News
Datacenter Server Likely to Slip Past Delivery Deadline
- By Scott Bekker
- May 19, 2000
The mid-June delivery target for Windows 2000
Datacenter Server is approaching fast, but a key preliminary step for the
high-end version of Windows 2000, the Beta 2 version, has not shipped yet.
"You can expect to see something out to OEMs this
month," says Michel Gambier, product manager for Microsoft Corp.’s (www.microsoft.com) Windows 2000 enterprise
marketing. "RTM of the Datacenter program is targeted for [the] summer
timeframe. Everything appears to continue to be on schedule."
Microsoft first unveiled Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
back in October 1998 when the company publicly revealed the name change from
Windows NT 5.0 to Windows 2000. By August 1999, Microsoft had the time between
the general Windows 2000 release and the Datacenter release at about 90 to 120
days. Since Windows 2000 was released in mid-February, that places Datacenter's
projected arrival in mid-June. An official revision of post-120 day release
date hasn’t been discussed, but it would be a surprisingly quick turnaround if
Microsoft issued an RTM less than a month after releasing Beta 2.
This is especially true because Beta 2 introduces the
Windows Datacenter Program, a service and support component for Windows 2000
Datacenter Server that involves rigorous system testing and tight change
control requirements.
Some OEMs expected Beta 2 in March; others expected it
by late April. One possible deadline for the final version could be July 13, a
date Unisys Corp. (www.unisys.com) told
the Transaction Performance Processing Council (www.tpc.org)
that a system the company benchmarked using a prerelease version of Windows 2000
Datacenter Server would be available. -- Scott
Bekker
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.