Last issue, we discussed Microsoft's continuing attempt to dominate the known universe through Orchestration. Today, we are sure you won't be at all surprised to hear of yet another Microsoft technology that could get its virtual claws deeply embedded in your IT infrastructure.
Web Parts allows the creation of customizable corporate portals within Outlook.
The subsystem is a component of Microsoft's Digital Dashboard, an Outlook extension that, in conjunction with BackOffice Server 4.5, provides a customizable interface that unites messaging with Web content and supports file and information sharing with co-workers. Web Parts is an XML-based system that lets employees create customized corporate portal sites, designing Web pages to display information such as sales data, stock quotes, and news extracted from public sources and corporate databases. As yet, Microsoft has not released much data about Web Parts, mainly because of its legal woes. But keep your ears open - this is going to be very important to corporate IT environments. Related links Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist.