LAS VEGAS – Network executives say the latest slippage in the ship date for Windows .Net Server 2003 is unfortunate but not bothersome, and see the operating system as the beginning of a whole new way to integrate resources and share information within a company and with business partners.

Microsoft on Sunday said the ship date of Windows .Net Server 2003 has slipped into April 2003 and that the operating system will be released in conjunction with the next version of Visual Studio.Net development tools.

Both products would be key milestones for the creation of Microsoft’s .Net platform. With Windows.Net Server 2003, the operating system will include the .Net Framework, the runtime environment for Web services applications. The second release candidate, which is a test version of the software before final release, is scheduled to be available in two weeks. Microsoft did not say if there would be a third - but if there is, it could signal another delay in the software.

Up until Sunday, Microsoft had said the software would ship at the end of 2002. The operating system originally was supposed to ship more than a year ago, but development delays and Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing campaign conspired to send the release of Windows .Net Server 2003 into a tailspin.

“In terms of the security initiative, we are happy with the release slippage,” says Jay Corriveau, enterprise program director for Reed Elsevier, one of the world’s leading publishers of legal, science, business-to-business and educational periodicals. The company, a partner in Microsoft’s Joint Development Program that was in Las Vegas to talk about its plans for the new OS, is upgrading from Windows NT. Corriveau is in somewhat of a hurry because he would like to be off NT when support for the server ends at the conclusion of 2003.

He plans to use Windows.Net Server 2003 to improve his Domain Name Service, consolidate servers, and deploy Active Directory to centrally manage users and delegate administrative rights across the company’s business units.

“We think Microsoft has made the product better, although it is unfortunate it is late. But I would rather wait on this since the next release of the server OS is a couple of years away,” Corriveau says. In fact, Microsoft confirmed last week that its next server OS, code-named Blackcomb, won’t ship until 2006.