Microsoft boosts Windows 2000 management

Microsoft is licensing operations management software from specialist NetIQ to help manage Windows 2000 and .Net enterprise servers.

The companies will also jointly develop future management tools for servers, clients, applications and devices. Microsoft will promote NetIQ as its premier independent software vendor for products to manage Windows NT 4.0 and non-Microsoft environments.

The developments include a series of management interfaces called .Net Management Services, focused on the event and performance management of Windows 2000 Server and .Net Enterprise Server components such as Active Directory, SQL Server and Exchange Server.

"Manageability is definitely an area where we needed to make a much higher priority," said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who announced the deal at Intel's Exchange conference in San Francisco this week.

"We found a great partner to dramatically accelerate what we need to do [to improve operations management]. This is an important milestone for us in terms of having the capability that people expect out of a software data centre," added Gates.

Microsoft has also set up a partner programme called Microsoft Management Alliance to attract more developers to the platform.

The tools are not intended to compete with large-scale system management products from vendors such as IBM or Computer Associates, but are aimed to improve the manageability of Windows 2000, which Microsoft is keen to get into the data centre.

The partnership is part of Microsoft's attempt to prove that it can be a serious contender in the enterprise space, which is particularly important now that it has begun shipping Windows 2000 Datacenter. The software giant is keen to show that it has addressed key concerns that analysts have raised about its previous NT versions, such as scalability, reliability and manageability.

Giga Information analyst Rob Enderle said the partnership should enable Microsoft to offer heterogeneous support within its operations management tools, something that was lacking in its current SMS product. "SMS managed nothing but Microsoft and so it was limited. This fills this hole," he said.

Away from the data centre, Gates was keen to stress that there is still life left in the PC world and described what he called tab PCs that are wirelessly connected to corporate servers. People can take these devices into meetings to take notes and to create discussion groups after the meeting.

"People will start to think about time spent in meetings and use [PCs] in more profound way," said Gates.