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Hailstorm would have positioned Microsoft as the clearinghouse for personal data, from identity and bank-account information to single sign-on data. However, some potential partners were concerned that consumers wouldn't fancy having Microsoft hold their personal data. In conceding this point, Microsoft may have realized that to win in Web services, it would have to hitch its wagon to the enterprise.

Microsoft finally understands it isn't the platform that breeds success; it's the applications available for the platform. Microsoft took the desktop because of Office and the thousands of applications developed for Windows, not simply because users like Windows.

Likewise, Microsoft acquired Great Plains Software a year ago to jump-start enterprise application support for its Windows 2000 Datacenter server and fledgling .Net platform, trying to muscle into the enterprise against IBM and Sun.

One advantage Microsoft has is that its development tools are among the simplest and most intuitive. And Microsoft is making it easier for developers by heavily integrating its development tools and server offerings. Visual Studio .Net is fully integrated with Commerce Server 2002 in terms of development, testing and deployment. This trend will continue until Visual Studio .Net is integrated in every corporate-class Microsoft product (there aren't many... yet).

However, IBM and Sun aren't going to give up the enterprise without a fight. Consider how these two vendors have embraced the open-source community. They're marshaling thousands of developers to gain applications and compete with the fast-growing base of Windows development devotees.

Although Microsoft did an end run around the standards it helped develop (again), the company says it's hoping supporters of XML/RPC and open standards will rally around its enterprise endeavors, such as XML/DOC. This scenario would let Microsoft take over by hook or by crook.