DALLAS — Attendees of Microsoft's annual TechEd conference here found Beta 1 disks containing Microsoft's next version of its integration server in their goodie bags.

Bearing the name "BizTalk Server 2004," the CD includes the code for the first phase of Microsoft's vaunted "Jupiter" e-business suite. According to the CD packaging, Microsoft plans to include BizTalk Server 2004 as part of its recently coined "Windows Server System" brand.

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Microsoft brass have said since last fall that it planned to introduce Jupiter in two phases. The first phase, code-named "Voyager," is the new release of BizTalk Server. Company officials recently said that Voyager would go to beta in June and ship by the end of the year. It's unclear if the year-end 2003 ship date is still in the cards, given the new 2004 name designation. It's possibly, but seems unlikely.

Microsoft officials also said last fall to expect phase two of Jupiter to ship in 2004. That release, code-named "Discovery," will include new versions of BizTalk, Commerce Server, Content Management Server and possibly also Host Integration Server, according to sources.

Microsoft has told partners and customers that it will pit Jupiter as its head-to-head competitor with IBM's WebSphere suite of products. But rather than labeling Jupiter its enterprise application integration (EAI) solution, Microsoft is simply calling the product its "enterprise integration" solution. Some Microsoft developers describe the new version of BizTalk as Microsoft's "native Web service message bus."

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Microsoft has scheduled a number of Jupiter sessions at this week's conference, which runs through Friday.

There's a basic introduction to Jupiter on Monday morning at the show, where Microsoft is planning to provide an overview of BizTalk's enhanced orchestration, integration, Web services and dynamic rules execution. There are sessions on Jupiter's updated "adapter framework," the part of the code that allows other Microsoft and independent software vendors and partners to enable their applications to integrate with BizTalk and with each other.

Also slated are sessions for developers on how best to develop and deploy applications using a combination of Jupiter and Visual Studio .Net.

Microsoft Senior VP of platforms, Paul Flessner, is expected to outline Microsoft's updated Jupiter roadmap during his keynote Monday morning.