Lead Analyst: Greg DeMichillie [bio]
Posted: Dec. 2, 2002

Application development is quickly moving away from "roll your own" infrastructure technologies toward application servers, software platforms that simplify the development, deployment, and maintenance of large-scale multiuser applications, such as corporate payroll or benefits systems or high-volume e-commerce Web sites. The upcoming Windows Server 2003, building on earlier versions of Microsoft's server OS, provides a complete set of application server functions built in, functions that could prove critical to the company's efforts to expand its server business. Companies looking to accelerate application development should carefully evaluate Windows Server 2003 against competitors such as BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere Application Server, weighing the benefits of Microsoft's lower license costs and superior developer tools against competitors' platform-independence and more unified management tools.

This report provides an overview of Windows Server 2003 as an application server. It outlines the strategic importance of application servers to Microsoft, its partners, and its customers. It explains the main tasks of an application server—hosting software components, providing uniform access to databases, and presenting data to users—identifies the Windows components that carry out those tasks, and summarizes improvements to those components in Windows Server 2003. Finally, the report identifies the major factors organizations should consider when evaluating Windows Server 2003 against competing application servers, factors that also could determine Microsoft's prospects in the market.