NEC Corp and Microsoft Corp announced in Tokyo a new alliance aimed at the integration of NEC’s mainframe and server technologies with Microsoft BackOffice and Windows NT server. NEC’s aim appears to be to make NT and its Express Server 5800 hardware more palatable to its customers stuck on proprietary mainframes and so-called office mini-computers in Japan, and facilitate an approach to the worldwide market. Microsoft will support the development by NEC of a new product call Express Server for Enterprise, for mission-critical systems. The two companies will develop 8-way and 16-way SMP and large clustered systems with over 64 nodes, while at the same time improving the scalability of Windows NT to compete better in the enterprise. An Express Network Server aimed at small to medium-sized business will also be jointly developed, providing pre-configured systems with turnkey solutions for Internet access, and using new technologies such as I2O (Intelligent Input/Output). BackOffice server products will be integrated as well. Finally, NEC will work with Microsoft to improve reliability and testing processes, and set up a new engineering center to provide 24-hour support for Express 5800 users. Live from Redmond by satellite, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said that the partnership with NEC will take Windows NT into many new markets. He promised new features in NT5.0 which will considerably reduce the cost of ownership, and increase performance and scalability. Hisashi Kaneko, President of NEC said with these developments he expected NEC to be in the top five server vendors worldwide the year 2000, selling in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, both directly and through its Packard-Bell NEC channel.
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