Database, Application Development, and Web

Application infrastructure and tools overview includes the SQL Server database management system, the Visual Studio integrated development environment, and Web site management products such as Content Management Server, SharePoint Portal Server, Commerce Server, and the FrontPage Web design tool. Also covers the BizTalk Server and Host Integration Server application integration products.

The central event for Microsoft’s application development platform will be the release of SQL Server 2005, the next generation of Microsoft’s product for database management and business intelligence. Its release is planned for summer 2005, but has already been delayed several times since its announcement. Shipping concurrently with SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 run-time system will deliver substantially improved capabilities for Web development and Visual Basic coding and debugging. A key component of the .NET Framework 2.0 will be a major upgrade to Microsoft’s popular ASP.NET Web development framework, which will probably become the base infrastructure for all of Microsoft’s future Web site management products and for the Web access capabilities of products such as Exchange and Project.