Level 8 Systems Inc looks as if it has secured the much broader deal with Microsoft Corp it was promising back in August (CI No 3474), as Microsoft looks to extend its MSMQ message queuing server technology beyond Windows itself. At the Microsoft Professional Developers conference a few weeks ago, Redmond agreed to take an exclusive license for Level 8’s FalconMQ Bridge, which integrates MSMQ with IBM Corp’s MQSeries. It has not been revealed what Microsoft paid for the license, but the figure should emerge within the next earnings statement. Microsoft says it will recommend Level 8’s MSMQ clients as MSMQ API implementations on operating systems other than Microsoft Windows, and will include all the Microsoft-dependent portions of Level 8 products within its operating systems. Level 8 will continue to sell all the non-Microsoft elements. FalconMQ Server, which interacts with FalconMQ clients on non-Windows platforms, will be included with Windows NT Server, and Level 8 says it will release an enhanced version of the FalconMQ Client that supports message queuing on non-Windows platforms, starting in the first quarter of next year. That will include all MSMQ functionality, including the advanced features it doesn’t currently support, such as local store and forward. Level 8 says the new deal represents a greater validation of its technology by Microsoft. Under the firm’s previous agreement with Redmond, customers had to go to Level 8 for the Microsoft portions. The company said it should begin seeing revenues as a result of the new deal over the next few quarters.
