Microsoft Announces Tsunami of Enterprise Products
Microsoft Announces Tsunami of Enterprise Products
February 29, 2008: After many years of development and months of tinkering, Microsoft has finally unveiled its enterprise lineup, showcasing a wave of products including Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 in the largest enterprise product release in its history.
With more than 225 events around the world attended by upwards of 4,000 customers and partners attending the live event in LA alone, Microsoft has trumpeted the release of its next generation of infrastructure and application platform products.
CEO Steve Ballmer showcased kicked off the launch, which represents a major milestone for the company, and one that will hopefully restore some of the confidence it has lost during Windows Vista’s teething problems.
According to Microsoft, this generation is all about “dynamic IT”, its initiative to help customers optimise their people, processes and technology, and position IT as a strategic business asset. And with the event them being “Heroes Happen Here”, the company is certainly trying to highlight the central role IT professionals play in modern enterprises.
The company says its new trio of enterprise products help customers more efficiently and securely manage their entire infrastructure, and move to a virtualised environment while also delivering business intelligence and next-generation Web experiences.
“IT professionals and developers tell us they spend too much time and money managing existing systems and not enough investing in new capabilities that create strategic advantage,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his launch keynote address.
“That feedback is at the core of the innovations in this new wave of products. Already, the overwhelming response from thousands of IT professionals and developers around the world is that this is the most secure enterprise platform we have ever delivered, and that it will simplify management and enable them to focus more on driving their businesses forward.”
More than 40 companies are making announcements today, with Rackspace, Emulex, QLogic, EMC, FalconStor, NetApp and many more detailing support and complimentary products for Microsoft’s new enterprise baby.
Windows Server 2008, including a beta version of the Hyper-V virtualization technology, and Visual Studio 2008 are available today. The February community technology preview of SQL Server 2008 is also available, with general availability expected in the third quarter of 2008.
Later this year Microsoft will release the Windows Essential Server Solutions family of products for small and midsize companies built on Windows Server 2008 and the newest Microsoft server technologies and services: Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008.
Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, is on track for availability in the second half of 2008 and is designed to increase productivity, scalability and manageability for high-performance computing scenarios. In addition, Windows Storage Server 2008, the next-generation storage solution based on Windows Server 2008, will be available by the end of the year.
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