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| Microsoft Unleashes New Windows Server 2008 Details Today, Nov. 12, at TechEd IT Forum 2007, Microsoft's foremost technology show in Europe for IT professionals, Bob Kelly, corporate vice president in the company's Server and Tools Business, announced details of next-generation solutions to deliver Dynamic IT for the People-Ready Business. "Earlier this year, we introduced our vision for Dynamic IT, which aims to make IT a stronger partner to the business by bringing together the capabilities of core infrastructure, application and development platforms", Kelly said. "At TechEd IT Forum, we are demonstrating how that vision is coming to life for customers as IT is streamlined across the full spectrum of our software and technology offerings, including through exciting new developments with Windows Server, Microsoft System Center, Microsoft SQL Server and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. The response from customers has been strong as we move toward the worldwide February 2008 launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008." New Windows Server 2008 Virtualization Offerings, Pricing, Licensing Details During his keynote address, Kelly made the following announcements related to Windows Server 2008: • Hyper-V. This is the official name of the server virtualization technology within Windows Server 2008 that was previously code-named "Viridian." Microsoft also announced Hyper-V Server, a standalone hypervisor-based server virtualization product that complements the Hyper-V technology in Windows Server 2008 and allows customers to virtualize workloads onto a single physical server. • Windows Server 2008 editions, pricing and licensing. Microsoft will offer customers the choice of eight versions of Windows Server 2008, each tailored to suit a variety of customer requirements. Pricing and licensing details were also disclosed. • The Server Virtualization Validation Program. This new program will enable vendors to test and validate virtualization software running Windows Server 2008 and previous versions. The program will also enable Microsoft to offer cooperative technical support to customers running Windows Server on validated, non-Windows server virtualization software. • Microsoft Virtualization Solution Accelerators. This set of free guidance resources and tools can help IT professionals effectively plan and deploy virtualization technologies. The initial release includes the Infrastructure Planning and Design series and the Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool beta program. New Microsoft System Center Products, Alliance Program Kelly also announced general availability of three new products in the Microsoft System Center family of systems management solutions, and expanded alliances and investments intended to provide customers with the solutions they need to build more dynamic IT systems. The System Center products now available can enable organizations to optimize a variety of scenarios, including server and software deployment, compliance and configuration management, backup and restore, and virtualization management. They are listed here: • System Center Configuration Manager 2007; • System Center Data Protection Manager 2007; • System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007. Kelly also made the following announcements related to Microsoft System Center: • The System Center Alliance program provides detailed guidance and resources to help partners deliver tools and products that can work with Microsoft System Center management solutions. The program can also help partners communicate information about their offerings to customers. Additional information about the System Center Alliance program and community can be foundhere. • System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise Edition license helps enable customers to manage their entire server life cycle with one purchase and can provide better value for managing both physical and virtual server environments. More information about Microsoft System Center announcements can be found atthis page. TechNet, MSDN Revamped to Provide Stronger Community Connections Kelly unveiled a series of improvements to the TechNet and MSDN online experiences, which provide comprehensive tools to help IT professionals and developers evaluate, plan, deploy and maintain complex systems and develop advanced software solutions. The enhancements include the following: • New online Developer TechCenters increase visibility of key members of the technical community. For example, MSDN Library Community Content enables experts within the MSDN community to extend and enhance Microsoft product documentation with code samples, links to related resources and more. • A new TechNet EDGE online community created for IT professionals features video interviews with Microsoft insiders and community experts. • Updated TechNet and MSDN forums feature a new user recognition system that rewards forum users with points for participation and contribution. • Enhanced TechNet and MSDN online Evaluation Centers provide access to trial and beta software as well as virtual labs and virtual hard disks. • TechNet and MSDN Spotlight is a new video portal featuring the best-rated sessions from Microsoft's top technical conferences worldwide. Additional Announcements at TechEd IT Forum Microsoft continues to create new products with Dynamic IT in mind to help provide customers with better-connected, simplified and adaptable IT systems. To help customers prepare for the next generation of Dynamic IT environments, Microsoft made a number of other announcements today: • Microsoft SQL Server Community Technology Preview. The November Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is available for customer download this month. It features a significant amount of new functionality, including compatibility with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 as well as new features such as Resource Governor, Backup Compression and Transparent Data Encryption. This CTP also includes new business intelligence enhancements such as Design Alerts, Block Computation, Enhanced Report Designer with new visualizations and integration with the 2007 Microsoft Office system. This also is the first CTP to help customers store and consume any type of data, including new FileStream data types for unstructured documents, and to provide spatial data support for location intelligence technologies. Separately, companies such as Barrodale Computing Services (BCS) Ltd., Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., I.S. Consulting Inc., Manifold and SpatialPoint announced their intention to ship applications that take advantage of spatial data support in SQL Server 2008. • Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack details unveiled. More than 3 million licenses for the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assistance have been sold since it was made available to Microsoft Software Assurance customers in January 2007. The following new components of MDOP for Software Assistance are now available for beta testing: - Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, formerly known as SoftGrid Application Virtualization, is the first Microsoft-branded release of the product. It includes several key features for the enterprise, including the addition of Dynamic Virtualization, extended enterprise scalability, enhanced security and globalization features. Microsoft Application Virtualization is available as a public beta on Microsoft Connect and will become available through MDOP and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services in the second half of calendar year 2008. - Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) 6.0 helps enable IT staff to remove viruses and spyware from an offline system. DaRT now supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, unlocks BitLocker volume encryption, and enables files to be pulled from USB devices. DaRT is available as a private beta and will become available through MDOP in the first half of calendar year 2008. - Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS) 1.0 offers a complete software inventory scan of the server environment. It was released to the Web this month and is available for MDOP customers after activation of the service atthis page. More information about MDOP for Software Assurance is available online atthis page. • 2007 Microsoft Office system update. Also announced, SP1 for the 2007 Microsoft Office system will be available in early 2008, featuring compatibility with Windows Server 2008 as well as improvements in stability, security and performance. • Microsoft FastCGI Extension for IIS 6.0 download. Microsoft announced the release of FastCGI Extension for IIS 6.0, which is available as a free download from the Internet Information Services (IIS) community site at http://www.iis.net. For the first time, Microsoft is providing full support for technology, which enables reliable and scalable PHP hosting on production Windows Server 2003 Web servers. Windows Server 2008 with IIS7 delivers FastCGI with a Go-Live license, making it the first Windows operating system to natively support PHP hosting. More information is available online atthis page. • Windows Essential Business Server publically demonstrated. The newly named Windows Essentials Business Server (formerly code-named "Centro"), Microsoft's integrated IT solution for midsize businesses, is being publicly demonstrated at TechEd IT Forum 2007. New details about the product's capabilities, as well as industry hardware and software partners s write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Networking News :: home page |