Microsoft News
From TechEd
At its TechEd conference for Developers
in San Diego, Microsoft made a number of announcements and
commitments. We’ve already covered its Information
Bridge Framework announcement.
This time we’ll look at road maps and changes to
Microsoft’s support policies.
Server Road Map
All of us have been in a state of
confusion over Microsoft’s road maps.
These are plans or schedules that tell developers and IT
organizations when products should become available and, therefore,
when they may safely integrate them into their own plans.
With vendors whose road maps are dynamic estimates rather
than firm statements, developers and customers tend to apply their
own multipliers, to avoid relying on a deliverable that won’t make
its time slot.
Therefore, many breathed a deep sigh of
relief as Microsoft used TechEd to provide more detailed information
on when specific products and product features for their servers
would begin to arrive in the marketplace. Conventional wisdom says that when the times frames on maps
becomes shorter (12 to 18 months, for example) and the details start
filling in, the road map is much more likely to be reliable.
The new Microsoft Windows Server System
Common Engineering Criteria for 2005 provides a set of consistent
capabilities that will be available in all Microsoft Windows Servers
released after January 1, 2005.
It is part of a set of services designed to support and
implement Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative.
For example, MOM (Microsoft Operations
Manager) Management packs will provide information to enable
Microsoft Windows Server software to be remotely managed and
monitored. A Windows
Installer and Update across all Windows Servers will permit the
automation of patch and update scheduling.
Both are due in 2005. The
first products that will meet the criteria of the Common Engineering
Road Map are MOM 2005 and Virtual Server 2005; both are expected in
the fall of 2004.
Extended Microsoft Support
Policy
In answer, no doubt, to customer moans
about their inability to move (or their lack of will, in any case)
to newer Microsoft products, Microsoft has expanded and enhanced
their support policies. In
general, this means that customers should assume they can depend on
10 years of support for any Microsoft product.
This includes both five years of mainstream support and five
years of extended support. (This
is three more years of extended support than previously.)
Start counting from the general availability data of the
product; this means some very old products (e.g., NT servers) are
already beyond even this enhanced, extended support.
It’s worth noting that nearly all
software vendors, Microsoft included, will negotiate special support
for obsolete products. Such support is usually limited in scope and comes with
appropriate (high) price tags.
Vendors don’t want to encourage customers to continue to
use very old software, but they do know that some customers have
great difficulty moving on.
This policy is for business and
developer products. Consumer,
hardware, multimedia and Microsoft Business Solutions products are
not affected by the updated policy. Business and developer products
currently in the extended support phase are affected on a
per-product basis that takes into account product road maps,
customer migration needs, and industry standards and requirements.
Detailed information regarding how the updated support policy
specifically affects individual Microsoft products can be found at
the Microsoft support life-cycle policy Web site, http://www.microsoft.com/lifecycle/.
Warning: at last
look, this site had not yet been updated to reflect the new,
extended dates. It may
take a few more days to catch up.
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