Field guide: Microsoft Corp.; Microsoft has a tremendous range of technology solutions that may be useful to you—and that you may not know about. Here's a look at what you need to know

Automotive Design & Production,  Feb, 2008  by Lawrence S. Gould

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Servers

Microsoft server products have the singular goal of creating an integrated server infrastructure for supporting the needs of multiple users within and outside an enterprise. Dozens of tools, utilities, and products fall into the server category. Here are descriptions of just a handful of server products.

Microsoft Antigen detects viruses, worms, spam, and inappropriate content. BusinessTalk Server provides core business processes and process management technologies. Microsoft Exchange Server addresses the business needs of email messaging, security, noncompliance, and vulnerabilities (such as email tampering). Microsoft Forefront business security products enhance network protection. Microsoft SQL Server is a comprehensive, integrated data management and analysis system.

With Hyper-V Server, Microsoft's virtualization technology, users can create and manage one or more virtual machines on a server. Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 combines several Microsoft and acquired products for enterprise-wide business intelligence (BI) visualization and analysis.

Windows Server is a multipurpose OS capable of handling diverse server functions in either a centralized or distributed mode. These functions include file and print server, Web application services, mail server, terminal server. remote access and virtual private network server, built-in virtualization for multiple OSs, streaming media server, and various directory services.

Built on Microsoft Windows Server, Windows SharePoint Services helps computers connect across organizations and remote, multi-site locations. It is a foundation for building Web-based business applications and for authoring, sharing, and controlling documents and information (including through blogs and wikis) within an enterprise.

Windows Small Business Server provides small- to mid-sized businesses with file and printer sharing, a secure Internet connection for all of the business's workstations, remote access to data, an intranet, and a messaging system that also lets employees access email from mobile devices.

For home enterprises, mostly home entertainment, there's Microsoft's Windows Home Server. This consumer server lets users store and stream media files, back up multiple PCs, connect remotely to the Web, play Xbox and Microsoft-label video games, and perform other functions involving personal productivity, home entertainment, and Web surfing.

Developer tools

Microsoft offers a variety of programming languages, standards, and tools for developing applications (msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx). For instance, the Visual Basic language is for creating object-oriented applications. Visual C++ development environment is for creating Microsoft Windows-based and Microsoft .NET-based applications. C# is a simple, type-safe, object oriented, general-purpose programming language.

Win32 is the 32-bit application programming interface (API) for modern versions of Windows. COM is the object-oriented successor to Win32. Developers can use Win32 and COM to develop device drivers, utilities, and applications. (.NET will eventually provide all the functionality exposed by Win32 and COM APIs.) The Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) is a platform-independent, distributed, object-oriented system for creating interactive software components. COM is the foundation technology for Microsoft's OLE (compound documents), ActiveX (Internet-enabled components), and other software technologies.