Microsoft server to report for duty

Microsoft plans to integrate the Crystal Reports database query tool from Seagate Software into the next generation of Internet Information Server.

The new version, Seagate Crystal Reports 4.5, is due out when the Internet Information Server 3.0 debuts next week. The integrated product will target Internet service providers and the Webmasters of small and midsized companies that are looking for tools that analyze site traffic and quickly publish the information into reports with graphics.

The product includes a report designer and engine and allow users to publish HTML-based reports from data culled from Microsoft's SQL Server and Access databases.

Seagate and Microsoft forged a working relationship last month with a separate deal that calls for Seagate to develop an ActiveX server component inside Crystal Reports for use with Microsoft's Active Server.

In other news, Seagate plans to introduce a new product in the third quarter of next year that will complete and integrate the company's suite of database query and reporting tools, the company said today.

The product, code-named BlackWidow, is a version of the Crystal Info querying tool that Seagate is adapting to work with Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases. It will work with both relational and multidimensional OLAP databases to offer access, analysis, and scheduling of existing reports and create new queries and reports from a variety of data sources, according to the company. Seagate Software is a subsidiary of Seagate Technology.

BlackWidow will become the linchpin of Seagate's database retrieval tools--Seagate Crystal Info, Crystal Reports, and Seagate Holos--and allow the three products to work together in an integrated suite. Pricing has not been set, according to the company.