http://blogs.msdn.com/jezzsa/archive/2006/12/04/will-we-see-factories-in-our-products.aspxOccasionally, I get asked by others internally at Microsoft, what role software factories are going play in their space, 'their space' as it were are server products we ship, such as: SharePoint, Exchange, BizTalk etc. Perhaps I'll start with a problemen-GBCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://blogs.msdn.com/jezzsa/archive/2006/12/04/will-we-see-factories-in-our-products.aspx#1219956Wed, 06 Dec 2006 11:43:02 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:1219956Vincent Hoogendoorn<p>Hi Jezz, you are 100% right about that customer demand. If fact, as you may recall from our conversation at TechEd Barcelona, this is exactly what we are doing at my company: Building the Macaw Solutions Factory which targets solutions based on combinations of MS Server products, with a starting focus on a SharePoint.</p> <p>When you talk about MS shipping server product factories in the near future, do you mean in the timeframe of the current generation of server products, or more likely when the next generation of server products ships?</p> http://blogs.msdn.com/jezzsa/archive/2006/12/04/will-we-see-factories-in-our-products.aspx#1222628Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:21:34 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:1222628jezzsa<P>Hi Vincent, yes, I do recall our conversation now. </P> <P>I do think there will be a surprising (even disruptive) emerging market in using factories to define a solution that span multiple MS servers products.</P> <P>As you know a factory creates a 'product'. A 'product' in this sense could simply be the result of configuring one or more instances of server products&nbsp;(IIS, BizTalk, SharePoint, SQL etc) to form a cohesive collaborative solution.</P> <P>Factories are ideally suited to define this 'product' logically for the user, visualise it it models, and then go and configure any number of servers products and infrastructure to wire it all up.</P> <P>I think your organisation is making a large step in the right direction towards a future where we see these solutions delivered by factories out of the box. Where the factory encapsualtes all the knowledge of solutionarchitecture, and know how to wire these server products together.</P> <P>As to if-and-when these MS server products will ship with factories is anyone's guess. Since there is no formal tools yet to build factories I am guessing we are looking at having those by the time the next generation of the server products come round. Of course ultimately, this will be driven by customer demand!! I will spread the word.</P>