Microsoft Site Server

Last updated
Microsoft Site Server
Developer(s) Microsoft
Website www.microsoft.com/siteserver/

Microsoft Site Server, first released in 1996, is Microsoft's discontinued solution to the growing difficulty of managing complex websites which included multiple technologies, such as user management and authentication/authorization, content management, analysis, and indexing and search. Site Server 2.0, released in early 1997, incorporated electronic commerce technology from Microsoft Merchant Server, Microsoft's first effort at providing a solution to the growing business of Internet-based commerce (or e-commerce). During the course of its evolution (culminating with Site Server 3.0), Site Server expanded on Merchant Server's functionality by annexing content management tools; which would typically be involved, it was thought, in facilitating the management of Web-facing content. Consequently, Site Server became not only a solution for businesses wanting to sell products online, but companies who had corporate intranet servers hosting documents. [1]

Contents

Although Site Server went through several iterations, the most widely discussed and perhaps widely adopted version was the last, Site Server 3.0, released in 1998.

The primary areas of Site Server 3.0 functionality included:

Product Legacy

For its time Site Server offered one very credible among a select few alternatives for such functionality - particularly on the Windows platform. At its release it generally came out to very positive reviews in technical journals, although compared to later products its management tools were on the arcane side. The content management functionality was adequate, but not particularly competitive with dedicated document management systems that were available at the time. On this front, Site Server's main advantage was its low cost. Another feature that might have been a source of confusion was the taxonomy management system. The tools used to maintain item metadata were very basic and required a degree of technical familiarity foreign to most business users.

On the plus side, once configured, Site Server Commerce Edition got very high ratings for management of conducting e-commerce. Management of products and orders was fairly sophisticated - a strength that would be extended in the technology that succeeded it: Microsoft Commerce Server.

Site Server required the presence of either the Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 operating systems. It was also dependent on Microsoft SQL Server. The code came from many acquired companies including eshop and Interse.

Future Development

Microsoft has discontinued production and support of Site Server. E-commerce functionality was moved into a new product called Microsoft Commerce Server. Document and content management features were mostly segregated into another product called Microsoft Content Management Server, which merged with SharePoint Server 2007 which today has two principle editions: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2019 and Microsoft SharePoint Online, part of the Office 365 services offering.

Windows Versions

After the e-commerce technology was integrated, Site Server was sold in two editions: Standard, and Commerce. The Commerce Editions incorporated a hefty premium in their cost.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Office</span> Suite of office software

Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988 at COMDEX, contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint — all three of which remain core products in Office — and over time Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, Object Linking and Embedding data integration and Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Access</span> Database manager part of the Microsoft 365 package

Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Access Database Engine (ACE) with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft 365 suite of applications, included in the Professional and higher editions or sold separately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft SharePoint Workspace</span>

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace is a discontinued desktop application designed for document collaboration in teams with members who are regularly off-line or who do not share the same network security clearance. It is no longer included with Microsoft Office 2013. It has been replaced by a web-based service called OneDrive for Business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HCL Notes</span> Collaborative software platform

HCL Notes is a proprietary collaborative software platform for Unix (AIX), IBM i, Windows, Linux, and macOS, sold by HCLTech. The client application is called Notes while the server component is branded HCL Domino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft FrontPage</span> Website editing and administration tool

Microsoft FrontPage is a discontinued WYSIWYG HTML editor and website administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It was branded as part of the Microsoft Office suite from 1997 to 2003. Microsoft FrontPage has since been replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and SharePoint Designer, which were first released in December 2006 alongside Microsoft Office 2007, but these two products were also discontinued in favor of a web-based version of SharePoint Designer, as those three HTML editors were desktop applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Information Services</span> Extensible web server software by Microsoft

Microsoft IIS is an extensible web server created by Microsoft for use with the Windows NT family. IIS supports HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP and NNTP. It has been an integral part of the Windows NT family since Windows NT 4.0, though it may be absent from some editions, and is not active by default. A dedicated suite of software called SEO Toolkit is included in the latest version of the manager. This suite has several tools for SEO with features for metatag / web coding optimization, sitemaps / robots.txt configuration, website analysis, crawler setting, SSL server-side configuration and more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Update</span> Software update distribution service for Microsoft Windows

Windows Update is a Microsoft service for the Windows 9x and Windows NT families of the Microsoft Windows operating system, which automates downloading and installing Microsoft Windows software updates over the Internet. The service delivers software updates for Windows, as well as the various Microsoft antivirus products, including Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials. Since its inception, Microsoft has introduced two extensions of the service: Microsoft Update and Windows Update for Business. The former expands the core service to include other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Expression Studio. The latter is available to business editions of Windows 10 and permits postponing updates or receiving updates only after they have undergone rigorous testing.

Microsoft Servers is a discontinued brand that encompasses Microsoft software products for server computers. This includes the Windows Server editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as products targeted at the wider business market. Microsoft has since replaced this brand with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Windows 365.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Server Essentials</span> Business software suite by Microsoft

Windows Server Essentials is an integrated server suite from Microsoft for businesses with no more than 25 users or 50 devices. It includes Windows Server, Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services, and Microsoft Outlook. Application server technologies are tightly integrated to provide and offer management benefits such as integrated setup, enhanced monitoring, Remote Web Workplace, a unified management console, and remote access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Server 2008</span> Fourth version of Windows Server, released in 2008

Windows Server 2008, codenamed "Longhorn Server", is the eighth major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on February 27, 2008. Derived from Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 is the successor to Windows Server 2003 R2 and the predecessor to Windows Server 2008 R2. It removed support for processors without ACPI, and is the first version that includes Hyper-V.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway</span>

Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server, is a discontinued network router, firewall, antivirus program, VPN server and web cache from Microsoft Corporation. It ran on Windows Server and works by inspecting all network traffic that passes through it.

Microsoft Commerce Server is a Microsoft product for building e-commerce systems using Microsoft .NET technology.

Microsoft Forefront is a discontinued family of line-of-business security software by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Forefront products are designed to help protect computer networks, network servers and individual devices. As of 2015, the only actively developed Forefront product is Forefront Identity Manager.

Microsoft engineering groups are the operating divisions of Microsoft. Starting in April 2002, Microsoft organised itself into seven groups, each an independent financial entity. In September 2005, Microsoft announced a reorganization of its then seven groups into three. In July 2013, Microsoft announced another reorganization into five engineering groups and six corporate affairs groups. A year later, in June 2015, Microsoft reformed into three engineering groups. In September 2016, a new group was created to focus on artificial intelligence and research. On March 29, 2018, a new structure merged all of these into three.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SharePoint</span> Web application platform

SharePoint is a collection of enterprise content management and knowledge management tools developed by Microsoft. Launched in 2001, it was initially bundled with Windows Server as Windows SharePoint Server, then renamed to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, and then finally renamed to SharePoint. It is provided as part of Microsoft 365, but can also be configured to run as on-premises software.

Oracle WebCenter is Oracle's portfolio of user engagement software products built on top of the JSF-based Oracle Application Development Framework. There are three main products that make up the WebCenter portfolio, and they can be purchased together as a suite or individually:

Folio Corporation was founded in 1987 to publish books related to CD-ROMs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MSP360</span> Application service provider

MSP360, formerly CloudBerry Lab, is a software and application service provider company that develops online backup, remote desktop and file management products integrated with more than 20 cloud storage providers.

The first release of Microsoft Exchange Server was version 4.0 in April 1996, when it was sold as an upgrade to Microsoft Mail 3.5. Before that, Microsoft Mail v2.0 was replaced in 1991 by "Microsoft Mail for PC Networks v2.1", based on Network Courier from its acquisition of Consumers Software. Exchange Server was an entirely new X.400-based client–server mail system with a single database store that also supported X.500 directory services. During its development, Microsoft migrated their own internal email from a Xenix-based system to Exchange Server from April 1993, with all 32,000 Microsoft mailboxes on Exchange by late 1996. The directory used by Exchange Server eventually became Microsoft's Active Directory service, an LDAP-compliant directory service. Active Directory was integrated into Windows 2000 as the foundation of Windows domains.

References

  1. "Microsoft Announces Microsoft Site Server". Stories. 1997-05-04. Retrieved 2024-12-18.