Microsoft Debuts Content Management Server 2002

With an eye on the lucrative market for managing Web content, Microsoft
released its new Content Management Server 2002 on
Monday, boasting the server makes developers’ jobs easier by more tightly
integrated with Microsoft Office and Visual Studio.Net.

Content Management Server 2002 joins Microsoft’s suite of .Net enterprise
servers, which include BizTalk Server, SharePoint Portal Server, and
Commerce Server. Microsoft said developers could use the content management
server to roll out XML Web services on Microsoft’s .Net platform, thanks to
its integration with Visual Studio.Net, ASP.Net, and Microsoft Office.

“As companies expand their business practices over the Internet, an
integrated eBusiness infrastructure connecting people to the information
they need will be more important than ever,” David Kiker, general manager of
eBusiness Servers, said in a statement. “By providing deeper support for the
Microsoft .NET Framework, XML Web services and integration with Microsoft
Office and Visual Studio .NET, Content Management Server 2002 is helping
customers take full advantage of current skill sets and lower their cost of
ownership through a fully integrated and interoperable content management
solution.”

Microsoft said the Content Management Server 2002, released in
beta in July
, would include a number features, including:

  • the ability to publish directly from Word, through a new authoring
    connector for Microsoft Office;

  • support for .Net and XML Web services;
  • a set of content management controls for building out Web sites; and
  • standards-based interoperability.

With the addition of support for XML, the content management server
continues Microsoft’s push to steer businesses to its .Net world of Web
services, which favor XML over those on rival Sun Microsystems’ J2EE
platform.

The content management server is priced at $42,000 per CPU. It will be
broadly available by the end of the year.

The content management server is the last of Microsoft’s .Net enterprise
servers to be upgraded this year. In February, Microsoft rolled out BizTalk
Server 2002; and in April, the company unveiled Commerce Server 2002.

Microsoft began its push into the enterprise content management market in
May 2001, when it acquired
NCompass Labs for $36 million
. Microsoft’s Content Management Server
2001, released in August 2001, grew out of NCompass Resolution
content-management offering.

According to research firm IDC, the document-and content-management market
is poised for 44 percent compound annualized growth in the coming years,
reaching about $24.4 billion in 2006.

This push to compete with Interwoven, Vignette and others for the high end
of the market for managing Web content was evidenced by Microsoft’s
announcement in April that Ford Motor Co. had signed up to use Content
Management Server to power its Ford.com Web site. Microsoft also said that
JetBlue Airways, an enthusiastic believer in .Net Web services, had also
signed on to use the server, in addition to the Graduate Management
Admission Council.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web