Highlights

"... client-server systems, which let desktop computers share powerful server computers, have become the dominant trend in computing."

Business Week, January 9, 1995

• Complete family of "best-of-breed" server applications designed to work together as a single, rich business computing platform.

• Seamlessly integrates desktop computers with corporate information, regardless of location.

• Open technology for greater choice and lower costs, both today and tomorrow.

• Smart investment that offers the safety of wide industry support plus the lowest cost of purchase and operation.

• Backed by mission-critical support
  and service that ensure continuous operations.

• Designed to work together
  
• Integrates corporate data with the desktop
  
• An open solution
  
• A smart investment
  
• Mission-critical support and service

Designed to work together

The Microsoft BackOffice family includes five integrated "best-of-breed" components that work together whether running on a single server, or on multiple servers across your company's network. These components are:

Microsoft Windows NT Server
A multipurpose network operating system that can deliver application server capabilities without compromising file and print service performance.

Microsoft SQL Server(TM)
The high-end database platform at the center of a complete client-server archi-tecture for information management.

Microsoft SNA Server
Makes it easy to connect PCs to IBM® mainframes and AS/400® systems.

Microsoft Systems Management Server
The most comprehensive solution for managing networked PCs.

Microsoft Mail Server
The heart of a complete messaging system that makes it easy to communicate with anyone, anywhere.

All five members of the BackOffice family were designed from the ground up to work together. And they all share a solidly defined, solidly supported, truly open architecture: Microsoft's widely endorsed Windows® Open Services Architecture (WOSA). This unparalleled level of integration delivers significant bottom-line benefits:

• Faster, lower-cost development of client-server applications: Your programmers access all client and server functions through an industry-standard interface: the Win32® API and OLE object technology. This simplifies application development and integration in a distributed computing environment. It also lets you tap into the experience and knowledge of hundreds of thousands of developers already trained for the Windows operating system. The result: Your mission-critical business applications are online faster, and at a lower development cost.

• More reliable, more easily maintained applications: No more fragile, hard-to-write, hard-to-maintain expensive custom programming to integrate basic services such as databases and electronic mail. Instead, rock solid integration comes out of the box with BackOffice, and is securely backed by the resources and expertise of Microsoft. Focus your development budget on creating and sustaining business value, not "reinventing the wheel."

• Less training burden and more productivity for administrators: All BackOffice components share standard setup, installation, and configuration. Graphical setup is easy to use, and autodetection of network protocols and peripherals simplifies installation. Decreased training burden and increased productivity mean you can distribute administration responsibility more widely in your organization.

• Better control of your distributed computing resources: A traditional roadblock to trusting personal computers with mission-critical applications is an inability to centrally control the security, consistency, and quality of distributed computing platforms. BackOffice solves this problem with Microsoft Systems Management Server: a centralized management tool that lets you monitor, administer, and control personal computers and servers throughout your entire corporate net-work. Your users get the empowerment they want without sacrificing the cen-tralized control your company needs.

• More productive application users: All network services and resources are accessed by a single logon procedure, either locally or remotely via shared dial-up access. Your users no longer have to deal with multiple logon procedures and multiple user names and passwords.

• Secure networks and data: BackOffice uses an integrated directory and security model that controls access to all network services and resources. BackOffice security is designed to comply with U.S. C-2 and European E3 certification so your sensitive corporate data is secure from un-authorized access or unintentional tampering.

• Innovative business solutions: BackOffice integrates a complete set of sophisticated, leading-edge functions. This means your application developers can more confidently tackle truly innovative business solutions that exploit advanced capabilities like embedded messaging and networked databases. The result can be a strategic competitive edge for your business.

Integrates corporate data with the desktop

Microsoft BackOffice is the core of the Microsoft business computing architecture for both desktops and servers in a distributed computing environment. Microsoft BackOffice servers store information securely. Microsoft Office products analyze and manipulate that information. Microsoft visual development tools help you build and maintain the overall system from the desktop.

With BackOffice, your personal computer users can get at information across virtually any network, including AppleTalk®, DEC(TM) PATHWORKS(TM), IBM LAN Server, NFS and Novell® NetWare®. Standard desktop computer access is enabled through published interfaces such as Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), Messaging API (MAPI), and OLE.

BackOffice can also access your IBM mainframes and midrange computers through Microsoft SNA Server, giving your desktop users easy access to legacy applications and data.

An open solution

Ultimately, openness is about choice and interoperability. Choice-because it allows companies to minimize costs and maximize flexibility. Interoperability-because in today's world no computer system is an island.

Virtually every company has multiple operating systems, multiple communications protocols, and multiple data storage formats. An open environment must support marketplace and committee established standards.

• Microsoft BackOffice runs on a wide range of industry-standard hardware-including Intel® x86 and Pentium(TM) processors, as well as RISC designs such as Alpha AXP(TM), MIPS®, and PowerPC(TM)-creating choice, competition, and economies of scale that lead to low costs and unprecedented price/performance.

• More than 1,300 32-bit applications are available for Microsoft BackOffice, including hundreds of vertical-market applications in key industries. Applications are available from major industry players such as AT&T Global Information Solutions, Computer Associates International, Dun & Bradstreet, IBM, Informix Software, Intergraph, Lotus Development, Oracle, SAP America, Software AG, Sybase, and Unisys.

• Microsoft BackOffice supports key standards for open systems such as NDIS, TCP/IP, IPX, DCE RPC, SNMP, POSIX, MAPI, CMC, Windows Sockets, and DMI. It provides interoperability with Novell NetWare, Banyan® VINES®, IBM's LAN Server, DEC PATHWORKS, and IBM's SNA.

• BackOffice applications can access more than 60 different data types such as DB2®, IMS, Oracle, Informix, and Ingres through Microsoft SQL Server's Open Data Services and Information Builder's EDA/Open Database Gateway.

• Microsoft BackOffice supports a wide range of clients: MS-DOS®, Microsoft Windows, Windows NT Workstation, UNIX®, IBM OS/2®, and Macintosh®.

A smart investment

Microsoft BackOffice provides the lowest cost of purchase and operation of any major client-server application platform. Its support for a wide range of scalable, industry-standard hardware-including enterprise-sized symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems-lets you select the most cost-effective computer for almost any size of corporate application. Microsoft BackOffice also adds value to your existing computing investment by interoperating with all the systems that you have today.

BackOffice is designed to give you lower operating costs throughout the lifetime of your corporate client-server applications. For example:

• Simple packaging and pricing lowers the cost of evaluating and licensing server software.

• Built-in supportability features such as standard remote control of desktop computers improves the productivity of corporate help desks and lowers ongoing application support costs.

• Consistent user interfaces for installers, administrators, application developers, and application users help increase productivity and reduce life-cycle training costs.

• Large base of industry knowledge on Microsoft technology-Windows, Office, and BackOffice-means it is easy to find affordable, available expertise to build and maintain your BackOffice-based business solutions.

Because the Win32 API and OLE object technology are strategic Microsoft system technologies, today's BackOffice applications will run on future Microsoft operating systems. This helps protect your investments in hardware and software while providing a clear evolutionary path to distributed computing. At the same time, this flexible client-server architecture lets you adapt business systems quickly to meet changing market requirements and provide information access to mobile users.

Mission-critical support and service

Microsoft, together with its Solution Providers and Authorized Support Centers, delivers the level of services and support that businesses need to confidently implement mission-critical systems built on Microsoft products. Microsoft Product Support Services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to corporate customers and authorized Microsoft Solution Providers. "Server down" support, engineering "hot fixes," and routine maintenance releases are standard offerings.

Microsoft Consulting Services also provide architectural and design assist-ance through experienced consultants who are chartered to transfer their experience and in-depth knowledge in Microsoft technology, methodologies, and tools to Microsoft corporate cust-omers and third-party service providers. In addition, Microsoft Authorized Support Centers extend a full range of support to corporate customers, from "server down" response to business planning, support-systems development, and system deployment.

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