In the next 18 months Microsoft will replace BizTalk Server, Commerce Server and Content Management Server with a suite called "Jupiter." The software maker said here at the IT Forum that it would replace its three products in the e-business area with one suite, which will probably sell at a reduced price.
The suite, code-named Jupiter, which will combine the features of BizTalk Server, CMS and Commerce Server, will ship around the end of 2003, and replace all three of the servers on the market today. "The current products will be broken down into components and put into Jupiter," said Dave Wascha, product manager for the new program. "We want to reduce the overlap and redundancy."
Wascha said that customers want to have features unified around business processes, not products, and that the suite will, like the Office suite before it, take previously separate functions and put them in one box. The functions of the three current products will be referred to under the headings processes, data and people.
Because Microsoft is still a newcomer to this area, the product will emphasize interoperability with others in the area of EAI (enterprise application integration) and business-to-business commerce, said Wascha.