Introduction

Application development is quickly moving away from “roll your own” infrastructure technologies toward packaged application servers that encapsulate current best practices in application development. The upcoming release of Windows Server 2003 marks Microsoft’s formal entry into the application server market, which is currently occupied by two major competitors: BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere Application Server. Although, unlike competing products, Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 isn’t explicitly packaged and labeled as an “application server,” Windows Server 2003 does provide a complete set of core application server functions built in, at no additional cost. Corporate IT planners looking to accelerate application development should include Windows Server 2003 on their evaluation list, especially considering the strength of Microsoft’s Visual Studio .NET development tools.

Application servers are 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 application server technologies included in Windows Server 2003 are not new; they build on COM-based technologies already present in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, and on the .NET development platform released in early 2002. What is new is the fact that these features are now included in every copy of Microsoft’s server operating system (OS) and that the company is marketing and positioning Windows Server 2003 as an application server. In addition, Windows Server 2003 includes support for Web services—an emerging technology for integrating applications via XML.