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Strike It Rich: How Partners Can Tap Microsoft's Upcoming Releases Now

Wednesday, 26 July 2006 by Michel Roth

The phrase "Microsoft innovation" is spoken with pride in Redmond, but outside the company, it's often a stand-alone punch line. But whether you applaud or scoff, you can't deny that the company spends big bucks on researching, developing and acquiring promising technologies. And, arguably, Microsoft has never pumped out as many new, improved or rebranded products as it plans to deliver over the next 18 months.

Longhorn Terminal Services
When it comes to Windows "Longhorn" Server, the highest-profile changes are the Server Core, Network Access Protection and the increasing componentization of Internet Information Services. But Windows Terminal Services is undergoing a major overhaul as well.

Microsoft dropped a lot of hints over the last few years about a project "Bearpaw," but the elusive enhancements to Terminal Services were bumped from a possible Windows Server 2003 feature pack to the Windows Server 2003 R2 and then to Longhorn. Whether the current lineup of changes represents the vaguely articulated Bearpaw or not, the tweaks are major and could have business-model implications for the many partners who do Terminal Services implementations either using Windows' native capabilities or in combination with Citrix Systems Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Windows Server Division Senior Technical Product Manager Ward Ralston laid out two major new technology areas for Terminal Services in Longhorn during a pair of packed TechEd sessions -- Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services Remote Programs.

Terminal Services Gateway will allow users to access remote terminals and remote terminal programs from a Web browser across a firewall without need for a VPN. The functionality relies on RDP over HTTPS to pass information across Port 443, a port that is open on most firewalls for secure HTTP transactions. The change allows workers to continue accessing centralized applications while sitting at a different computer, such as at home at a different desk in the office or on the road.

The new Terminal Services Remote Programs allows users to access remote programs that behave as if they are running on the end user's local computers and can be run side-by-side with local applications.

Softricity
Speaking of Terminal Services-based improvements, Microsoft made one other major move in the server-based computing space by acquiring Softricity Inc., based in Boston. Softricity's technology allows applications to be centrally stored on servers, streamed to desktops in a just-in-time fashion that sends services in the sequence necessary to launch the application and then runs the applications in a virtualized "sandbox" that precludes resource conflicts with other applications on the end user's system.

The technology brings a new class of capability to the Microsoft channel. A relatively obscure technology will bask in the bright spotlight of the Microsoft brand.

The companies were in the regulator-imposed quiet period following the May 22 acquisition announcement, but Microsoft's playbook is pretty clear from previous deals. Expect the company to offer Softricity's SoftGrid products until finishing Trustworthy Computing and design reviews that will allow for a Microsoft SoftGrid or similarly named product to launch with a similar feature set. That will probably do for a few years until Microsoft can slot the Softricity technologies into Microsoft's various existing product lines.

Read on at Redmond Channel Partner.