Windows 2000 Server: One Year Out, One Million Strong

MISSISSAUGA, ON -- Feb. 7, 2001 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that sales of licenses for the Microsoft174 Windows174 2000 Server family, including the standard, advanced and Datacenter servers, will exceed the one million mark this month. This milestone coincides with the one-year anniversary of the worldwide launch of Windows 2000.

According to a recent Canadian Ipsos-Reid survey, Windows 2000 Server will continue to expand market share in 2001. "This year an increasing number of enterprises are planning purchases of both new servers and upgrades to existing servers," said Chris Ferneyhough, Vice President, Ipsos-Reid. "Windows 2000 Servers are expected to be a sizable proportion of these enterprise purchases, further increasing demand for this product."

The widespread adoption of Windows 2000 Server means that businesses and organizations of all sizes are benefiting from greater flexibility and faster time to market. At the same time, many of these companies are seeing millions of dollars in incremental profit through the use of Windows 2000, according to independent analysts and customers.

"The launch of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server last February, proved Microsoft's dedication to providing the enterprise market with an agile platform that would exceed the demands of our customers' changing business models," said Erik Moll, Marketing Manager Windows 2000 Platform, Microsoft Canada. "This one million milestone is the highest validation from our customers, proving that the Windows 2000 platform is helping create winning end-to-end solutions for an ever-changing industry, where business agility and the use of information technology to drive revenue and profit growth are critical."

"As Bid.com moved into the highly-customizable world of B2B, we chose the Windows 2000 Server platform because the computing environment had to be scalable, reliable, manageable, and fully-functional," said Jim Moskos, Chief Technology Officer and President, Bid.com Technology Group. "In addition to getting to market quickly, we are benefiting from fewer network interruptions, higher server uptime, and better availability. Return on investment has been realized by increased productivity and additional resource location for the Bid.Com Web site and we expect to see a 30 per cent hardware performance gain."

"To stay competitive today, corporations need IT infrastructure support for incredibly fast time to market, and IT infrastructure flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing business requirements," said Wayne Kernochan, managing vice president, Platform Solutions, Aberdeen Group Inc. "Windows 2000 shows a strong ability to meet these needs of the enterprise. Our research also shows that, effectively implemented, it provides enterprise-class reliability and scalability. As a result, users can achieve rapid return on investment without compromising reliability and scalability."

Customers Achieving Benefits Exceeding US$8 Million With Windows 2000
Customers deploying Windows 2000 are saving from five per cent to 30 per cent per year in total cost of ownership (TCO), with a projected average savings of 18 per cent per year, according to calculations resulting from Microsoft's studies of users of Windows 2000. Many of these customers are achieving complete payback on their IT investments in nine months to 12 months. Larger companies project a median net bottom-line benefit of US$8 million over three years. These results are based on the projections using a TCO analysis, and then audited by a Gartner Group Inc. or Giga Information Group consultant.

Windows 2000 Delivering the Foundation for .NET Solutions
Customers and analysts confirm that Microsoft has delivered on its commitment for unparalleled reliability, scalability and manageability. Windows 2000 delivers tremendous customer value by enabling solution providers to build next-generation, distributed Web solutions on the Microsoft .NET platform.

The Windows 2000 Server family includes the standard, advanced and Datacenter servers. Windows 2000 Server is the multipurpose network operating system for businesses of all sizes, Windows 2000 Advanced Server is the server operating system for mission-critical Web and line-of-business application servers, and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server is the server operating system for the most demanding levels of availability and scale. Windows 2000 Professional is the ideal rich client for today's applications and evolving applications for .NET. It moves enterprises toward .NET by providing a reliable, manageable and secure desktop experience. Together with Internet enablement via support for Web standards such as XML, Windows 2000 Professional makes it possible for enterprises to get a handle on their corporate desktops. Windows 2000 Professional helps to reduce TCO and provides the business with a more flexible end-user platform to deploy applications more seamlessly.

More information about Windows 2000 Server can be found at www.microsoft.com

In addition, more information about Canadian customer case studies that quantify the business value of Microsoft solutions can be found at Casestudies.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information:
Erik Moll, Microsoft Canada
Jackie King, Hill and Knowlton, (416) 413-1218
Chris Ferneyhough, Ipsos-Reid