Microsoft calls on resellers to take the plunge

The software giant has staked its future on .Net and needs partners to fully exploit the market.

If a Microsoft-flavoured version of web services doesn't take off and become the biggest thing since sliced bread, the software company may have to face the biggest challenge of its 27-year life.

Microsoft's belief in its .Net platform is so great that it has poured in millions of dollars of development funding. If the strategy fails to set the business world alight, as some industry experts expect, the firm is going to have to do a lot of rethinking before coming up with an alternative money-spinner.

Because network infrastructure and the services it carries are becoming so important for future business, Microsoft naturally hopes that its grip on the world's business desktops and servers will translate into a domination of the web services market.

At its Tech-Ed 2002 conference in Barcelona Microsoft revealed how it sees web services as a growing market that can be further explored by the firm and its channel partners to their mutual advantage.

According to the Redmond mantra, web services are the way forward and .Net, launched in June 2000, is the best platform for businesses to achieve this.

In turn, the firm claims that this is good news for the channel because the software giant intends to use its resellers and independent software vendors (ISVs) as much as possible to help implement the technology.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa, said in his keynote speech at the conference: "We are going to dive deeper into the technology sea of XML web services.

"Microsoft is doing a lot of work with the channel around this technology and now is the time to investigate web services and the benefits the technology can bring to business."

Set within a stone's throw of Barcelona's Olympic stadium, the convention centre that played home to Tech-Ed 2002 is a vast building in which Microsoft and its many partners displayed their latest software, strategies and hardware to an eager audience.

The software giant said that it is concentrating on five key areas in its .Net strategy: reliability, security, integration, performance and management.

In a survey of European developers and IT professionals carried out by Microsoft, 54 per cent of more than 1,700 respondents said that their organisations were developing web services, 90 per cent said they would be developing web services in 2003, and 94 per cent believed the that advent of web services offered new business opportunities.

Security concerns

Mobility and security featured heavily throughout the conference. Both are very important to Microsoft, which has not always enjoyed a reputation for security. The firm is also relatively new to the mobile computing arena.

Annemarie Duffy, Europe, Middle East and Africa wireless and mobility marketing manager at Microsoft, said: "Following the launch of .Net, Microsoft became committed to providing software for personal digital assistants and other mobile devices, including phones.

"Pocket PC was launched in 2000 and we wanted it to be a business tool. We have provided tools to developers, which means that anyone can develop applications for the Pocket PC.

"Two years on, with the partnership of vendors such as Hewlett Packard, Acer, Toshiba and Fujitsu, we have 40 per cent market share.

"Microsoft is very much a partner business, from a development and a reselling point of view. Without our partners we could not be successful."

During the event, Microsoft's mobility partners took full advantage of the opportunity to showcase their latest Windows-powered mobile devices.

HP showed its iPAQ 3900 series Pocket PC and Fujitsu Siemens announced that its Pocket LOOX PDA will be available in Europe this month.

Frank Reichart, marketing director for enterprise products at Fujitsu Siemens, said: "Many employees are working from home and using PDAs, but mobility is not just about hardware. We used Tech-Ed to show solutions such as wireless synchronisation, managed mobility and intelligent roaming to our customers."

Synchrologic, Microsoft's mobility partner, launched its Email Accelerator server platform at Tech-Ed, which automatically delivers email, calendar events, contacts and personalised information to PDA and mobile devices running on corporate Exchange and Domino servers.

Mobile strategies

Bill Jones, vice president of product management at Synchrologic, which has a network of 25 channel partners in the UK, said: "By partnering with Microsoft we can help unleash mobile access for businesses. We have been very keen to work with mobile carriers, which are very important in the wireless data world."

Channel partners in the UK agree that mobility is an important up-and-coming market.

David Reynolds, development manager at Microsoft partner and ISV Star Computers, which specialises in the accountancy market, said: "Certainly we are seeing more demand for partners and fee earners to be able to work remotely.

"While remote working traditionally may have been from a fixed location, today we are increasingly seeing the need for nomadic access."

Although the demand for PDA access is not significant now, it will become a requirement within a couple of years, according to Reynolds.

"The only logical way to deliver the required services will be via the web, and the development of our software is totally geared to the .Net strategy, with SQL as the database," he said.

Bola Robibi, an analyst for software development and application servers at Ovum, explained that Microsoft has a fair bit of work ahead before its web services dream is fulfilled.

"There are important issues on which Microsoft needs to concentrate. .Net is a good way forward for Microsoft and good for firms where everything is integrated well," he said.

"But many customers don't have the level of integration Microsoft is talking about, and often they have a mix of .Net and other applications. Web services are part of the picture, but it is not just about connectivity; it is about communication."

Trustworthy computing?

In terms of security, Microsoft was keen to push its concept of trustworthy computing as a vital ingredient of .Net.

Stuart Okin, chief security officer at Microsoft UK, said: "The vision for trustworthy computing is that in 10 to 15 years we will reach a point where the computing environment is as trusted as any utility by both business and home users.

"To do this we are going to be working closely with customers, partners, the government, law enforcement agencies and even Microsoft's competitors."

Okin admitted that there will always be bugs in Microsoft software because developers are only human. But he maintained that the firm works hard to issue patches when needed. However, despite the bugs, he dismissed claims by Linux advocates that open source software is more secure than proprietary software.

"The complexity of [open source] stems from the fact that there is not a single point of accountability, which is very important. Users need someone to be accountable when something goes wrong," he said.

Okin added that Microsoft had learned a lot of lessons from Linux, and had extended its shared source programme to systems integrators and enterprise customers.

However, Microsoft will not be going down the open source route. "I don't think anybody should be ashamed of benefiting from the fruits of their labour, and Microsoft has every right to do this," Okin said.

James Governor, an analyst at Illuminata, had some sympathy for Microsoft, claiming that it faces a "thankless task".

"Microsoft has to be constantly ahead of the competition because, any time it has a slight problem with its products, the issue is pounced on by the press, whereas its competitors get away with a lot more," he said.

The whole concept of .Net-powered web services will create a wealth of opportunities for the channel, according to Governor.

"Microsoft has always created opportunities for the channel, and one of the reasons it didn't get spanked more by the US Department of Justice was because of its third-party involvement," he said. "Microsoft has created its own ecosystem in terms of the channel."

The infrastructure middleware market, however, is becoming increasingly competitive, and both Microsoft and its channel partners will have to fight for margin.

Governor concluded that there will be a "wireless bean feast" for resellers and third parties, with .Net bringing "yet another technology wave".

SUMMARY:

• The channel will play a key role in helping Microsoft's web services strategy.
• According to a Microsoft survey, 90 per cent of respondents said they would be developing web services in 2003.
• Microsoft and its partners have a 40 per cent share of the mobile market.
• Analysts believe Microsoft still has work to do before its web services dream comes true.
• Microsoft is working hard to push trustworthy computing and to improve the security record of its .Net platform.