Microsoft News Tracker

Ryan R. Donovan reminds us that Commerce Server 2006 testing is perking along for Technology Adoption Program (TAP) members in Make Sure You’ve Got It: CS2006 Tech. Preview 2 & Accessories:

Now that PDC and summer madness is over, I figured the most appropriate topic to begin blogging about is our most recent release - the Tech. Preview 2 build of Commerce Server 2006. Released for PDC and also available to customers part of our various TAP programs on BetaPlace, this build provides you with everything you need to develop a solution on Commerce Server 2006 (notice I did not say deploy - that is coming later).

More details by following the link and in the CS2006 Datasheet. For some background, see Barbara Darrow’s article in InformationWeek:

Microsoft aims to eradicate many server integration problems with the next revision of Commerce Server, BizTalk Server and their shared .Net Framework 2.0 foundation.

With the releases, slated for the first half of next year, Microsoft plans to phase out Microsoft Solution for Internet Business (MSIB), a Microsoft executive told CRN. Many partners will say good riddance to this add-on code and documentation, which was intended to ease server integration.

But it’s still unclear if and how Microsoft will tighten integration between the next Commerce Server and the next Content Management Server (CMS), a big concern for VARs implementing e-commerce shopping and catalog sites. The next CMS, due out in the Office 12 “wave” starting next year, will be more tightly linked to SharePoint Server; in fact, the two products may converge. However, those products come out of the Redmond, Wash., company’s Office group, whereas Commerce Server remains in the Windows Server group.

Also, Ryan was quoted in July as saying that the CS2006 ship date is 1Q2006 and per the datasheet, native x64 support will be included.