• Sidebar: Getting the .NET Connected Logo
• Illustration: .NET Connected Premium Logo

In an effort to refine its positioning of the .NET brand, applied to a broad range of Microsoft products over the last two and a half years, Microsoft has removed ".NET" from the name of the next Windows server. Although the change suggests to some that Microsoft is moving away from .NET, the change really only affects the brand, which is likely to be removed from most product names, and the company remains fully committed to the .NET Framework as a development platform for Web services. The .NET brand will survive, for now, in the form of a new logo program for ISVs who build Web services and who use the .NET Framework.

Renaming the Server

The next version of Windows server began life with the Whistler Server code name and has had four names since then: Windows 2002 Server, Windows .NET Server, Windows .NET Server 2003, and now Windows Server 2003.

Removing .NET from the server’s name has led some to speculate that Microsoft is moving away from .NET. The reality is less dramatic. In fact, many products that bear the .NET brand make little use of the .NET platform—which currently consists of the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET. The .NET Enterprise Server product line, for example, got the name before Microsoft had shipped any significant .NET tools, and few of those server products make extensive use of the .NET platform’s features.

This broad-brush branding approach was confusing to customers, and even experts had difficulty defining .NET, given Microsoft’s penchant for using the term so loosely. Those days are gone, says Microsoft, and it uses terms like "clear," "crisp," and "consistent" to describe use of the .NET brand in the future.

New Logo Program

From now on, the main implementation of the .NET brand will be in a new logo program aimed at ISVs and developers. The logo program is intended to promote to customers the idea of .NET as a platform for application interoperability. Two versions of the logo, distinguished by their color (silver for the Base program and gold for the Premium program), can be used by developers who build products that feature Web services and use the .NET Framework to do so.

The Base Level Microsoft .NET Connected Logo (silver) can be applied to "an application or service whose primary functionality is exposed through, or is programmatically enhanced by the consumption of, XML Web services that comply with industry Web service standards."

Only the most basic Web services standards are required to achieve this level of the logo, including XML Schema 1.0, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) version 1.1, and Web Services Description Language (WSDL) version 1.1. Applications that use a directory must use Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) version 2.0. However, Microsoft says these requirements could be updated as standards evolve.

The Premium Level Microsoft .NET Connected Logo (gold) can be applied to applications that meet all the criteria for the Base Level, and that use the .NET Framework to create their Web services functionality.

Note that only products that use Web services technology qualify for the logo; other types of applications (such as ASP.NET Web sites and Windows Forms desktop applications) cannot qualify unless they make some use of Web services.

Logo requirements can be met by add-ons if the base product does not have the required Web services functionality, but such add-ons must be available as free downloads. Although Microsoft says that Windows Server 2003 qualifies for the .NET Connected Premium logo, many other Microsoft applications, such as SQL Server 2000, Exchange 2000 Server, and Office XP, will qualify only with the use of add-ons.

To get the logo and be listed in the directory, organizations must first test their application and provide additional information about it. For more information about qualifying for the logo, see the sidebar "Getting the .NET Connected Logo".

What the Logo Means

According to Microsoft, ISVs who earn the logo will benefit from customer interest in .NET solutions that can interoperate easily, and from Microsoft’s marketing efforts around .NET generally. Products earning the logo will be promoted in The .NET Connected Directory, an online directory at Microsoft's Web site.

In general, the .NET Connected logo could be effective in promoting the concept that Microsoft products can easily interoperate with each other and with non-Microsoft systems. However, the Base Level (silver) logo says little about other advantages of using .NET, such as rapid development, security advantages, or the C# programming language.

Windows Not Required

A striking characteristic of the logo program is that products are not required to run on Windows to obtain the logo. This is not an accidental oversight but a deliberate strategy. The logo application process, for example, includes Linux, Macintosh, and Unix among the possible platforms for logo applications, indicating that Microsoft wants to build a name for Web services even among organizations that don’t rely on Windows or that use .NET alternatives, such as Mono, an open-source implementation of the .NET Framework.

It is unlikely that Java developers, for example, will be standing in line to get a .NET Connected logo, but if they do, their use of the logo will provide some benefit for Microsoft by promoting its development framework and application platform.

Brand on Its Way Out?

The logo program suggests that Microsoft is serious about certain key elements of the .NET Framework, notably its language- and platform-independence. The company wants to position itself as the leader in Web services development and the logo gives the company wide latitude to embrace a large number of channels and partners in that effort.

However, it's not clear that the .NET brand has a long-term future. The company has even stopped using .NET in the name of a fundamental component of the .NET Framework, the next version of Visual Studio, which is due to be released the same day (April 24) as Windows Server 2003. Last fall Microsoft was calling the product Visual Studio .NET 2003, but in Jan. 2003 it was being called Visual Studio 2003.

By removing the brand from product names, Microsoft substantially eases the task of killing the brand if need be.

Indeed, few of Microsoft’s brands for its development platform last as long as .NET has lasted already. Predecessors such as Windows DNA and Windows DNA 2000, for example, lasted only 24 months and 9 months, respectively. The only arena in which the brand will enjoy some currency, the new logo program, can be terminated easily: the legal agreement that participants sign before they can use the new logo has only a one-year term and can be cancelled on 60 days notice, which gives Microsoft ample flexibility to pull the plug.

Resources

For technical information on the .NET Framework and its benefits, see the Feb. 2002 Research Report, "The .NET Development Platform."

A detailed description of the .NET Connected logo program and rules for qualifying for the logo can be found at www.microsoft.com/net/logo.

For more information about Visual Studio Tools for Office, see "Visual Studio to Get Tools for Word, Excel" on page 16 of the Jan. 2003 Update.