Netday News
News Item, 04/09/96
Intranet Alliance Announced
Three big industry players made a significant move today to stake a claim in
the emerging Intranet market.
Microsoft, MCI, and Digital Equipment Corporation announced today that the
companies will enter into a new alliance designed to market and develop
products for corporate Intranets.
In a conference held this morning, CEOs Bill Gates of Microsoft, Bob Palmer of
DEC, and Bert Roberts of MCI discussed what each referred to as an exciting and
powerful alliance that spans the digital and telecommunications markets.
Gates opened by talking about the strengths of the new relationship and briefly
discussed what he called an "explosion" that's taking place with regard to
interest in the potential of corporate Intranets.
Under the alliance, Gates noted that MCI will make it easy for customers to
build Intranets using Microsoft and DEC products via its high speed network.
Gates added that these new products will be based on the Windows NT Server and
Microsoft Exchange Server which began shipping just last week.
Bob Palmer of DEC discussed the benefits of what he called an "unprecedented"
alliance that will be a corner stone for the future of Intranet computing.
Palmer revealed that his company's Alpha XL Family of workstations will be
used as the platform for running the Microsoft solutions for the alliance.
Palmer added that DEC will work closely with Microsoft to deliver Windows NT
solutions for the customer, develop advanced security products for Intranets,
and also provide technical support services for the venture.
MCI's Bert Roberts said he viewed the partnership as "the perfect convergence
of communications and computing." He added that MCI will contribute to the
alliance by providing a range of Intranet services for its customers, including
enterprise messaging services via DEC's AlphaStation products and Microsoft
Exchange Server. MCI also plans to work closely with DEC and Microsoft to build
future applications for enterprise networks.
A general roll out for the new products is expected in late June or early July,
but no pricing information is available as yet.
-- Lee, Ho-sun Technical Staff of Digital Chosun Ilbo ahmlhs@chosun.com