MS&Unisys CSIS 4490 N-Tier Client/Server Dr. Hoganson MS, Unisys join forces, tackle server market Microsoft, Unisys join forces to tackle server market By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 4/2/02 SEATTLE — Microsoft enjoys a monopoly in desktop personal computer operating systems. And it owns a big chunk of the market for low-level computer servers that drive company networks. Now, Microsoft has teamed with hardware maker Unisys to muscle into the lucrative high-end server space where Unix systems reign supreme. Unisys is spending $25 million on a campaign, launched Friday, to disparage Unix servers and hype a Unisys machine running a juiced-up version of Microsoft's flagship Windows software. Microsoft is chipping in an undisclosed amount, plus adding its marketing savvy and clout.

MS&Unisys CSIS 4490 N-Tier Client/Server Dr. Hoganson Success crucial for MicroSoft Success of the drive is crucial to Microsoft for: Continued growth. Sales of desktop PCs and low-level servers have stopped growing at double-digit rates. Most home users likely to buy a PC already have a very powerful one. And most companies are looking to consolidate, not expand, use of low-level servers. To keep growing, Microsoft must gain a foothold in the so-called big iron space — servers running eight or more processors simultaneously and priced from $100,000 to $1 million. That market is dominated by Sun Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Internet imperative. Microsoft wants to dominate the delivery of software and services via the Web through its dot-Net strategy. To do so, it must gain control of the big-iron servers that drive Internet commerce. At the moment, Unix servers carry that load. "To fully deliver on the dot-Net vision, Microsoft has to have a very strong server foundation," says Dwight Davis, analyst at Summit Strategies.

MS&Unisys CSIS 4490 N-Tier Client/Server Dr. Hoganson Marketing The Unisys ad campaign shows how much Microsoft wants to be taken seriously. One ad alludes to a corporate customer painted into a corner with purple paint, the color of Sun's products. The only escape: a purple window. Microsoft and Unisys declined to comment. Marketing material claims a Unisys ES7000 server running Windows 2000 Datacenter software can compete head to head with Unix servers running as many as 32 processors. Competitors scoff at such claims. Shahin Khan, Sun's chief competitive officer, says Unisys and Microsoft are three to five years behind a new line of Sun products. "Microsoft would like to ride the momentum of the PC into the data center," Khan says. "But they're not fooling anybody. They've got a lot of work left to do."

MS&Unisys CSIS 4490 N-Tier Client/Server Dr. Hoganson IBM is pitching a new line of Windows-based servers capable of running up to 16 processors, priced from $18,000 to $100,000. "That's the sweet spot of this architecture," contends IBM spokesman Michael Fay. Industry experts say the campaign seems to make a point that Sun's products, in particular, are destined to become marginal. Sun CEO Scott McNealy is a longtime rival of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Last month, Sun slapped Microsoft with a private antitrust lawsuit seeking at least $1 billion in damages. "This is Microsoft's attempt to demonstrate that it is ready to play across the entire range of servers," says Rob Enderle, analyst at Giga Information Group. "Microsoft is hoping people begin to see Sun as the next Apple."