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Microsoft's Platform Strategies Today
.NET is still a conundrum, but the picture is getting clearer.
by Peter O'Kelly

Posted May 18, 2004

This is the second Trends & Analysis column in a series focused on the past, present, and future of Microsoft's platform strategies. The first column, "Understanding Microsoft's Platform Strategies," established a framework for evaluating Microsoft's product line in terms of platforms, tools, applications, and services. This column focuses on Microsoft's progress with .NET thus far relative to the framework, and includes an assessment of the extent to which Microsoft's 2003-2004 product line is fully .NET-ified.

During mid-2000, Microsoft's .NET strategy was introduced into a radically different software market. Specifically, the Internet bubble had yet to burst, technology stocks were irrationally overvalued, enterprises were aggressively investing in unproven software domains, and Microsoft was generally considered a has-been software vendor.

Java and Web-based computing in general were expected to thwart Microsoft in many of its primary markets, and Microsoft's then-current product line was starting to look a bit antiquated, suitable for the previous generation of PC-based computing but out of step with then-new Internet realities. The open source movement was also leading many people to question Microsoft's brazenly commercial software business model, although the economic downturn that subsequently contributed to explosive growth in enterprise open source computing had yet to occur.

.NET was designed to address all of these threats, leapfrogging Microsoft ahead of competitors in platforms, tools, and applications, and leveraging many of the same resources and modus operandi that shaped Internet computing. .NET's designers also included a deep commitment to open standards for system-level integration and even undertook selectively shared (rather than open) source relationships with strategic partners and academia.

When .NET was unveiled, the market reaction was generally aligned with preexisting market perspectives. Microsoft loyalists considered .NET a bold step forward, albeit with attendant concerns about compatibility and migration. Conversely, Microsoft competitors and detractors generally either dismissed .NET as a desperate marketing maneuver or assailed it as an incomplete, thinly disguised clone of the Java platform. For a more detailed historical .NET perspective, read "How the .NET Strategy Stacks Up" from the Fall/Winter 2001 premier issue of Windows Server System Magazine, then titled .NET Magazine (see Resources).

.NET is still something of a conundrum nearly four years after its introduction. It's at the foundation of Microsoft's vision and product architecture, but, from an overall market perspective, it's also one of the most broadly misconstrued parts of the Microsoft story. To establish the context for assessing Whidbey/Yukon and Longhorn relative to the original .NET strategy, a brief .NET historical overview and status report follows.

Understand .NET in a Historical Context
Microsoft's .NET strategy, initially code-named Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS), was introduced at a Microsoft Forum event in June 2000, and was presented in detail at PDC 2000 in July 2000. .NET was then and is still today fundamentally about XML Web services and the use of managed code in the .NET Framework.

Figure 1 is the detailed .NET blueprint from PDC 2000. .NET was initially focused, from a platform perspective, on the following:

• The .NET Framework: a virtual machine-based platform composed of the Common Language Runtime and .NET Framework, designed to isolate developers from differences in underlying hardware platforms and versions of Windows.
• An integrated family of .NET Enterprise Servers.
• Smart client platforms, with Windows PCs and other smart devices (where smart meant local processing power, storage, and other capabilities to facilitate local application execution), all including the .NET Framework (the full .NET Framework for PCs and the .NET Compact Framework for non-PC devices).
• An XML Web services foundation building upon then-emerging standards such as SOAP.