.wilk

I have talked to more than one Microsoft Partner who is ready to declare Microsoft Commerce Server dead, but they can't find the body or next of kin to confirm its departure.  Let me put this into perspective; I want Commerce Server to survive.  I have been using Microsoft Commerce Server since before it was Merchant Server.  I was one of a handful of people invited to Redmond to preview Merchant Server before it was released to provide feedback and suggestions.  Merchant Server evolved to Site Server then Commerce Server and then a Commerce Server / Sharepoint Hybrid.  I have much invested in Microsoft technology, but like many of you, I need to decide where to invest my future.  So let's conduct our own CSI (Commerce Server investigation):

1) Commerce Server 2009 finally made it to a CTP release in January 2010 with little documentation and even less product marketing.

2) Commerce Server, of any version, cannot be found in the Product listings of msdn.microsoft.com, Microsoft's developer portal.

3) A search of commerce server on MSDN reveals some MSDN documentation and the CTP download, but no developer center of product pages.

4) There is a commerce server product page at http://www.microsoft.com/commerceserver/en/us/default.aspx, but content is light for a Microsoft Server product page.  Further, this content does not appear to have changed in over 3 months.

5) A roadmap page at the above location is even more vague.  All that is sure is Commerce Server 2007 support will cease in July 2011.  The page says Microsoft is committted to the commerce industry, but no future direction is provided.

6) Mutliple calls to Microsoft's primary commerce partner, Cactus Commerce, have not gone through - I'm talking no connection, no answer, no answering machine.

7) Of the Microsoft Partners interviewed who have built their businesses around Commerce Server, all are now recomennding alternative commerce engines because Commerce Server seems to have just evaporated like Winona Ryder's career.

8) Neither Microsoft nor Cactus Commerce nor anyone else promoting MS Commerce Server were exhibiting at the Internet Retail Commerce & Exhibit this week in Chicago. 

None of this proves MS Commerce Server is dead, but if it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck...