Following an interview with Orlando Ayala, senior vice president of Microsoft's small and midmarket solutions group, Microsoft Watch is reporting that a new Windows Server edition will target mid-sized businesses.

Known as Windows Midmarket Server (MMS), the SKU may an attempt to duplicate the success Microsoft experienced with Windows Small Business Server, which bundled together several server products into a single deliverable.

Sources close to Microsoft Watch have said that Windows MMS is expected to include SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange. The present Windows Small Business Server lassos together Windows Server 2003 with Windows SharePoint Services, Exchange Server 2003, ISA Server 2000, and SQL Server 2000.

Desktop productivity programs such as Outlook 2003, a common faxing application and FrontPage 2003 are also reportedly part of the MMS bargain.

Microsoft has declined to comment any further, but Ayala has stated that a concrete strategy for the segment will emerge within the next six months. Citing anonymous sources, Microsoft Watch has pegged the server to the Longhorn wave of products and estimates that a final retail release will occur between 2006 and 2008.

"Microsoft's recent trend has been to release more differentiated server versions, so another wouldn't be surprising," Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox told BetaNews. "While Small Business Server 2003 is an excellent product, the 75-user limit prevents many SMBs from taking advantage of the highly-integrated server product. Many vendors would consider 100 or even 250 employees a small business, many with limited IT resources."

The midmarket segment Microsoft is targeting consists of organizations with between 50 to 250 PCs. Microsoft's analysis of the market for midrange server products found that an estimated 1.7 million customers resided within the segment.