BILL GATES ANNOUNCES MICROSOFT MANAGEMENT VISION.

At the Intel Exchange conference, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced a new management solution called Microsoft(R) Operations Manager, a series of standards-based management interfaces called .NET Management Services, and a partner program called the Microsoft Management Alliance.

"In today's enterprise, customers need an environment that is predictable, reliable and cost-effective," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp. "Microsoft's software, services and industry partners will provide customers with the most advanced management technologies for their businesses, and deliver solutions that take full advantage of the next generation of Internet computing."

To deliver this operations management solution, Microsoft has licensed NetIQ Operations Manager, a proven, industry-leading solution built on Windows(R)-based services. Microsoft will enhance the product's already robust support for Windows 2000 and .NET Enterprise Servers.

"Microsoft is serious about addressing the management problems of our customers and industry partners," said Jim Ewel, vice president of Windows .NET Server Marketing at Microsoft Corp. "By providing an operations management product to complement Systems Management Server, a set of .NET Management Services for industry partners to build on, and a partner program that allows for easier development of management solutions, we are evolving Windows into the premier management platform for the enterprise."

Microsoft will offer a new operations management product in 2001, focused on the event and performance management of Windows 2000 Server and the .NET Enterprise Servers, including management of the Active Directory service, SQL Server and Exchange Server.

While Microsoft continues to develop its operations management product and offer enhanced support for Microsoft products, NetIQ will develop a range of heterogeneous and value-add solutions, including support for non-Microsoft applications and non-Windows environments.

The .NET Management Services will allow industry-leading management solutions to work together easily by writing to industry standards such as the Common Information Model (CIM) and the Extensible Markup Language (XML), without the need to integrate with proprietary frameworks. These services are built into the Windows operating system and provide core functionality in the areas of instrumentation, policy, presentation, scripting, installation, supportability, configuration, eventing, performance and reporting, making Windows the best platform on which ISVs can build their management solutions. In addition, process guidelines help customers implement these .NET Management Services.

The Microsoft Management Alliance provides developers and ISVs with development and marketing resources to assist in building applications on top of the .NET Management Services, thus providing customers with premier products that work effectively with the Windows operating system. Management ISVs are a critical part of Microsoft's strategy of making Windows the first choice for management.

While Microsoft will retail future versions of NetIQ's Operations Manager, NetIQ will market value-add solutions for the Microsoft product, including support for non-Microsoft platforms, extending the solution into heterogeneous environments.?