NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: DAVE KEARNS ON WINDOWS NETWORKING TIPS 10/27/04 Today's focus: Microsoft has modest goals for Passport
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Microsoft shrinks Passport's ambitions * Links related to Windows Networking Tips * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Veritas IDC White Paper, Distributed Applications Performance Management Performance management of distributed applications continues to grow in complexity, keeping pace with this constantly changing environment is a challenge for IT and performance management software vendors alike. Learn how the Veritas i3 Approach can be the foundation for your organization's Application Performance Management strategy. Download this IDC White Paper now http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=85648 _______________________________________________________________ NOW AVAILABLE! Networking for Small Business website Get all the combined Small Business advice, authority, and know-how from the experts at NW Fusion and PC World distilled into one powerful resource, the new Networking for Small Business website. Find everything your small business needs regarding Security, Networking, Broadband, Hardware, Software, and Wireless and Mobile technology at: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=85548 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Microsoft has modest goals for Passport By Dave Kearns Not with a bang, but a whimper. That appears to be how Microsoft's Passport application/service will exit the scene. In a story published last week, the IDG News Service reported that Microsoft is "... recasting ambitions for its .Net Passport identification system, saying the service now will be limited to its own online offerings and those of close partners. Microsoft no longer sees Passport as a single sign-on system for the Web at large, a spokeswoman said." That's a far cry from the way the service was introduced back in 1999. Then, Redmond envisioned thousands of online stores and other services using Passport, allowing users to sign on using the same user name and password combination used for Microsoft's desktop and Windows server-based services as well as its Internet sites such as MSN and Hotmail. It was a precurser to today's single sign-on products. Two years later, with the release of Passport 2.0, Microsoft hoped to launch what it had codenamed the "HailStorm" technology. Passport was to be the authentication service for the personal data repository that was HailStorm. As Microsoft extolled it at the time: "HailStorm is designed to place individuals at the center of their computing experience and take control over the technology in their lives and better protect the privacy of their personal information. HailStorm services will allow unprecedented collaboration and integration between the users' devices, their software and their personal data. With HailStorm, users will have even greater and more specific control over what people, businesses and technologies have access to their personal information." What Microsoft didn't mention, and what huge numbers of people became alarmed about, was that all of the personal data would be stored on computers controlled not by the user, but by Microsoft. At the time, Microsoft was in the midst of the anti-trust trial brought by the U.S. government and news of crackers stealing credit card numbers and social security numbers seemed to be in the press every week. There were also the monthly stories about corporations selling clients' data to third parties for marketing purposes. People not only wanted to better protect their personal information, they wanted it under lock and key within their own hardware. It was not a good time for Microsoft to launch this initiative. In response to HailStorm, Sun launched a group consisting of mostly consumer businesses to create their own reduced sign-on system, which was dubbed the Liberty Alliance. The group now dominates the field for Web-based sharing of data in a technology now called "federated identity." Microsoft tried to save Passport, if not all of HailStorm, by trotting out a revamped service called ".NETMyServices". Like most of the .Net titles, though, it failed to arouse any interest among users. And if the users weren't interested, then the Web sites looking to attract those users weren't interested either. Passport also suffered from being a directory-like service that was based on neither Active Directory nor Microsoft's Metadirectory Services (now called Microsoft Identity Information Service). While it will still be available with MSN and Hotmail, Passport appears to be on the road to oblivion, after starting out with great promise. It's useful, once in a while, to realize that not every initiative Microsoft launches engulfs the world. RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS Microsoft mixes mainframe apps with .Net Network World, 10/25/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/102504specialfocus.html _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Dave Kearns Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found at Virtual Quill <http://www.vquill.com/>. Kearns is the author of three Network World Newsletters: Windows Networking Tips, Novell NetWare Tips, and Identity Management. Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these respective addresses: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Veritas IDC White Paper, Distributed Applications Performance Management Performance management of distributed applications continues to grow in complexity, keeping pace with this constantly changing environment is a challenge for IT and performance management software vendors alike. Learn how the Veritas i3 Approach can be the foundation for your organization's Application Performance Management strategy. Download this IDC White Paper now http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=85647 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Breaking Windows networking news from Network World, updated daily: http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/win2000.html Archive of the Windows Networking Tips newsletter: http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nt/index.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NW FUSION'S LIVING BUYER'S GUIDES Updated constantly, NW Fusion's Buyer's Guides give you the latest information on product capabilities, features, requirements, pricing and more. Check out NW Fusion's Buyer's Guides on security, instant messaging, enterprise routers, anti-spam, NAS Appliances and more at: <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/bg.html> _______________________________________________________________ May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? 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