Taiwan IT hardware makers join Microsoft's embedded server application project

Taipei, Jan. 9, 2003 (CENS)--Several major information technology (IT) hardware makers in Taiwan recently joined the Microsoft-initiated Asian Incubation Project for Embedded Server Applications to ally with the software giant in product development.

The new alliance is expected to elevate Microsoft's market share in the server application market by wooing most of the largest server makers away from the operating system.

Local IT makers joining the project include Quanta Computer Inc., Advantech Co. Ltd., Asustek Computer Inc., Wistron Corp. (formerly Acer Inc.'s design, manufacturing, and services operation), Intel Taiwan, SVEC Computer Corp., Axiom Technology Co., Ltd., Raidsys Technology Corp., Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., CP Electronics Inc., Nexcom International Co., Ltd., Hiyan Technology Inc., Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co. Ltd., and Ingrasys Technology Inc. Software partners in the project include Veritas, Computer Associates Taiwan Inc., Netnifty Technology, Inc., Trend Micro Inc., Symantec Taiwan, and TNCE, Inc.


Eddie Wu, senior vice president of Microsoft Asia, said that about 90% of the said IT hardware makers joined the embedded server application project used to adopt Linux-based platforms.

A senior official of Wistron said that his company would also produce Linux-based server products in the future but would mainly push Microsoft's Server Application Kit (SAK)-based products as the latter would have more comprehensive after-sales service and technical support.

Wistron shipped over 400,000 servers in 2002 and expects to sell over 500,000 units this year after the tie up with Microsoft. The said Wistron official also claimed that his company hopes to work closer with Microsoft on future server development.

According to Wu, the said Asian incubation project aims to map out a total solution for server products by integrating Microsoft's latest embedded server platform technology, server application software, Windows-based server operating systems, and server hardware. Four major targets are included in the project: enterprise storage, web applications, information security, and mobility (mobile telecom).

Industry sources said that Linux-based platforms have occupied big shares in both the storage and web application fields in the past several years, but Microsoft's aggressive entry into the said four targeted markets is expected to compress the market shares of Linux-based servers.