Microsoft Launch a Big ProductionBy Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com
February 29, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Microsoft (microsoft.com) showcased the next generation of its infrastructure and application platform products on Wednesday to thousands of customers and partners worldwide in an event the software giant calls its largest enterprise launch in the company's history.
Kicking off more than 225 events around the world, CEO Steve Ballmer showcased Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to a room packed with more than 4,000 partners, customers and members of the press in Los Angeles, California, in a move to get customers on board with the concept of Dynamic IT, a new initiative that aims to create flexible and efficient IT environments by using things like virtualization and business intelligence solutions to boost business results.
As the first major update to Microsoft's server product since 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 platform offers significant enhancements over its previous version with updates that include administration and diagnostics, development and application tools and built-in server virtualization technology. The platform also offers OS and security innovations and new technologies and features such as Server Core, PowerShell, Windows Deployment Services and enhanced networking and clustering technologies.
Toronto, Canada was one of the major city centers that hosted part of Microsoft's worldwide launch with chief operating officer Kevin Turner addressing approximately 4,000 Canadian partners and customers about Microsoft's focus on helping IT departments reduce maintenance and support in order to increase innovation.
Looking deeper into its focus on improving IT in businesses, the theme of the event was "Heroes Happen Here," where Microsoft highlighted the work of what Turner called "the unsung heroes of IT" sharing several audio-visual case studies of different IT pros and developers from around the globe that have used Microsoft's technologies to do something "innovative and amazing" and make a difference to their businesses and communities.
A fictitious coffee retailer called Fourth Coffee was used to showcase the features and applications of Microsoft's newest products. Microsoft executives demonstrated how to manage multiple compute loads with Windows Server 2008 and how to change the prioritization of applications using the resource governor tool in SQL Server 2008. Visual Studio 2008 was also used to create an animated Fourth Coffee website.
"One of the opportunities with [launching all three products together] is to look at the bigger picture," says Bruce Cowper, Security Lead at Microsoft Canada. "If you're the infrastructure guy, you're providing the heartbeat to the network. If you're the developer, you're creating the interface your users are going to see. So, as an IT pro or developer, this is an opportunity to take a look at how it all fits together so that when we're talking about topics that transcend the whole group - like security, connecting a mobile workforce, creating a seamless user experience - we can enable people to see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together."
Executives from major Canadian companies like Bank of Montreal and EDS Canada were also highlighted in a panel discussion moderated by Microsoft Canada president, Phil Sorgen, who showcased how these companies were using Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, and test versions of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to help implement more secure platforms and Web applications while helping to reduce costs and speeding development.
A particular focus of the Canadian event seemed to be the idea that great technical talent was becoming scarce. Microsoft is working with post-secondary institutions across Canada by putting Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008 into the classrooms to train students with the most up-and-coming products and help build their foundation for growth.
"There are also a lot of students coming out of universities saying, 'to make this interesting for me as a career, I want to be able to make an impact to something in the business,' so lots of students are working with it right now," says Cowper. "We also realize that the next group of IT pros and developers are new Canadians, women in IT and students, so we have a new Canadian campaign running where we're helping to put certifications into the hands of these individuals so that when they get into the workplace with some of these industry standard qualifications, this will hopefully give them a leg up."
Microsoft says that Windows Server 2008, including a beta version of the Hyper-V virtualization technology, and Visual Studio 2008 are available today and the complete, February community technology preview of SQL Server 2008 is also available, with general availability expected in the third quarter of 2008.
In conjunction with the worldwide launch, several Web hosting providers recently announced that they are now offering Windows Server 2008 hosting.
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