Commerce Server 2007 Ships

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.