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March 26, 2001

HailStorm Ties Microsoft To Its Future And Past

Technology works with any operating system, but slickest functions require windows

By Aaron Ricadela (aricadel@cmp.com)

More on XML:

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The Language Of E-Business

Spec Seeks To Use XML For Provisioning

icrosoft's move to the Internet isn't severing all its ties to Windows. The company's HailStorm technology, introduced last week, lets computer users control how they share personal data among applications and Web sites. It also exemplifies the new breed of software that Microsoft calls .Net. It's built for the Internet, is powered by XML, and is largely unshackled from PC-era protocols. But HailStorm's slickest functions--automatically verifying users' identities for online purchases and sending customized notifications to their PCs or handheld devices--depend heavily on an upcoming version of Windows, the legacy Microsoft can't leave behind.

Small wonder: Desktop versions of Windows contributed more than 31% of Microsoft's revenue during its second quarter, ended Dec. 31.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates unveiled HailStorm, the code name for a set of XML tags for storing data about users' identity, computers, documents, calendar entries, contacts, and other information; and the Simple Object Access Protocol calls needed to use that data in other applications. It's a departure from the way most PC software is written; rather than tying information to specific programs, HailStorm offers a standard way of sharing data among far-flung apps and Web sites controlled by consumers. "HailStorm isn't exclusively tied to any particular operating system--not even Windows," Gates says.

The challenge to Microsoft as it stakes out new markets in Web software, Internet servers, and Web services will be embracing Internet standards while convincing IT shops and independent software developers to use its products--without the proprietary hooks among systems and apps that have compelled such buy-in in the past. One solution: making many HailStorm services reliant upon Windows XP.

"They'll migrate more of this .Net world they're building into Windows," says Jack Ozzie, VP of developer services at Groove Networks Inc., adding that certain whiz-bang features will require Windows XP under the hood.

Microsoft will sell a suite of HailStorm Web services itself and license the architecture to other vendors. A beta version of the schema is due by year's end