Commerce Server is a software product for building multichannel e-commerce applications and systems using.NET Framework technology. The product has changed ownership and names several times. Previously known as Microsoft Commerce Server, it is now developed, sold, and supported by Sitecore; although Microsoft will honor extended support of Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 through 2019. The latest release of the product is Sitecore Commerce Server 11.1, released in October 2014.
Ownership History
The core software that formed the basis for the Commerce Server product line was developed by eShop and purchased by Microsoft in 1996. eShop’s technologies were integrated into Microsoft Merchant Server, which evolved into Microsoft Site Server in 1997,* and eventually to Microsoft Commerce Server in 2000. In 2007 Microsoft outsourced product development of Commerce Server to Cactus Commerce, which was acquired in 2011 by Ascentium. Ascentium then bought outright the Commerce Server business from Microsoft that same year. In 2012 Ascentium re-branded its company as SMITH and split off the Commerce Server product division into a wholly owned subsidiary known as commerceserver.net. Sitecore acquired commerceserver.net in late 2013 and released the product as Sitecore Commerce Server in 2014.
Sitecore Commerce Server is a set of pre-packaged tools for building and deploying e-commerce websites and e-commerce software applications using.NET Framework technologies. It can be run on-premise or, with the additional support for Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services introduced in version 10.1, it can be run in the cloud. Version 11.1 of the Commerce Server codebase is the first built entirely in.NET Framework 4.5 and Visual C++ 2013, eliminating Visual Basic 6 and various Visual C++ runtime dependencies. Sitecore Commerce Server has the following components:
*Catalog and Inventory Web Service + BizTalk Adapter
*Profiles Web Service + BizTalk Adapter
*Marketing Web Service
Desktop Business Tools:
*Catalog Manager
*Marketing Manager
*Customer and Order Manager
Commerce Server Staging
Merchandising Manager
Sitecore Experience Platform Integration
Related Technologies
Sitecore Commerce Server forms the technology foundation of and is included in Sitecore Commerce, Sitecore's primary commerce offering that also includes Sitecore Commerce Connect. It is marketed and sold as an optional, integrated module of the Sitecore Experience Platform, which also offers other modules for content management, multichannel customer experience management, and big data storage and management.
