Columns

Another Microsoft bundle: Windows NT and MSMQ

• By Michael W. Bucken
• July 6, 2001

The soap opera-like battle between Microsoft and the Department of Justice continues to focus on whether incorporating the Explorer World-Wide Web browser into the Windows operating systems affords an unfair advantage to the Redmond software giant.

As the combatants continued to jockey for position in this battle, Microsoft early this year started a Windows bundling effort that could radically alter the pricing and distribution models for middleware.

As middleware guru Max Dolgicer reports in this month's cover story, "Battling MOMs" (page 30), Microsoft has just started bundling its new message-oriented middleware (MOM) package, MSMQ, with the Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) in a Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack.

Microsoft's target with the middleware bundle: IBM's MQSeries middleware, the unquestioned market leader after five years of Big Blue effort to build awareness of the need for message queuing in corporate development organizations.

In the cover story, Dolgicer compares and contrasts the seasoned MQSeries and the upstart MSMQ and comes up with some surprising conclusions about Microsoft's chances in the competition.

Meanwhile, freelancer Lana Gates looks at how corporate I/S organizations are using the top low-end Java tools in the lead story of our special report on Internet Application Development.

Gates reports in the story, "A Race to the Java Gold Cup" (page 49), that despite the immaturity of the Java language, corporate developers are using tools priced at less than $1,000 to build some very interesting applications. The story is accompanied by a comprehensive listing of Internet tools compiled by Project Editor Deborah Melewski.

The special report also features a study (page 67) by data warehousing expert Julie Hahnke on the union of Web and warehouse as corporate developers work to give their users Internet access to corporate information. The process is not simple, and Hahnke comes up with a list of questions to be answered during a search for Web-based DSS solutions.

Finally, you're invited to our new and improved Web site adtmag.com, which debuted with the February issue. I'd like to thank Managing Editor Jack Vaughan and Staff Writer Jason Meserve for their labors in rebuilding the site, which now offers special sections on key subjects and easier access to our library of past features.

In months -- also known as "Web years" -- to come, the staff will endeavor to enliven this Web site with more news and specials on useful tools and significant trends.

Best Regards,