Microsoft fills in the gaps for .Net ecommerce

NEWS Microsoft has launched the latest version of its web server platform, Commerce Server 2002. The product boasts a host of new features as well as full compatibility with the .Net framework and Microsoft's developer platform, Visual Studio .Net. It is aimed at businesses looking to build transaction-based websites for all kinds of ecommerce applications, and comes in two different editions. The Standard Edition will cost £4,777 per processor but can only scale up to two processors. For larger implementations, the Enterprise Edition costs a more substantial £13,650 per processor. The platform only works alongside a SQL database. It enables greater ease of development than earlier versions, by integration with Visual Studio. Donna Warburton, marketing manager at Microsoft said: "This is an important step as it brings the commerce server into line with the .Net framework, part of a continuing process to make the .Net vision a straightforward reality."