Microsoft officially notified selected customers and partners late last week that it has decided against delivering an integrated E-business server bundle in 2005, as planned.

Microsoft has decided to move ahead with plans to deliver its BizTalk Server 2004 product, but has axed —at least temporarily plans to deliver a follow-on suite consisting of BizTalk, Content Management Server (CMS), Commerce Server and Host Integration Server, officials said.

BizTalk Server 2004, Phase one of Microsoft's e-business server strategy, is code named "Voyager." The follow-on bundle was code-named "Discovery." The two "phases" together went by the code name "Jupiter."

Microsoft had told partners and customers that it planned pit Jupiter as its head-to-head competitor with IBM's WebSphere suite of products.

Microsoft's BizTalk Server 2004 originally was slated to ship in late 2003. The new launch date for the BizTalk 2004 integration server is March 2, 2004, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft isn't talking about futures for all of the components of what was originally slated to be the Discovery suite, other than to say that it will deliver both BizTalk Server 2004 and Host Integration Server 2004 this calendar year. Officials would not comment on when and if Microsoft plans to rev its Content Management Server and Commerce Server products.

Microsoft is telling customers that it is following their wishes and more closely aligning its SharePoint Portal Server (SPPS) and CMS products, however, in the name of clarifying its portal strategy. Earlier this year, Microsoft moved its CMS team into its Information Worker business unit, so that the CMS and SharePoint teams could work more closely on integrating their respective technologies, officials added.

Ted Kummert, corporate vice president in charge of Microsoft's E-Business Servers Group, broke the news to Microsoft customers and partners who have been testing BizTalk in a letter dated February 13.

"After studying the manner in which many customers wish to purchase and deploy the technology, we have concluded that today, customers prefer to purchase Integration and Portal technology separately," Kummert said. "Therefore we will not deliver a single Jupiter sku in the 2004 / 2005 timeframe.

"Changing the packaging strategy does not in any way change our goals for interoperability between our portal and integration technologies. Our requirements for interoperability remain firmly intact," Kummert continued.

He added, "We recognize that some of you were expecting a single offering of the e-business technologies based on our current products by the 2004/2005 timeframe. Knowing that, we will work with each of you to address your concerns."

Trina Seinfeld, a product manager with the E-business server team said that Microsoft has not completely killed the idea for an integrated E-business suite. But it won't be delivering such a bundle in the near term, for sure, she added. Instead, the company plans to focus on building its Windows Server System brand and to realize "the Jupiter vision" through that vehicle.