14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft signed the death sentence for a solution that a little over two years ago it was advertising as a next-generation digital content management product. On July 21st, 2009, the Redmond company revealed that it was killing off its Interactive Media Manager, an extension of Office SharePoint Server 2007, which was aimed at customers in the media and entertainment industry. Microsoft Interactive Media Manager was initially introduced at the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters conference (NAB2007), on April 15th, 2007.
“Microsoft Services is de-investing in the Interactive Media Manager (IMM) solution. There will be no further development of the solution, nor any official support of this Microsoft IP beyond a custom support agreement from the Microsoft Premier organization. The final IP is only accessible to the Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) field; there will not be external access to the IP beyond an official, contracted MCS engagement,” explained a member of the Interactive Media Manager team.
Instead of Interactive Media Manager, Microsoft is recommending users to turn to the Podcasting Kit for SharePoint (PKS), a solution hosted on CodePlex and available for download at no charge. The latest milestone of PKS offered to customers is the June 2009 Beta Release. The Redmond company indicated that PKS, although essentially a podcasting solution, could be extended beyond its default design. In this context, scalability involved tailoring PKS to additional media management scenarios also involving SharePoint 2007 and the associated base server component.
“It is possible for MCS to subcontract to a partner. Microsoft will retain the rights to the IP, and neither customer nor partner can redistribute it. Please note the IMM solution is dependent on a 3rd party component, licensed separately from Intellidimension. Please contact your local MCS representative for more information – start here to locate a Microsoft Services contact in your location,” the Interactive Media Manager team representative added.