to-market for building and deploying Web solutions. Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing scales from the real-time requirements of plant floor control to broader e-manufacturing needs, including collaborative design and supply-chain integration.

Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing augments the integrative strengths of Windows DNA by facilitating information exchange among external manufacturing partners. With Microsoft .NET, you can extend your enterprise to include your suppliers, customers, and other partners engaged in your manufacturing process.

Extending the Enterprise

Once upon a time, every company designed, manufactured, and assembled its products independently. Economies of scale quickly proved that companies could increase their profit margins by specializing in areas of expertise. Collaboration, though increasing efficiencies for all participants, requires a high degree of integration. More specifically, electronic integration facilitates more efficient business operation and reduced reliance on mail, fax, and manual data entry.

That integration, however helpful it may one day be, can be costly and daunting to implement. For example, if your company has a Windows-based architecture but your supplier runs on Unix, you will have difficulty linking applications directly to each other over the Internet. Add a firewall, and you likely will be limited to e-mail, simple file transfers, and EDI for automated data exchange with your supplier. These solutions typically require expensive proprietary software and hefty consulting fees. Moreover, these solutions are difficult to update and maintain as business practices change. Given the dynamic nature of business and technology, you simply cannot integrate applications in this fashion.

Enter Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing and the concept of Web services. The Web services model is an Internet-based approach, leveraging the broadest reach and the least expensive communication infrastructure in the world. It uses standard Internet protocols, starting with TCP and UDP to establish connections, HTTP and other protocols to transport data, and XML to describe data.

By using these and other open protocols, Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing ensures that global investments in the Internet communication fabric are working for you. No longer must you rely on proprietary communications intertwined with a complex integration methodology.

Because EDI and complex system integration are not required by the Microsoft .NET platform, your business growth is not hampered by past decisions. Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing offers you the flexibility to change business practices, partners, and technologies as suits your enterprise.

The methodology for integrating your external partners will be the same as that for integrating your internal systems. Because Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing is based on open protocols and standard technology, your existing development team will require little to no additional training to deploy solutions. By supporting open protocols, including the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI), the BizTalk Framework, and XML, Microsoft products enable your developers to network your company seamlessly with your manufacturing partners.

Web services can be considered the building blocks of the next generation Web site. Whereas users today can access tens of millions of Web sites from their browsers, it is still difficult to get any of those sites to interoperate. Web sites are generally static and interactions are user driven. In contrast, a Web service is dynamic and programmable, meaning applications can interact directly with one another. In this model, integration is intrinsic to every application, not merely the afterthought it is today.

The Microsoft .NET Platform

The Microsoft .NET platform shifts an organization's Internet focus from an assortment of individual Web sites and Internet devices to constellations of computers, devices, and services. As constellations, these systems and services work together reliably and securely, and offer broad, convenient solutions. With Microsoft .NET, the Internet becomes a source of integrated, collaborative information and services.

Microsoft .NET is not simply a replacement for Windows DNA, and it is more than a mere name change. Like Windows DNA, Microsoft .NET provides a business-ready platform for integrating solutions. Moreover, Microsoft .NET makes it possible to expand the enterprise to include products and services that exist outside the four walls of your company.

Windows DNA is a methodology for integrating applications. With Windows DNA, Windows is the platform, and applications expose COM-based interfaces. In contrast, Microsoft .NET is a methodology for integrating enterprises. With Microsoft .NET, the Internet is the platform and applications expose XML-based interfaces, allowing you to program the Web.

Microsoft .NET is based on open standards. It augments the presentation capabilities of HTML with the metadata capabilities of XML to provide a programmable, message-based infrastructure. Like HTML, XML is a widely supported industry standard, defined by the World Wide Web Consortium. XML provides a means of separating data from views, which offers a way to unlock information so that it can be organized, programmed, edited, and distributed in ways that are useful to digital devices and applications.

The .NET Development Platform

At the heart of the .NET development platform is the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is a new platform for building integrated, service-oriented applications that gather information from and interact with sources, regardless of the platforms or languages in use. The .NET Framework enables developers to access the features of the common language runtime and offers many high-level services to minimize the recoding of commonly accessed features. The Common Language Runtime implements the .NET Framework and provides a runtime for .NET applications and components to facilitate rapid software development and code reuse. A common object-oriented programming model supports all application services.

The .NET architecture separates application components so that an application always loads the components with which it was built and tested. If the application runs properly after the initial installation, it will always run properly, regardless of the services installed or removed thereafter.

A .NET application can execute on any platform that supports the .NET common language infrastructure. Versions of the common language infrastructure can be built for any platform. Microsoft has already submitted the common language infrastructure to the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), an international industry association dedicated to the standardization of information and communication systems. The common language infrastructure includes the specification of:

• A common set of datatypes used across all supported programming languages.


• A standard XML-based declarative syntax for specifying objects, methods, and datatypes.


• A small set of base classes that provide language support and basic application portability.


• A common intermediate language format for application download and execution, along with metadata that describes the requirements and capabilities of the code.


• A common code verification and execution model with capability limitations depending on context.

Whereas COM allows different programming languages to interoperate, the .NET Framework allows different languages to be integrated. The .NET Framework defines and provides a type system common to all supported languages. Microsoft provides several compilers that target the .NET common language runtime: C++ with managed extensions, C# (pronounced "C sharp"), Visual Basic (subsumes VBScript and Visual Basic for Applications), and JScript® development software. Other companies will provide compilers for languages such as Perl, Python, COBOL, and more.

Because the .NET common language runtime supports many languages, you can implement portions of your application in the language that is best suited for it. For example, one developer might write a component quickly in Visual Basic for the purposes of a simple application. Another developer could use this component at a later time as is, or extend it in C++ to expand the functionality for a more complex application. Debugging for .NET is supported across language boundaries.

Microsoft's C# language is one example of a language that functions seamlessly with .NET. (Microsoft has also submitted the specifications for C# to ECMA.) C# is a modern, object-oriented language that enables developers to quickly build a wide range of applications for .NET. It is designed to bring rapid development to the C++ developer without sacrificing the power and control of C and C++. Like Visual Basic and C++, C# includes built-in support to turn any component into a Web service that can be invoked over the Internet from any application running on any platform. The Web services framework makes existing Web services look like native C# objects to the developer. The language enhances developer productivity while helping to eliminate programming errors.

The Microsoft .NET development platform includes:

• Infrastructure and tools for building and operating services.


• A .NET user environment for enabling rich clients.


• Building block services for designing highly distributed Web services.


• Device software for enabling smart Internet devices.

Building and Operating Services

Most of today's Web sites are built manually and require significant additional development effort before they can work with other sites. Even then, multisite integration is accomplished often by using techniques such as screen scraping, which is easily broken but not easily changed. The Microsoft .NET programming model provides an intrinsic mechanism for building Web sites and services so that they collaborate seamlessly with other sites.

An entirely new set of Microsoft .NET development tools, built specifically for the Web, spans client, server, and service design. Visual Studio.NET, Microsoft's forthcoming development suite for building Web services, will simplify development with a simple drag-and-drop rapid-application development paradigm. Moreover, any platform that understands XML can receive and process the services you develop.

Because Microsoft .NET is based on open standards, you can focus fewer development resources on where and how an application runs and more on its functionality and feature set. Microsoft .NET addresses some of the biggest challenges facing Web service developers today, including ASP and application hosting, integration of hosted applications with other applications, application customization, and running applications offline.

Enabling Rich Clients

Microsoft .NET enables the world of PC and device applications and the world of Web sites to collaborate seamlessly, combining the rich functionality of the PC with the infinite information of the Internet.

To facilitate the development of a single, unified environment for users, an environment that moves transparently between local and remote services and applications and is largely device-independent, Microsoft .NET includes:

• Natural Interface. A collection of technologies that enable speech, vision, handwriting, and natural-language input.


• Universal Canvas. An XML compound information architecture that integrates browsing, communications, and document authoring in a single, unified environment.


• Information Agent. Manages identity and persona over the Internet; maintains history, context, and preferences; and supports privacy-enabling technologies like P3P.


• SmartTags. Extends IntelliSense® technology to Web content.

Designing Distributed Web Services

Microsoft .NET enables developers to leverage and customize a range of core building block services in their own applications and services, reducing the effort required to create compelling products. The core Microsoft .NET building block services correspond to those functional areas in which Microsoft has deep expertise and can provide value to a wide audience of developers.

Microsoft offers the options of subscribing to the core Microsoft .NET services, so that developers can choose where to spend their development resources. Some may elect to build basic service capabilities themselves, but many will opt for a well-packaged solution with strong development tools support. This is comparable to the choice of using development resources to differentiate higher-level products rather than to write proprietary printer drivers or windowing systems.

The core Microsoft .NET building block services include, but are not limited to:

• Identity. Provides levels of authentication ranging from passwords and wallets to smart cards and biometric devices.


• Notification and Messaging. Integrates instant messaging, e-mail, fax, and voice for delivery to any PC or smart device.


• Personalization. Enables the creation of rules and preferences for notification and message handling.


• XML Store. Uses a universal language (XML) and protocol (SOAP) to describe data and maintain data integrity.


• Calendar. Provides for secure integration of work, social, and home calendars and makes them accessible to all of your devices.


• Directory and Search. Interacts programmatically with services to answer specific schema-based questions.


• Dynamic Delivery. Enables Microsoft and developers to dynamically offer incremental levels of functionality and reliable automatic upgrades on demand.

Enabling Internet Devices

Microsoft .NET facilitates the development of Next Generation Internet devices that use hosted services and offer rich local processing capabilities. These devices use the network intelligently, exploiting broadband links while utilizing wireless bandwidth in an economical fashion.

Microsoft's tools are easy-to-use, increasing your return on investment. Windows 2000 Server, the most reliable Microsoft operating system ever, with architectural improvements like a kernel-mode write protection and Windows file protection, supports XML inherently.

Microsoft .NET and Integrative Technologies

Microsoft .NET becomes truly useful to manufacturers when it is combined with other open, Internet-based standards and protocols: the OPC-XML schemas, SOAP and its cousin, the SOAP Reliable Messaging Protocol (SRMP), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), and UDDI. As you'll see, the Microsoft .NET platform facilitates the implementation of these technologies, enabling manufacturers to realize the benefits associated with an extended enterprise.

Before delving into these integrative technologies, it is important to understand the context in which XML provides value. First, XML and message-based technologies do not replace existing interface-based technologies like COM, whose tightly coupled, synchronous nature is required in many situations, particularly equipment control. But the tight coupling afforded by interface-based technologies also makes them difficult to implement over the Internet-it is often difficult to even establish connections due to firewall constraints. In contrast, an XML instance document, wrapped in SOAP and bound to HTTP, can pass easily through an enterprise's firewall on port 80, which is typically open for Web traffic. Much like HTML, XML is independent of operating systems and middleware-as long as an application can parse XML, it can exchange information with other applications. As such, XML provides developers with a powerful new tool for integrating systems in a highly distributed environment.

OPC-XML

The OPC Foundation, having recognized the value of XML in industrial applications, has defined a set of thirteen schemas that can be used in conjunction with the Microsoft .NET platform for manufacturing process control:

• Read (Request, Reply).


• Write (Request, Reply).


• Subscription (Request, Reply, Callback).


• SubscriptionRefresh (Request, Reply).


• SubscriptionCancel (Request, Reply).


• Browse (Request, Reply).

For example, messages encoded using the OPC-XML schemas could be used to control an oil pipeline that spans thousands of miles. Operators could track flow rates, valve positions, and more. If an operator needs to connect to some of the substations on that pipeline over the Internet, he most likely will have to bypass one or more firewalls, making a typical binary-interface connection difficult to achieve.

Each of these schemas can be packaged as a SOAP method call by using Visual Studio.NET.

SOAP

SOAP defines a standard messaging protocol, uses XML to wrap and encode message data, and results in an extensible set of delivery and payload formats. These formats are designed to be extended over time.

By virtue of this extensibility, SOAP provides a standard means of enabling complex application-to-application communication over the Internet. For example, one of the many types of messages that SOAP can send includes an RPC-like combination of method request and reply. A client could send a method request to a server as an individual SOAP message, and the server could return the results as another SOAP message. The messages are formatted in XML and transported by any of a variety of means, including HTTP. (This application of the SOAP protocol is defined in Section 7 of the SOAP 1.1 specification.)

SOAP, like XML, is independent of implementation, eliminating the need to bridge operating systems and object models. SRMP enhances SOAP by defining additional headers that ensure reliability in application-to-application communication.

SOAP has been adopted by the W3C as the starting point for the XML Protocol, which is currently being developed.

UPnP

UPnP is an architecture for peer-to-peer networking of intelligent appliances, wireless devices, and computers of varying form factors. UPnP defines a set of common services that devices can use to join a network and describe themselves and their capabilities, enabling other devices and people to use them without complicated set up or configuration.

By using UPnP devices with the Microsoft .NET platform, you can extend the functionality of the devices in a distributed environment. For instance, an engineer or electrician could walk up to a control network, attach a PC, and discover all of the devices participating on the network. She could then monitor the network activity between them. If one of the devices on the network needs to be replaced, the new device could be configured using an HTML-based web page exposed by the device itself.

The UPnP architecture enables six basic features:

• Device addressing.


• Device/service discovery.


• Device/service description.


• Action invocation.


• Event messaging.


• Presentation of Web pages.

Given the rich set of services exposed by the UPnP architecture and the implementation-independent nature of the architecture itself, UPnP may one day provide a unifying layer over the many disparate FieldBus protocols, such as Profibus, CAN bus, and DeviceNet.

UDDI

UDDI is a platform-independent, open framework for discovering businesses and integrating services over the Internet. Based on SOAP, UDDI is being driven by platform and software providers and e-business leaders, including Microsoft, IBM, and Ariba. The UDDI standard implements World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards, including XML, HTTP and DNS.

You can use the UDDI directory service to locate companies, products, and Web services to enhance your business operation. UDDI registries enable you to describe and discover this information. UDDI includes white pages for contact information, yellow pages for product information, and green pages for service information. You can include references to Web services published on UDDI in applications you write with Visual Studio.NET.

A number of leading companies have joined the UDDI effort, including Andersen Consulting, Commerce One, Compaq, webMethods, Extricity, Great Plains, SAP, Sun Microsystems, and VerticalNet.

The .NET Enterprise Servers

Microsoft is developing .NET applications that exploit the power of XML technology. Microsoft is adding XML support to the applications that make up the .NET platform. At the time of this writing, Microsoft is the only company that offers such a complete set of products and tools for XML support and development. The seamless inclusion of Microsoft .NET technology in Microsoft enterprise server products enhances scalability, interoperability, availability, and manageability.

Windows 2000 Advanced Server

The Windows 2000 Advanced Server operating system contains all of the features and functionality of the standard version of Windows 2000 Server, plus additional features for organizations that require higher levels of scalability, reliability, and availability. Windows 2000 Advanced Server is ideal for line-of-business and e-commerce applications, where scalability and high availability demands are most critical.

Windows 2000 Advanced Server provides integrated system scalability through enhanced symmetric multiprocessing. The two Windows clustering technologies-cluster service and network load balancing-contribute added availability and multi-system scalability.

Cluster service minimizes downtime and reduces IT costs by providing an architecture that keeps systems running in the event of a single system failure. This means that clustering addresses both planned sources of downtime - such as hardware and software upgrades - and unplanned, failure-driven outages.

Combined with relatively inexpensive PC hardware, Windows 2000 Advanced Server gives organizations a powerful and scalable alternative to more expensive proprietary solutions.

Windows 2000 Server is easy to deploy, configure, and use. The operating system provides centralized, customizable management services that work with existing management solutions and mixed-platform distributed networks.

SQL Server 2000

SQL Server offers the most robust database for the Windows family. SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition continues to break world records in line-of-business benchmarks.

Microsoft is committed to developing technologies to simplify interoperability. With SQL Server, Microsoft provides a consistent set of high performance interfaces to enable easy access to the widest range of systems.

SQL Server offers a number of tools for accessing and integrating enterprise data sources with SQL Server-stored data, including Distributed Query Processor (DQP), Data Transformation Services (DTS), and Replication. SQL Server 2000 Analysis (OLAP) Services include a middle-tier server to enable sophisticated analysis of large volumes of data with high data-retrieval performance. The data mining feature in SQL Server 2000 enables companies to discover patterns and trends and make predictions about future trends.

Application Center 2000

Application Center 2000 includes deployment, management, and monitoring tools for Web applications running in server "farms" and provides increased scalability and reliability for mission-critical Web applications.

With Application Center 2000, you can expand or reduce capacity easily by adding servers to or removing servers from the cluster. You can distribute application load across the cluster, using the simplified and centralized management of Network Load Balancing and Component Load Balancing for improved performance. Application Center 2000's support of software scaling provides a fault-tolerant system that can withstand software and hardware failures at any point in the system without disrupting application service.

With Application Center 2000, you can create a single definition for each Web-based or component-based application that lists the contents, components, and configuration settings. You can use this definition to simplify management and deployment tasks. You can duplicate entire applications from one server to another to promote applications through the software life cycle: development, testing, staging, and production. Finally, you can keep your application content, configuration, and components consistent across all the computers in the server cluster.

BizTalk Server 2000

BizTalk Server 2000 provides the infrastructure and tools to enable e-commerce business communities with rules-based business document routing, transformation, and tracking infrastructure. BizTalk Server takes advantage of the high scalability of Windows 2000 Server and load balances to ensure optimum performance.

BizTalk Server 2000 extensibility makes integration with multiple line-of-business (LOB) applications easy. With application integration components (AICs), companies can avoid costly one-time, per-application integration work. LOB application vendors including BAAN, Great Plains, JD Edwards, Navision, and SAP are committed to integrating their applications with BizTalk Server 2000. BizTalk Server 2000 works seamlessly with Host Integration Server 2000 (see below), allowing process integration and document exchange with legacy systems such as mainframes and AS/400s.

BizTalk Server automates the establishment of trading partner agreements with a completely GUI-based interface. This easy-to-use console saves deployment time by freeing the administrator from programming; BizTalk Server takes care of the coding.

Commerce Server 2000

Commerce Server 2000 provides the e-commerce infrastructure for building an online business, including user profiling and management, product and service management, transaction processing, and targeted marketing and merchandising.

Commerce Server 2000 provides an extensible framework for defining and linking together stages of a business process to enable tailored processing of orders, advertising, merchandising, content selection and more.

Commerce Server 2000 integrates with BizTalk Server to enable XML-based catalog updates and exchange with trading partners. This out-of-box feature makes it easy to keep your product and pricing information up-to-date both within your organization as well as in the various marketplaces and other buyer groups using your catalog data.

Commerce Server 2000 reduces the complexity and the time required to build, deploy, and maintain electronic commerce solutions. From fully functional out-of-the-box starter sites and a comprehensive SDK to administrative tools, Commerce Server makes it easy for you to create sites that are tailored to meet your business needs.

Exchange Server 2000

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000, seamlessly integrated with the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, is designed to meet the messaging and collaboration needs for businesses of all sizes, from small organizations to large distributed enterprises.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 provides a 24x7 messaging and collaboration infrastructure with a low total cost of ownership. The server application is designed specifically for Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and delivers enhanced reliability, scalability, and performance derived from unified management of messaging, collaboration, and network resources.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 supports a wide range of collaborative activities, including group scheduling capabilities, discussion groups, and team folders. With built-in content indexing and search, users can find and share information quickly. Using Web-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the Web Storage System provides a hosting platform for workflow, customer service, and knowledge management applications.

Host Integration Server 2000

Host Integration Server 2000 preserves investments in existing legacy systems with support for quick, easy, distributed application development by using Windows 2000 core services.

Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 solves the problem of integrating the Windows operating system with other non-Windows enterprise systems running on platforms such as IBM mainframes, AS/400, and UNIX. It provides network, data, and application integration with a variety of legacy hosts so that you can easily and cost effectively put vital legacy computing resources to work in new Web or client/server applications.

Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000

Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000 (ISA Server) integrates robust firewall and caching capabilities by building on Microsoft Windows 2000 security and directory for policy-based security, acceleration, and management of internetworking.

No one product fits all security and performance needs, so ISA Server was built to be highly extensible. ISA Server includes a comprehensive SDK for in-house development, a large selection of third-party add-on solutions, and an extensible administration option.

ISA Server intelligent caching technology reduces network traffic and speeds up network access. Reporting helps network managers analyze application usage, network traffic patterns and security so that they can easily prioritize bandwidth allocation by group, application, site or content type.

By providing an infrastructure for Web security and acceleration, ISA Server streamlines policy management and simplifies administration of internetworking. ISA Server integrates with many of the core services in the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, providing a consistent and powerful way to manage user access, configuration, and rules.

(Click here for part 2 of this white paper.)