The new version of Commerce Server, Microsoft's server application for building and managing e-commerce Web sites, helps customers and partners integrate Commerce Server with other business management applications, such as SAP. Commerce Server 2007 also supports recent Microsoft technologies, such as the .NET Framework 2.0 and SQL Server Reporting Services, and replaces its previous business-user utility with faster tools based on the .NET Framework. Although next steps are unclear, an Aug. 2006 reorganization that landed the Commerce Server product unit in Microsoft's Developer Division hints the product may eventually be absorbed by Microsoft's Web development technologies, such as ASP.NET.

A Platform for E-Commerce

Commerce Server extends Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Web server with a set of developer tools and services, utilities for IT personnel, and business management applications that help companies design, build, deploy, and maintain e-commerce Web sites. A set of core subsystems provide services and functions for managing product catalogs, processing customer orders, tracking users, personalizing site content, managing targeted marketing, and performing data analysis and reporting (analyzing site traffic or sales trends, for instance). The product uses SQL Server to store and retrieve data and includes sample e-commerce Web sites built on the product's core subsystems. Developers typically use the sample sites as templates for their own custom sites.

Commerce Server competes with e-commerce products from BroadVision, IBM, Oracle, and SAP among others. Commerce Server has about 5,000 customers, the majority in North America.

Improved Performance, Management, Integration

Commerce Server 2007, released in Aug. 2006, updates its predecessor in several ways:

BizTalk Server adapters for Commerce Server subsystems reduce the development effort required to integrate Commerce Server with other line-of-business applications or trading partners. For example, the adapter for Commerce Server's catalog system could help a company synchronize product information displayed on its public e-commerce site with master product data located in an enterprise resource planning application on the corporate intranet. (Microsoft provides a number of BizTalk adapters for third-party business applications, such as SAP, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft; other adapters are available from partners.)

Better scale and performance. Performance tweaks across Commerce Server 2007's subsystems should improve the product's ability to support large, heavily-trafficked e-commerce sites. In addition, Microsoft offers Commerce Server editions optimized for 64-bit processors, which support more memory than 32-bit processors and could improve the performance of high-volume Commerce Server sites.

Modern technology foundation. Commerce Server 2007 supports recent Microsoft platforms and technologies, such as Visual Studio 2005, the .NET Framework 2.0, and SQL Server 2005, and thus inherits the benefits of those technologies. For example, Visual Studio's ability to integrate with source-code control software could help corporate developers and ISVs better organize and collaborate on development of large, complex commerce sites; an ASP.NET 2.0 feature called Master Pages can simplify site development by allowing developers to define a common layout for all pages in a site. In addition, Commerce Server 2007 reporting features are built on SQL Server Reporting Services, which is more flexible and full-featured than the custom reporting features of Commerce Server 2002.

New business user tools replace Commerce Server 2002's Business Desk, a Web-based tool for managing business data and functions such as user profiles, product catalogs, and marketing campaigns. Included are new tools for managing customers, orders, and marketing activities (such as targeting and advertising), which address a major complaint about previous Commerce Server versions: that the Business Desk was slow and difficult to use. The new utilities build on capabilities introduced with Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1, released in May 2004, which included redesigned management applications for Commerce Server's product catalog and discount management features.

Improved tools for IT workers. A downloadable management pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), Microsoft's software for centrally monitoring and managing the health of servers and applications, provides health and configuration information about Commerce Server 2007 installations.

A new feature, called Commerce Server Staging, simplifies the previously complex process of moving new commerce sites or site components (adding new pages to the site or implementing a new marketing campaigns, for instance) from test environments to production environments. However, the feature is available only in Commerce Server 2007 Enterprise Edition.

Considerations, Starter Site Forthcoming

The promise of better site performance and improved management utilities in Commerce Server 2007 will probably encourage many existing customers to upgrade. However, several considerations should be noted:

Integration requires custom development. Most companies conducting business online need to connect online commerce operations with traditional operations managed in systems such as Oracle's JD Edwards or SAP's mySAP. Providing adapters for Commerce Server subsystems solves one part of the equation, but customers and partners must still define the data mappings between Commerce Server and other applications and add any required business logic in the form of BizTalk orchestrations—for example, customers or partners will still have to select the subset of product SKUs to make available to online consumers.

Some sites may need to be rewritten. Changes to the product's business tools and technology foundation will complicate migration from past versions of Commerce Server. Microsoft provides tools to help customers move existing Commerce Server data to the new version, but some existing Commerce Server sites will need to be rewritten or modified to run on Commerce Server 2007. This is most relevant for customers still using Commerce Server 2000—sites created for that version are built using Active Server Pages (ASP) and must be rewritten to make use of ASP.NET. (Commerce Server 2007 supports only ASP.NET 2.0.) Furthermore, Microsoft has changed some of the product's APIs, so applications using those APIs will need to be modified to take advantage of new features—the catalog system, for instance, is a complete .NET rewrite; new functions have been added while others have been replaced. In addition, custom reports created with previous versions' reporting tools will likely need to be rewritten.

"Starter site" in fourth quarter. Microsoft will ship a new Commerce Server sample site called the Starter Site to replace previous versions' Solution Sites. When complete, the Starter Site will offer developers a template for construction of their own sites. The new site is similar to the previous Solution Sites, with an important difference: the new Starter Site will have been tested in an environment that simulates the load and stress of a heavily trafficked commerce site. However, this testing is ongoing and the company will not release the final version of the site until early in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Moved to Developer Tools Group

As a stand-alone product, Commerce Server is under fire on multiple fronts. Enterprise business application vendors Oracle and SAP continue to add e-commerce capabilities to their product lines, and stand-alone e-commerce platforms from BroadVision and IBM compete with it directly. The product's most formidable competitor, however, could be the multitude of custom e-commerce solutions built in-house by corporate developers, many of whom use Visual Studio and ASP.NET, which include features essential to e-commerce sites, such as membership and personalization.

Perhaps in recognition of this, in Aug. 2006 the Commerce Server product unit was moved into the Web Platform and Tools team under General Manager Scott Guthrie. Although Microsoft has said it will continue to enhance and ship e-commerce capabilities and features, it has not decided how those capabilities and features will be packaged. For example, it has said that future versions will include commerce features tailored for smaller companies and hosted solution providers, but it has not said that those features will be packaged in stand-alone Commerce Server releases.

One possible future could have the core Commerce Server subsystems folded into some future version of ASP.NET, building a relatively complete and robust set of e-commerce primitives directly into Microsoft's Web application development platform. Such moves are relatively common at Microsoft, recently evidenced by the company's plan to include the Windows Workflow Foundation, a workflow engine that descends from BizTalk's orchestration engine, as a built-in component of Windows Vista (planned for the end of 2006) and Windows "Longhorn" Server (expected in 2007).

Availability, Pricing, and Resources

Commerce Server 2007 was made generally available in Aug. 2006. Commerce Server 2007 is the production release of the beta code base that was released under the name Commerce Server 2006 earlier in 2006. Microsoft released a Community Technical Preview (CTP) of the Commerce Server 2007 Starter site in Aug. 2006. The final version will ship in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Commerce Server 2007 is available in Enterprise, Standard, and Developer Editions. Pricing is unchanged from previous versions with the exception of the Developer Edition, which is free for Commerce Server 2007.

The Commerce Server 2007 home page is www.microsoft.com/commerceserver/default.mspx.

The Commerce Server 2007 MOM pack can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=20ac6a26-02cc-4dee-95e5-39ee6dabd751.

The Commerce Server 2007 Starter Site CTP can be downloaded at connect.microsoft.com/default.aspx.

The beta release of Commerce Server 2007 was described in "New Business Tools for Next Commerce Server" on page 19 of the Apr. 2006 Update.

Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1 is described in "Feature Pack Next for Commerce Server" on page 17 of the July 2004 Update.

More information about the Commerce Server product is available in "Commerce Server 2002 Showcases .NET" on page 3 of the Mar. 2002 Update.

BizTalk Server is described in the Oct. 2004 Research Report, "BizTalk Server 2004 Drives Microsoft Integration Strategy."