Think of how responsive Google Maps or GMail are, and imagine that kind of performance on your corporate intranet or your B2B extranet. That's what Microsoft hopes to deliver with development tools built on Ajax.

Ajax, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is the technology underlying Google Maps, GMail, Microsoft's own MSN.com and Hotmail, and other highly responsive applications on the Web. It's a conglomeration of technologies that cover everything from presentation and object modeling to data interchange and retrieval. Microsoft thinks Ajax apps are too hard to build, and the company's Web platform team is trying to demystify Ajax with the development of an easier-to-use Ajax-style programming technology code-named "Atlas" that it's planning to bring to market during the first half of 2006. A prototype of the technology is available here.)

InformationWeek's Tony Kontzer recently caught up with Brian Goldfarb, Microsoft's product manager overseeing the development of Atlas. An edited version of the E-mail interview follows.

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Microsoft announced Windows Desktop Search (WDS) for Enterprises today at IT Forum. In a nutshell, it provides the same functionality that WDS does today with the management tools for IT Pros to deploy this across an enterprise. It's part of Microsoft's vision for Enterprise Search - allowing people to find the information they need while they work. You can find more information at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/enterprise/default.mspx.

WDS integrates with SPS 2003 for enterprise search quite nicely! Information workers can create a shortcut to launch a browser and display the SPS search results. You can also create a button that does something similar and use group policies to deploy it on the different desktops. I use WDS every day... quite frankly, it's saved me a lot of time personally.

What's quite interesting, and something you probably won't see in press releases, is that WDS and SPS share the same common full-text search engine. This is especially useful for a couple reasons: 1) we're working together and with MSR to really fine tune the engine for Enterprise Search (vs. Internet search) and 2) WDS and SPS share a common extensibility model. That is to say, specifically, if you develop an iFilter or Protocol Handler, you can deploy this on WDS and/or SPS 2003.... the good news is that the next evolution of desktop search AND portal search will respect iFilters and Protocol Handlers you develop today.

As for the next version of search functionality in SPS 2003 - it's in the Office "12" timeframe. We're focusing on relevancy, user experience, searching across structured and unstructured repositories, manageability and scalability. Needless to say, relevancy is right at the top - a lot of focus has been on Enterprise Search algorithms.. and we've noticed through a lot of research that what works on the Internet, isn't ideal for the Enterprise. I'll write more about this later... keep your eyes open for Enterprise Search in Office "12" when the public beta comes out Spring 2006. You will be very pleasantly surprised!

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With the release of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft hopes to move in on the large-enterprise database management systems market formerly dominated by Oracle, IBM's DB2 and Sybase by offering features and scalability more like theirs.

Microsoft's chief competitive strength in DBMS has been ease of use, which meant SQL Server database administrators needed less training, making them cheaper to hire and train. But as SQL Server gets more powerful, it gets more complex. Will SQL Server 2005 take a more sophisticated -- and more expensive -- kind of DBA?

It's possible, but probably not at the outset. For one thing, DBAs who are making the switch to SQL Server 2005 are making the most of training that comes for free. "I will not need to go to training," said Tcharly Florestal, DBA at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Fla. "The documentation should be enough."

In addition to the documentation, Microsoft has been saturating the SQL Server community with resources that should at least get users up and running. They include free classes at events like September's Professional Association for SQL Server community gathering, workshop training as part of Microsoft's SQL Server launch tour, and even giving out vouchers to cover the cost of SQL Server certification exams.

Time is money

Although it is hard to make a direct comparison because there is so much variation in DBA jobs, analysts estimate that Oracle Corp., Sybase Inc. and IBM DBAs make 5% to 10% more, on average, than their SQL Server counterparts.

Oracle's certifications are worth more than Microsoft's, too, according to a Culpepper and Associates Inc., survey on pay trends from September. DBAs with Oracle certification were paid an average 8.4% more than uncertified DBAs, according to the study, while a Microsoft certification was worth only 4.6% more.

"The harder a database is to run, the longer the training required, and the more costly the training and certification," said Katherine Jones, an analyst in human capital management research with the Aberdeen Group, in Cambridge, Mass.

"Oracle is a very sophisticated database," Jones said. "When SQL Server first came out the door, it was the accessible database. It has changed over time, but it is still likely to be easier to use than the super heavy databases. In the grand scheme of things, it's still the easiest."

"It may be that people can take an online class or look at the documentation and say, 'I know what to do with it,' at least at first," Jones added. "But the general progression of software is toward greater sophistication. Over time, it could get sophisticated enough, to the point where more training is required. Then it could mean a SQL Server DBA could be as expensive as an Oracle DBA."

What are you going to do with it?

The kind of DBA you need isn't really a matter of which DBMS program you're using, but what you're using it for, according to Jim Shepherd, senior vice president at AMR Research Inc., in Boston, Mass. "Microsoft certainly has the perception of ease of use. Oracle has the reputation for being able to handle big, complex problems."

What's changed with the advent of SQL Server 2005 is that now a Microsoft DBMS can handle bigger and more complex problems, Shepherd said. SAP recently certified a benchmark involving 93,000 concurrent users on SQL Server 2005. That's big.

"If you have SQL Server 2005 in a 50-person company," you may not even need a DBA, Shepherd said. "If you have it in a 50,000-person company and you're using it to run SAP, you're damn sure going to need one."

"The reality," Shepherd said, "is it has very little to do with the product and more with the size and complexity of your database. It's not about the database product. It's all about the size of the installation and the complexity of your problem."

 

 

Microsoft Corp. and Open TextTM Corporation announced a new strategic relationship to optimize Open Text's comprehensive Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions for the Microsoft® platform. This effort will take advantage of both companies' global scale and complementary products to enable ECM solutions in large, complex customer environments.

As part of the announcement, Open Text, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, becomes a worldwide ECM partner with Microsoft. By deepening the relationship between Open Text and Microsoft, the companies will work to enhance Open Text solutions in ways that combine the power of the Microsoft platform and Open Text's deep understanding of the ECM needs of large enterprises. The resulting end-to-end solutions from Open Text, which will include vertical-market offerings in financial services and government, will help companies address the complexity of managing an ever-growing volume of online information, a major source of productivity loss and compliance risks.

With today's announcement, Open Text is also introducing two new solutions that use Open Text's Livelink ECM suite and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003. The expanded relationship and new solutions were unveiled to customers at Open Text's LiveLinkUp Orlando 2005 user conference, underway this week in Orlando, Fla.
 
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Introduction

ASP.NET page processing model is post back based. That means in order to handle any server side event you must post the form back to the server. This event driven model is certainly powerful and rich but it has drawbacks of its own. Now a days many browsers support client side JavaScript and DHTML. AJAX model is all about making intelligent use of browser's capabilities to give better user experience. In Part 1 of this series I will explain what AJAX is with a simple example.

What is AJAX?

AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. AJAX by no way is a new technology. The parts of AJAX i.e. HTML, XML, DOM, XMLHTTP and JavaScript are being used for years. AJAX refers to use of these individual pieces together.

Imagine a web form with a TextBox, a Label and a Button. The TextBox is supposed to accept a CustomerID and on the click of the button you are supposed to retrieve the total orders placed by the customer and display in the Label. How will you do it in normal way?

You will write Click event handler for the Button and inside the event handler you will write all the code to retrieve the total orders depending on the CustomerID specified in the TextBox. That means for each and every CustomerID you will cause a post back to the server. Think what will happen if your page contains lots of other controls or heavy images. Naturally the overall network traffic will be much more resulting in a poor performance.

AJAX can solve such problems. Using AJAX you don't cause frequent post backs to the server. Instead you give requests to server side resources (web forms for example) from the client browser itself. Once the request returns the data you update the controls accordingly.

On one hand AJAX can give much better user experience and performance but on the other hand you also need to worry about things such as browsers not supporting JavaScript and cross browser JavaScript.

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In opening the event today, Bill Gates said that every five years Microsoft looks at its strategy and makes big bets–1990 was Windows, the Web in 1995 and Web Services .Net in 2000. The next big bet, Gates said, is delivering new type of software experience, called "live software."  It's about connecting users at the center, with relationships with people, data people care about, applications and all devices coming together to do things for you, Gates said. It's a way to think through the user experience, a fusion of software and services, with capabilities across the Internet, enabled by the broadband, wireless, low cost storage, a multitude of devices, the march of Moore's Law.  Sounds like a bit of Web 2.0 mixed with Microsoft's live naming theme–Live Meeting, XBox Live. Services = Software, in a broad way, from hosted services like email and CRM to MSN and mapping mashups.

Gates gave examples of how Microsoft has been on the live services path for years, but the examples were more incidental except for MSN. "Everything we have done on MSN fits the live software model,"  Gates said. Live software also extends to managed services for enterprises, with Microsoft running SharePoint or Exchange for customers. Small business software connecting to ADP payroll service, for example.