Linux is nowhere on the desktop, where quality business-productivity applications are critical. We win against Sun in dot-coms for deployment of our solution. It s much faster. And we win against Sun with Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, because it offers more cost-effective computing than any of the Sun systems. The cost-effective computing capabilities of the Windows 2000 Server family are key, especially when there s the possibility of tough economic times.
Reliability is key because businesses lose a ton of money when they re down.
At the same time, Internet businesses need to drive to very high scale to become profitable. Lastly, manageability is key because of administrative costs. The number of operators it takes to run a system is often one of the biggest ongoing costs beyond the initial purchase of hardware and software. At Microsoft, we had been working on directory technologies in one form or another for quite some time. With Windows 2000 Server we had the opportunity to deliver the first true, general-purpose directory service that provides a common infrastructure for all kinds of applications and systems management capabilities.