Microsoft. NET Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Microsoft Microsoft. NET Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
. NET Plan
Microsoft CEO Ballmer shook his strong right shoulder, a punch in the air: "We continue to punch!" "He's got another punch:" Strike! "Another punch:" Then attack! "The result did not disappoint us!" "said Ballmer.
Ballmer is talking about Microsoft. NET plan, which attempts to extend Microsoft's advantage over the PC market to the Internet.
When Bill Gates announced the plan last June, he was right. NET plan has only made a very vague introduction, many experts do not know much about it. But now the outline of the plan is becoming clearer. NET plans to put all of Microsoft's products together, from the terminal to the front-end, from mobile software to server software, and all online. Through this. NET plan, Microsoft, which has taken a radical strategy, is looking forward to the day when businesses and customers can rent any valuable internet-based service from Microsoft or his allies.
To this end, Microsoft has developed a set of technologies that run through all of Microsoft's products and services, allowing consumers and businesses to find and operate any application on the Internet from a variety of machines. NET's technology core is a computer language XML that enables the exchange of data on a network in different devices--such as servers, PCs, mobile phones--to run any application, regardless of the language in which the applications are written. Other technologies, such as the Java language of the Sun company, are similar to XML, but its user coding is tricky. Most startups use XML language, which is simple and practical. Microsoft's competitors are trying to overtake Microsoft in this regard.
Rivals say Microsoft has been hit by bare hands's E-commerce arena. But the truth is, even in. NET has not completely come to the bottom of the time, Microsoft has unwittingly become a giant in the field of E-commerce technology. Microsoft has been a continuous attack in the highly profitable server software market that Oracle and Sun have long occupied. The windows-based server is already running at more than half of the Web site front-end. Large retail sites, barnes&noble.com and nordstrom.com, use Windows systems, with 20 of the 50 largest electronic retailers using Windows and 50 of the largest business-to-business websites, up to 50%. On the consumer side, Microsoft's often-derided portal MSN and other sites have more access than Yahoo and AOL.
. NET is Microsoft's soul-stirring gamble, whether success is still not sure. The plan to make money out of rental services and software, and the previous model of bringing Microsoft the most profitable company in history--to sell proprietary intellectual-property packages at times as high as 90%-is different. At the same time, this is Microsoft's great shift to its own areas of no advantage: services. Microsoft, including MSN's consumer services division, lost 436 million dollars in the second quarter. But Ballmer said Microsoft was ready to lose money to expand. Net. There are 27 billion of dollars in the bank, and Microsoft can exchange money for markets for a long time. Mr. Ballmer said that 10 years later, Microsoft will be selling almost all of the Internet services, all can be downloaded free from the Internet.
Think about it, people will no longer use the Windows installation CD. Instead, software upgrades, bug patches, file backups, all on the internet, one months as long as 3.95 dollars! If you have a business, you can contract with Microsoft, to provide your corporate website email system, sales application system, etc., do not waste your engineers even a minute of time. Microsoft really seems to be directing the change that is far-reaching not just for the company, but for everyone who engages in e-commerce.
　　 the advent of Hailstrorm
In March of this year, Microsoft launched the Grand Hailstrorm. It allows you to see the functionality of XML. In addition to calendars, notebooks, address books, and so on, the first generation of Hailstrorm includes 14 user network services. All of this will be stored on Microsoft's servers and can be exchanged quickly on the Internet via XML language. Ballmer raved about hailstorm.
You might think, it's a big deal, and many of its features are practical. But Microsoft thinks all this is just the beginning. The real power lies in its ability to facilitate business. In fact, Microsoft has struck a deal with ebay, in which ebay will use HailStorm to turn its auctions into services. In return, ebay agreed to use Microsoft's servers in its core technology segment.
The advent of hailstorm has attracted a lot of attention, but most Web services will not be available until next year. Microsoft's most imminent war is in the server Software market, and now it is installing XML in all of its products. Oracle's CEO, Ellison, believes that the explosive growth of E-commerce has doomed Microsoft, because Microsoft's server software is not up to market demands. He points out that many large Web sites run Oracle's database software on UNIX servers, classifying and storing content and data that thousands of of visitors sometimes request simultaneously. Microsoft, by contrast, is a successor. "Microsoft is a typical PC company," Shahen Kain, Sun Marketing Manager, commenting, "when they suddenly turn into a new field, they don't know that there are a lot of things they don't understand." ”
Indeed, UNIX companies have a much larger storage base than Microsoft, but Windows grows faster. According to international Data group, sales in the Windows Server market increased by 31% in 2000 to $13.9 billion, while the UNIX market grew by only 14% per cent. Microsoft also operates a number of industry-influential web sites, such as: nasdaq.com,realtor.com. Of course, there are two biggest websites: MSN and microsoft.com.
　　 two great weapons .
In the past, people always thought that Microsoft's server software power is not enough, and unreliable. But with the advent of Windows 2000, many companies say everything has changed. While UNIX companies still have a certain advantage in making large servers, this advantage is shrinking. "Windows has completed most of the needs of all companies," said William Chackman, vice president of the Meta Group survey, "how Microsoft treated PCs before and how it treats servers." This is the biggest trend in it. ”
Mr Ballmer believes that competitors such as Sun, Oracle and UNIX will not be able to effectively protect their future profit growth once the market recognizes Microsoft's position in the domain of server software. His reason is: Microsoft's software is very very cheap! This combination of Oracle and sun causes them to cost twice times as much as Windows.
Remember, Microsoft does not enjoy XML alone. Microsoft and IBM are working hard to get soap approval, making it an open industry standard. Other tech companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle,sun, and other rookies, boast about how well their own XML products are. But Microsoft believes it has two great weapons to win the battle. The first is the Design toolkit, Microsoft hopes its design toolkit can win the loyalty of the developers, so that it will be promoted faster. The other weapon is BizTalk. This demand center, which provides services for E-commerce, can translate information from the outside computer network into a language that can be understood by its own network. BizTalk can also simplify the enterprise process to a flowchart on your computer screen, which is a potentially powerful tool.
BizTalk is not the first software to automate business processes, nor is it necessarily the best. But, like many Microsoft products, BizTalk is cheap! BizTalk, priced between 5000 and 25000 dollars, is a few orders of magnitude cheaper than other companies ' products. What really scares other similar software producers is that Microsoft promises to keep the price of BizTalk products as it continues to escalate.
Microsoft has once again firmly grasped the core technology of the next trend. "Last year I looked around for technical support and found out that the only engineers who could help me were Microsoft." Its technical power is terrible! "Dollar rent, a senior programmer at the company, said Osberni.
　　 the future of the software industry
To a large extent, MSN growth is the astonishing embodiment of Microsoft's comprehensive strength, it is. NET strategy plays a vital role. Since its inception in 1995, this portal site, the fate of more Jie, in the digital field a bit unlucky. 1996 years later, MSN customers shrank to 2 million, while AOL users reached 20 million in the same period. The chairman of AOL Interactive group even dubbed MSN "Microsoft's Vietnam War".
About two years ago, Gates and Ballmer were determined to clean MSN thoroughly and spread out new plans. Ballmer recalls: "We full-gush, the already have and can be collected to all the top talent to MSN, All is a temporary choice!" "Microsoft Management's star, Blade Ches, also agreed to be on MSN after Windows 95 and I e browser marketing started." "I feel that the service software will be the future of the software industry." "he explained. Chase abandoned those flashy features and turned to offering "mundane" services, because they were as common as bread but no one needed them, and they created today's MSN. Today, MSN Traffic is second only to Yahoo in the U.S. and ranked first in the world. According to Media Metrix's survey data, January 2001, MSN Global users reached 1.09 billion people, Yahoo 978 million, AOL is 950 million; in February, MSN's Instant Messaging service surpassed AOL for the first time.
MSN website has been considered as a necessary front desk for Microsoft Network Service system. For example, Hailstrorm will use Hotmail and a certification system called Passport, both of which can be easily accessible from MSN. Microsoft is confident that it will attract more software developers and site developers to design hailstorm-based service software, as ebay has done in the past, as the number of good things on the internet has grown and become an exciting source of access.
For commercial applications, another piece of Microsoft's integration template is bcentral. It also has a whole range of applications, such as Web design, content management, order entry, financial auditing, and customer tracking-all of which can be enjoyed at $110 a month. The number of visitors to the site reached 1.7 million in February this year. Microsoft recently bought the Great Plains software company, is a medium-sized company business application software Design leader, its excellent software will be launched on bcentral, and even changed their names. "Our goal is to integrate all the application services software on a broad platform," he said. "said Ballmer. By next year, many companies will be able to selectively access some of bcentral's software through XML and SOAP, and if you need to take it from the Web, Microsoft has done it for you. Over the past 9 months, the number of visits to the site has risen by 70%. Mr Ballmer has counted, and his online forces are gradually replacing "Microsoft's old routine." All this is going to be a reality and we just want to be a growing company in any way. ”
　　 Beyond the past
This strategy is passed. NET Series Service software eventually forms the operating system of the Internet, and then controls other service application software based on this platform, and Microsoft's expatiating of PC application software. Mr Ballmer is acutely aware that any future strategy from Microsoft is unlikely to be as profitable as the PC era, but Ballmer wants to cut a relatively small chunk out of the web cake, "in the pursuit of profit, not profit growth percentage." ”
The next few years are very mysterious. The PC business, which once accounted for 70% of Microsoft's revenue, is now stalled. The company's share price, which rose 30% at the start of the year, is still less than half of its shares last January. Internet services have not been profitable in nearly two years. Therefore, the biggest challenge is the problem of network fees. Microsoft must consider how to turn the focus to the Web. In the short term it will be dual-line operations, upgrade Windows 2000 desktop software, while continuing to speed up the development of server software. However, the focus on. NET should depend on how many Microsoft products it contains.
Another cloud is slowly forming. It seems that the Federal Supreme Court will veto or amend Jackson's decision to split Microsoft into two. NET plan has sparked a new dispute over antitrust. The original accusation against Microsoft was that it bundled IE in Windows. of this. NET plan, the integration of all Microsoft software applications and facilities is not a more serious challenge to antitrust law?
Microsoft argues that XML is an open system that anyone can use freely. Web services can be done on a non-Windows platform, and Microsoft's service software can also be applied to rival facilities. In fact, Microsoft is betting that it can provide the best network services and software. However, its network software is too cheap, will fall the pretext of unfair competition.
Both Gates and Mr. Ballmer have unanimously denied that they had wasted time on the monopoly and declared their energies were in the cast. NET above. "We have to continue to grow and learn, and we have come to the front," Ballmer said enthusiastically, "We are the best website in the world." It's us! "The lesson he gives us is that, in the middle of the game, no matter what blows, you will win if you stick to the last minute," he said.
This text is transferred from "Chinabyte"