Microsoft Announces the Next Generation Windows Services Initiative

The Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) initiative is Microsoft’s vision for an Internet platform on which developers can create application software to be delivered as a service across the Internet rather than sold in a shrink-wrapped box. To make this vision a reality, Microsoft will rebuild the Windows Distributed interNetwork Architecture (DNA) platform so that software originally designed to run on a desktop or as part of a client/server network will work equally well when delivered across the Internet. Microsoft is evangelizing this new vision to keep developers from defecting to competing platforms and to rebut the notion that Windows is a dinosaur in the “post-PC” era.

Why Rebuild the Windows Platform?

The impetus for launching the NGWS initiative is the rapid evolution of the Internet in a direction that leads some analysts to suggest Windows could soon be considered “legacy software.” New technologies such as server-side Java and Microsoft’s own Active Server Pages often offer interactivity on a par with what desktop applications deliver, and this opens the door to replacing millions of Windows desktops with new “thin client” devices.