FIRST WE HAD Windows 2000, then Windows XP, and now .Net Server, Microsoft's latest and most ambitious effort yet to redefine enterprise computing.

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But unlike Microsoft's previous server operating systems, the .Net implementation is expected to form not only the optimal platform for all existing applications, but also for a range of as yet unimagined, loosely coupled apps that are today but a gleam in developers' eyes.

Although Microsoft has never lacked the ability to dream, the company is still dogged by its assumption that the majority of applications will only run on a proprietary Windows server platform in the future.

According to analysts, the task that Microsoft has set itself is not an easy one. Microsoft is gradually bringing all the elements of next generation Web services components to the table, but it risks sending a message that it owns the entire platform, said Dwight Davis, vice president and practice director at Summit Strategies. "Microsoft is the only company that can tie it all together," Davis said. "The only [competitive] equivalent is the Java community."

The .Net Server, due to ship in 2003, is only the tip of the iceberg. It forms the foundation of an entire set of offerings that leverage XML Web services. Those offerings include the forthcoming SQL Server code-named Yukon, SharePoint Team Services, and the Greenwich Real Time Communications Server. Each product is a significant undertaking in its own right that needs to be complete before Microsoft can declare a .Net victory.

The release of .Net Server RC1 (Release Candidate 1) in July indicated Microsoft is working to address key enterprise concerns, namely security, reliability, and performance. .Net Server RC1 carries support for the CLR (Common Language Runtime), .Net Framework, UDDI, DIME (Direct Internet Messaging Encapsulation), and Web services standards from organizations including OASIS.

But the big picture, according to Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates, who spoke at the .Net briefing day on July 24 in Redmond, Wash., is for the complete .Net strategy to facilitate a coming age where applications will collaborate in more dynamic ways. "It's about breaking down barriers ... between different applications that hold information," he said.

For the team of vice presidents and architects underneath him, that means finally breaking down the barriers between Microsoft product teams by leveraging common file system components -- a concept the company first articulated almost a decade ago under the code name Cairo.

Bill Veghte, vice president of Microsoft's Windows .Net server group, works closely with Gordon Mangione, vice president of Microsoft's SQL server team. Veghte talks about how the two executives see more capabilities for directories, identity management, and network infrastructure finding their way into .Net Server. "We think about how we can take data storage, data retrieval, data management, and query ... and bring that into the platform," Veghte said.

Veghte and Mangione report their respective teams are are working to make the server stack address a set of core communication and collaboration scenarios.

But the question is to what extent and when enterprises will move to embrace Microsoft's vision given their current investments. "The life span that a server has is very, very long," Mangione noted.