IBM Mounts Campaign To Support Win 2000

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November 09, 1999 (12:56 PM EST)

KIRKLAND, Wash. -- IBM is mounting a substantial campaign to promote and support Windows 2000, and its epicenter is the little-known IBM Center for Microsoft Technologies here, 5 miles down the road from Microsoft's corporate campus.

IBM and Microsoft engineers cooperate in a unique collaboration between the two computing industry powerhouses. A T3 line from the Redmond, Wash., headquarters of Microsoft connects the two sites, letting IBM engineers test daily builds of Win 2000, the Platinum version of Exchange and SQL Server, and other software. In the process, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM works to optimize Microsoft's latest releases with IBM systems and resolve compatibility issues.

"We are here forming that strong relationship on a technical basis with Microsoft," said Sandra Carter, IBM director of Netfinity Partners on Development.

Over the years, the relationship between Microsoft and IBM has had all the elements of a high-tech soap opera, said Warren Wilson, an analyst at Summit Strategies.

"It's long and deep, mutually profitable, mutually antagonistic at times," he said. "IBM makes a fair amount of money from Microsoft platforms. [IBM's push of Win 2000] is a sincere effort on their part. Whether they like it or not, NT is a significant share of the marketplace."

IBM's Kirkland, Wash., center, which opened in 1993, is housed in a 50,000-square-foot, six-story, brick-and-glass office complex overlooking Lake Washington. It is staffed by 120 software engineers and quality specialists. The center is also a customer briefing center for showcasing hardware products running Windows. Hardware OEMs Compaq, Unysis, and others also maintain facilities near Microsoft.

"We have 118,000 support people across the world," Carter said. "We are No. 1 in services and support, and we are going to extend that again with Win 2000. All 118,000 of those people are trained on Win 2000 in 64 different countries. When they get stuck on a problem that gets down to the code base, they call here."

IBM also runs a Win 2000 beta-testing program from Kirkland. The Enterprise Deployment Partnership Program is for select enterprise customers who will be early adopters of the forthcoming operating system, due in February.

"We are learning all kinds of information from those beta customers," Carter said. "We're also learning from the [IBM] software group, which has the most software that is today on NT. And soon to be on Win 2000."

Another major play IBM is making with Win 2000 is a push for application developers for the Netfinity service line. While the company remains OS-agnostic and supports Novell NetWare and Linux, IBM is putting more emphasis on having more developers as partners, Carter said.

"We really want those Win 2000 ISVs to come to us, at Netfinity, to be their platform of choice," Carter said.

The center is IBM's primary IBM facility for testing desktops, notebooks, and IBM Netfinity servers for Microsoft logo compliance, and is the focal point for Windows Hardware Quality Labs.