Users will have to support both Microsoft and Java application server standards for several years, and application server software will complement middleware, rather than replace it.

"We don't believe Microsoft will displace Java, or Java displace Microsoft. Do not try to insist on a single standard," said Gartner analyst, Massimo Pezzini.

This is partly because users will want to retain elements of older software such as SAPs, while adding new products. "You are going to creatively reuse," said Pezzini.

Microsoft's application server software will be a good platform for building "opportunistic, disposable or experimental" applications swiftly.

But its tendency to introduce incompatible standards makes other vendors more attractive for projects that are built to last, the analyst believes.

Microsoft's .Net architecture is likely to be incompatible with its current Com and Com+ standards, warned Pezzini. However, Gartner believes it will eventually relent and release a .Net Enterprise product, which will offer such support, by 2003.

Pezzini said that Microsoft has strong ideas for the future, but suffers from poor execution. The best vendors are BEA and IBM. Irish software vendor Iona is also a strong player, as it leads in use of the Corba object broker standard.

First published in Computing