A (Microsoft) code name a day: Titan
Even though more and more teams at Microsoft seem to be shying away from christening their fledgling products with good, old-fashioned code names – favoring the ever-so-boring “V.Next” designation instead -- there are still some who are doing so.
Microsoft code names always have piqued my interest. They offer some great clues about the Redmondians’ development priorities, not to mention a better understanding of which future Microsoft products fit together, from a strategy standpoint.
Microsoft
code name
of the day:
Titan
In honor of Microsoft code-name junkies everywhere, I’m going to feature one, random Microsoft code name per work day for the rest of this month. I’ll provide as much information as I’ve been able to unearth on each, and attempt to provide some context as to how the team chose the name and how the forthcoming technology fits into the Redmond product hierarchy.
Microsoft code name of the day: Titan
Best guess on what it is: Dynamics CRM 4.0
Meaning/context of the code name: On the Microsoft CRM Team blog, there's an entry that details the history of the CRM team's codenames. It seems the next version of Microsoft's CRM product has gone through a few different codenames, including "Kilimanjaro" (deemed too long). "Titan" was judged to be just as majestic -- and much shorter. Precursors to the Kilimanjaro name included "Madison" and "Hamilton" -- codenames favored by the history buffs on the CRM team, who were eventually overruled. (CRM 3.0 was codenamed "Danube Phase II," for what that's worth....)
Back story: Titan adds multi-tenancy and multi-currency support to Microsoft's base CRM product. Microsoft plans to offer Titan in three ways: as an on-premise, hosted and service-based (CRM Live) deliverable.
Additional info: CRM "Titan" is due to ship in the second quarter of 2007. An early-access version of the code was slated to go to testers in the fourth quarter of 2006. I haven't heard of anyone receiving it. Anyone hear otherwise?
Got more details on "Titan"? Or do you have another Microsoft code name you’ve been wondering about? Send it my way and I’ll do my best to track down some leads on what it might be.
And if you want to keep track of the full month's worth of Microsoft code names I end up posting, bookmark this "Microsoft Codenames" page.