Microsoft opens test center for e-commerce
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
October 13, 2000, 1:00 p.m. PT
AUSTIN, Texas--Microsoft opened a new technology center in Austin Thursday that will allow online retailers and other dot-coms to design and test a variety of tools.
The 12,000-square-foot center will provide a demonstration platform for companies trying to decide between Microsoft-Intel offerings and competing strategies from Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Linux.
The center, Microsoft's second site, will enable companies to accelerate product development and get products on the market rapidly.
Small start-up companies likely will benefit most from the center, said Anitesh Barua, associate professor of information systems at the Red McCombs School of Business at UT Austin.
"It's possibly a great way to try some home-grown technology," he said. "They are providing a one-stop solution to start-ups."
Besides powerful hardware from Dell, a partner in the tech center venture, the 12,000-square-foot Austin center offers security assessments, transaction-cost analysis, testing facilities and scalability trials.
A similar center opened recently in Boston. Within six months, centers planned in Silicon Valley, Chicago and Toronto will open.
Microsoft lags behind Sun Microsystems and Oracle in large enterprise business. But top company officials are vowing to move Microsoft ahead with server and database offerings. Microsoft still dominates operating systems and applications for personal computers.
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