Microsoft Streamlines Its Messaging Strategy, According to CMP's Computer Reseller NewsCompany Plans to Erase Line Between Exchange Server and its Internet Mail ServerPRNewswire Microsoft Corp. is streamlining its messaging strategy, according to an article in next week's Computer Reseller News. The piece, also posted to Computer Reseller News Online (http://www.crn.com/) says that the company is planning to erase the line between Exchange Server and its Internet mail server. The new plan is "to have a set of bits, based on Exchange, completely usable by MSN, CompuServe (Inc.) and (America Online Inc.), as well as small and medium ISPs and other companies," said Greg Lobdell, Group Product Manager for Exchange Server. The move acknowledges the confusion among corporate accounts and resellers regarding the two products and their respective markets. Microsoft had pitched Microsoft Internet Mail Server (MIMS) to large ISPs, including CompuServe, and vowed it never would be offered to other accounts. Exchange Server was the groupware/messaging solution for non-ISP businesses of all sizes, Microsoft said -- at least until last week. A new three-year plan laid out for the company's executive team a few weeks ago "called for one code base by 1998, essentially one kernel because it's quite expensive having multiple code bases and multiple different products that do almost the same thing," Lobdell said. He added that the company can reach that goal in the next 12 to 15 months. Lobdell, a 14-year veteran with Microsoft, plans to retire at the end of this week (Computer Reseller News Online, April 2). The decision to merge products follows a reorganization this past December and January, which put all messaging and news clients into a single group. Before that, there was an Exchange client group with the Exchange Server effort, an Outlook team in the Office group, and an Internet Mail client team in the Internet Explorer unit. All mail and news servers are now in a single group headed by General Manager Brian Valentine. Lobdell acknowledged that part of the market confusion -- "and let's be clear, there was confusion" -- over Microsoft's mail strategy occurred because products originally had come out of different constituencies. "Even though it's not conscious, people still feel ownership for technologies," he said. "Simple things like data sheets and wording in communications and on the Web lead to some confusion." The company is starting to brief key reseller partners and ISVs on its plans. For VARs struggling to make sense of Microsoft's diverse mail-server and client offerings, this should come as welcome news. "Microsoft has to come out and clearly explain its client and server strategies because there are conflicts on both sides," said one large Solution Provider who requested anonymity. Exchange 5.0, which shipped last month, helped break down the line with Web offerings. Exchange has its roots in the proprietary X.400 realm. And like rival Lotus Development Corp., Microsoft has had to race to embrace the popular Web protocols in its client/server product. Exchange 5.0 now lets standard browsers access mailboxes and shared folders on the server. And with Domino, Lotus has moved much of Notes' technology to the Web, as well. But the transition to the Web has bred chaos in corporate accounts and resellers servicing them, observers said. Microsoft has about five clients and Lotus, with even more, "is pathetic," said one analyst (CRN, April 1). "We're caught in two transitions -- one at the back end from proprietary client/server environments to open systems, and at the front end maybe a more profound transition from application-based client to information-based architecture and from file-share to groupware collaborative environments," said Nina Burns, president of Creative Networks Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., research firm. Others said Microsoft is making progress on the Web front. "They had to make Exchange a good mail server before making it a good Internet mail server," said David Marshak, vice president of The Patricia Seybold Office Group, Boston. Published by CMP Media Inc., Computer Reseller News has a circulation of more than 115,000 and reaches influential readers from Wall Street to Silicon Valley with the product trends and industry news needed to sell comprehensive technology solutions. CMP Media Inc. provides publishing, marketing and information services to the broad high-technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and users of technology -- through print and electronic media. All of CMP's publications and online products can be accessed through the company's TechWeb® site on the World Wide Web (http://www.techweb.com/). Along with Computer Reseller News, print titles include EE Times, Computer Retail Week, InformationWeek, and WINDOWS Magazine. -0- 04/04/97 SOURCE: CMP Media, Inc. CONTACT: Catherine Jarrat Koatz, 516-562-7827, or by e-mail |