Microsoft Casts Its .NET
This column appeared in the August 2000 edition of EXE,
my last printed article before the magazine folded. I felt it was fortunate
that my final piece was something that looked to the future, namely the
recently announced strategy for Microsoft technology as a whole.
This month I’m moving away from any purely Visual Basic
content to review the recent series of presentations given by Bill Gates and co
concerning the forthcoming Microsoft .NET (pronounced “dot-net”)
initiative. Previously referred to as the Next-Generation Windows Services
(NGWS), this new statement will, in the words of Microsoft, “provide
easier, more personalised and more productive Internet experiences by
harnessing constellations of smart devices and Web sites with advanced software
through Internet protocols and formats”. Because Microsoft is now planning
a change of direction it is perhaps useful to start disseminating details of
this strategy to give developers and companies the opportunity to start
preparing for it.
Like it or loathe it there’s no denying that Microsoft is
a fantastically successful company, and part of the reason for this is that it
recognises the need to reinvent itself every few years. It originally moved its
initial product range from DOS over to Windows, and then a few years later it
turned the company around on a sixpence to incorporate the Internet into
virtually everything that it produced. This latest change, every bit as
important as the previous ones, is the formal adoption of a strategy that it
hopes will position itself as a major platform of choice in the emerging
Application Service Provider (ASP) marketplace.
Several other big players, such as Oracle,
Hewlett–Packard, Sybase, and IBM have already started to make their
presence felt in this area. In the case of Microsoft, of course, it has
effectively been trying to forge ahead with one leg tied behind its back
because of the ongoing monopoly court case. Indeed, because of the legal action
the actual technology announcement was delayed by a few weeks to allow time for
Judge Jackson to present his verdict. Originally slated for April 1st of this
year, it was initially postponed until June 1st but didn’t finally happen
until June 22nd. Despite the fact that Microsoft has now made a public
statement regarding their future intentions, the fact remains that again they
have to play catch up to the current Internet trends. In true Microsoft fashion
the announcement may be late, but it’s big.
So what is it?
The .NET programme is fundamentally concerned with the sharing
and moving of data over Internet architecture, with improved security services
as appropriate. The key to virtually all of this is XML because it provides the
basis for a universally recognizable format to facilitate the transfer of data
and any associated schemas. XML is a means of defining data, and the means by
which XML is passed around from one device to another is the Simple Object
Access Protocol (SOAP).
The future for the web user is to extend the original concept
of Information At Your Fingertips; a slogan that is now ten years old! This is
turning the concept into more of a far-reaching endeavour however because you
will be able to share data and information in a much more global fashion. Of
course the accompanying technology that will facilitate all of this is the
emerging rise in wireless technologies, coupled with the eventual availability
of higher–bandwidth, “always on” telecommunications links such
as ADSL or better. Combining these two together means that your data should
always be up to date and available wherever it is needed. Users should be able
to control how, when, and what information is delivered to them.
How Will It Be Delivered?
Forthcoming versions of most of Microsoft’s core products
will be geared towards this new direction, and at the time of writing some of
the products names are actually appended with the .NET suffix. Overall this
statement reveals that the existing products that are affected by the new
direction will be oriented towards Web–based services that are accessible
from either a conventional PC–based browser, or newer technologies such as
cellular phones and handheld devices.
The product at the very core of this is of course Windows
itself; the full .NET successor to Windows 2000 is currently codenamed
“Blackcomb” and is intended for launch within the 2002 timeframe.
Within this product will be a set of .NET building block services (see Figure
1) that will form the basis for applications and components. Bill did say that
this would offer a full new user experience, which translates into something
along the lines of “another user interface change is coming along”.
In the shorter term (i.e. 2001) there will be an immediate successor to Windows
2000, currently codenamed “Whistler”, that will offer the beginnings
of the .NET services. As you can see this is all something that will be
emerging over time; Microsoft were very much referring to the “2002+”
timeframe for things to start coming to fruition.
| Building Block |
Description |
| Identity
|
Based around current Microsoft Passport and
Windows authentication technology, this is a mechanism for providing user
authentication using techniques such as passwords, smart cards, and biometric
devices. This will be released with “Whistler”. |
| Notification and messaging
|
Integrates messaging, email, fax, voice mail, and
so on into a unified notification. |
Personalisation
|
Allows the user to specify
rules governing how, where, and when messages will be handled and how data will
be shared. Also handles the synchronisation of a user’s data among
multiple devices. |
| XML store |
Describes and contains the data held by the user
using XML and SOAP definitions. This XML store can either be on a user’s
own computer, or can be leased from a service provider |
| Calendar
|
Based on the Outlook messaging
service, this securely integrates work, social, and home calendars so that they
are available to all of a user’s devices and, optionally, whether they are
available to the outside world (and how). |
| Directory and search
|
The .NET concept will allow for the maintenance
of central directories of services and people, allowing for schema–based
search operations to take place. |
| Dynamic delivery
|
Allows for automatic upgrading
of a service without user installation or configuration. |
Figure 1: Microsoft.NET building block services
Office.NET will provide what Bill Gates describes as a
Universal Canvas Technology which “is the idea that you no longer leave
the browser”. This will see the fruits of a project that’s been on
the go at Redmond for some time now, namely the renting of software. In this
case you will run a copy of Office that exists on a web server rather than your
own local hard disk. The benefits put forward here are that you never need to
worry about having to apply service packs or tweak the configuration in order
to get it to run properly because Microsoft will take care of all that (hmmm!).
Seriously though, the concept is that the collaboration services introduced
with Office 2000 will really come into their own because you can make your
project or calendar information (for example) as publicly available – or
not – as you choose. To alleviate any concerns that might arise at this
stage I will point out that Microsoft have stated that a non .NET-based version
of this product will still be offered and supported.
Visual Studio.NET is the product that will follow the eagerly
awaited Visual Studio 7. I already devoted a column to this subject in the May
2000 edition of EXE, but as far as Windows.NET is concerned the key features
will be Web Forms and Web Services. While Visual Basic is due for a major
revamp, a whole new branding of C++ is also in the works: C# – pronounced
“C sharp” – is being provided to deliver “the computing
power of the C++ language and the ease of use of its own Visual Basic
language”. VS7 is already in a limited beta, and could possibly be in a
more publicly available form of pre-release by the time you read this.
bCentral for .NET, another part of this vision, will be a
series of subscription-based services and tools “for small and growing
businesses”. It will offer Web Services such as commerce services, hosted
messaging and email, and a customer relationship management function which will
offer companies the facility to track interactions with customers.
As a means to the storage of user data Microsoft are also busy
enhancing their MSN service into MSN.NET. This will enable customers to create
a “single digital personality” and will provide email, calendaring,
instant messages, Web site publishing, and document authoring. The technology
behind this new premium subscription service is also still under development
and is likely to go into beta later in the year.
Finally, the Information Agent service will manage a
user’s identity and data. It is a service that will be responsible for
making user data available to that user – or whoever else has permission
to access it – from a range of devices, including desktop PCs, tablet PCs,
and smart phone that support the .NET technology. Greater control is maintained
over how web sites and services interact with the user, based upon the stored
profile of preferences and history. To all Star Trek fans out there, I
can’t help but see the similarity to the various devices the crew of the
Enterprise carry around such as tricorders and PADDs, all of which hook up to
each other via wireless communication.
Web Services
If the 1990’s were about the rise of the Internet, then
this new decade will be about the provision of services and components
available on the net. I would certainly expect to see a lot of success stories
based around companies that lease their components for usage on the net. The
principle here is that an application developer can hook into existing code
components that are available “out there” at some URL. Each time the
component is used a nominal charge can be applied, allowing the service
providers to generate revenue from the usage. The company developing the
application, on the other hand, saves the cost and time of developing a
particular piece of software because it’s already out there for rent. This
concept will be empowered by a feature that is currently known as Web Service
“Discovery”. The aim of this is to provide the programmatic tracking
down of the service locations and service descriptions for all the available
Web Service providers in the world. This will fit within Visual Studio as a
pane that will allow you to drill down some form of object hierarchy to find
the service that you want, and then drag it onto your project.
So Microsoft are steaming ahead ever more deeply into Internet
territory, and are also apparently looking to set themselves up as an Internet
services company. This .NET strategy will take two to three years to start
coming to fruition so there will be plenty of time for further legal obstacles
to be raised. Microsoft’s rough ride is by no means over yet.
I, Jon Michael Perkins, hereby assert and give notice of my right under section 77 of the Copyright, Designs,
and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of the foregoing article.