Microsoft, with its role-based effort, seeks to boost what has thus far been a disappointing revenue stream in its Business Solutions Group, according to Alliegro. "The revenue growth is not, I think, where Microsoft wants it to be," Alliegro said. He estimated growth for the group was at 6percent last year.
Centro, meanwhile, is planned as a specialized IT-management product for the mid-market, featuring a version of the Longhorn variant of Windows Server that is expected in the 2007 timeframe. Geared toward companies with 25 to 500 PCs, the technology is intended for shops that have the same needs as large enterprises but are constrained by resources, said Steven VanRoekel, director of mid-market solutions at Microsoft.
"A large percentage of the mid-market is still running on old technology," such as Windows NT 4 or older versions of NetWare, VanRoekel said. "A lot of these network operating systems were developed well before the Internet was pervasive."
Centro is an infrastructure solution combining Longhorn, the planned Exchange 12 messaging product, security technology such as Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA), and system-management capabilities. Unified setup is provided, with administrators walked through the process for each component.
"Today, when you're managing your system, you have a different management experience for each of the different components. This will be one management experience within Centro," VanRoekel said.
Centro will provide capabilities for deploying software and patches and enable monitoring of the health of desktops and servers. Factors such as CPU and disk utilization will be gauged. Pricing of Centro is still to be decided.
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