At its developer conference this week, Microsoft is expected to unveil plans to beef up the security of its Passport online authentication service with middleware code-named Indigo. Microsoft is developing new middleware designed to allow developers to build secure Web services to run across globally distributed networks. The middleware, code-named Indigo, will extend the security and authentication provided by Microsoft's Passport online authentication service, part of the .Net architecture for online software. Indigo will update Passport to meet the Kerberos Internet security standard. Still two years away from delivery, the software will also provide a layer of common naming, addressing, messaging, event handling and consistency services on which Microsoft's .Net runtime will reside, developers said. Microsoft plans to make the first software developer release of Indigo available to key corporate and software partners at this week's annual Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. Microsoft apparently intends to build Indigo into a future version of Windows, and it may be targeting the release codenamed Longhorn, due by the spring of 2003. Microsoft will position Indigo as a head-to-head competitor with the Java 2 platform, which is backed by Sun, IBM, BEA Systems and Oracle, among others. Indigo will be the crux of the what has been called Microsoft's 'Web services 2' strategy, said developers who were briefed by the firm. Dana Gardner of analyst firm Aberdeen Group said this marked a new stage in the rivalry between Microsoft and Sun. 'There is Java the language and Java the platform. The Java platform was Sun's attempt to run around Windows. And J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) was a response to Microsoft's integrated stack of products,' Gardner said. Microsoft will probablybe incorporating elements of Indigo into future releases of its Windows clients, servers, Visual Studio tool suite and SQL Server database platform. During its development of Indigo, Microsoft is also building out its collections of Web services for key user constituencies. Its forthcoming consumer, business and developer groupings of Web services will require Indigo to function fully. The company has already announced its consumer Web services,­ .Net My Services, which were formerly code-named HailStorm. And Microsoft has begun delivering developer versions of offerings such as .Net Alerts to key partners, such as online auction house eBay. But Microsoft is also briefing selected developers about other Web services collections it is working on. For example, the company is building a set of business-to-business services codenamed Blizzard, developer sources said, but these are unlikely to be unveiled before next year. A third collection of Microsoft Web services, codenamed Iris, will be aimed at developers, according to other sources. The Iris services, which ultimately will be built into the Indigo platform, will provide common Internet metrics for global application routing, application performance monitoring and geographic mapping data, the sources said. The Iris Web services are expected to be available concurrently with Indigo in the spring of 2003. Microsoft declined to comment on Indigo, Blizzard or Iris. See the Windows XP Resource Center for the latest news on Microsoft's new operating system. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Click on the TalkBack button and go to the Microsoft forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. And read other letters.