Microsoft made a presentation on its .NET strategy at the India Internet World 2000 exhibition here on Friday. Making the presentation, Mr Daniel Ingitaraj K, marketing manager, India, Microsoft, said that the new strategy would address businesses which can build solutions. The key ingredient in the .NET strategy is XML, which acts like a glue to bring all the pieces together in data exchange.Although it was globally launched by Microsoft chairman, Mr Bill Gates, in June, the first of the .NET solutions will be available in India in another two months. Elaborating on the .NET solutions, Mr Ingitaraj said it's all about an interactive experience. For instance, if you are buying an item on the Web, you'll get a similar experience of going to a mall with a voice greeting etc.
But that's just one level of personalisation. Said Mr Ingitaraj from offering first generation Internet in the early '90s to second generation Internet around '97, now Microsoft is on to the third generation of Internet. And Microsoft has been able to get on to the third level with the interactive software of .NET solutions.
The fundamental behind the .NET strategy is that Web is not just a browsing mechanism, but a platform for businesses to interact with each other. In effect, exchange of paper between businesses should be minimised. Therefore, two organisations should be able to exchange documents on the Web, said Mr Ingitaraj.
The .NET solution is an application which can run on any device, irrespective of its configuration, said Mr Ingitaraj. The problem of incompatibility wouldn't exist at all, he said.
The various components of .NET are client, server, building blocks and device. And the products under the .NET enterprise services are SQL Server 2000, Application Center 2000, Commerce Server 2000, Biz Talk Server 2000, Host Integration Server 2000 and Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000.
Of these, Biz Talk Server 2000 is set to be the most popular among the businesses, said Mr Ingitaraj. It's specifically a B2B product which allows businesses to exchange data on the Web. Elaborating on the product, Mr Ingitaraj said that Biz Talk solves the problem of incompatibility between the servers in various organisations because it's effective on any device across all organisations.
There's something for B2C Websites also. Commerce Server 2000 would help those businesses intending to build interactive B2C sites, Mr Ingitarajan said.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.