Product Announcements Galore from TechEd Europe

Published: November 15, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft's server chief, Bob Muglia, made a slew of product announcements from the TechEd IT Forum Europe conference being held this week in Barcelona, Spain. Making news with an assortment of new and soon-to-be-released releases, service packs, community technology previews, betas, and release candidates are Windows Server 2003, Windows Server "Longhorn," SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio, Windows XP Professional, System Center, PowerShell, Forefront Security, SharePoint, and Dynamics CRM.

At the top of the list was the news surrounding Windows Server Longhorn, the next major new operating system out of Redmond following the completion of development of the client OS, Windows Vista, which will become available to business customers in a little more than two weeks, and will ship to consumers at the end of January 2007.

Microsoft's current plan still calls for shipping Windows Server Longhorn during the second half of 2007. What the company announced yesterday was a plan to deliver a third beta of Longhorn during the first half of 2007. The first beta of Longhorn shipped in July 2005, and the second beta shipped in May 2006, and while it seems unlikely Microsoft would call for a fourth beta, what can be counted on is at least one release candidate (RC) in the second half of 2007, and likely two or more RCs to get this critical and long-overdue product into its customers' hands by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to develop its successful Windows Server 2003 operating system, and yesterday it announced the first RC for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) (as well as the first RC for SP2 of Windows Server 2003 Release 2 [R2] and Windows Professional x64 Edition, since they all share a common code base), which will add several new features in the areas of security, management, and TCP/IP, SQL Server, and virtualization performance. Microsoft said in August, when SP2 entered its first beta, that SP2 would ship by the end of 2006, but that timeframe was apparently too aggressive, so Microsoft scaled it back and is now saying SP2 for the above mentioned operation systems will ship in the first quarter of 2007.

Microsoft is also gearing up for an SP2 release of its SQL Server 2005 database. Yesterday, Microsoft announced that the November community technology preview (CTP) release of SQL Server 2005 SP2 is now available. The SP2 release is expected to deliver enhancements in the areas of data compression, business intelligence, security, manageability, and support for Windows Vista and the 2007 Office suite.

Developers will have new toys to play with in time for Christmas thanks to the planned November release to manufacturing (RTM) of Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals. This product is designed to help database developers deal with the rigmarole of team development, with new functionality in the areas of change management, testing, and deployment.

PowerShell, the new Windows command line environment and scripting language that previously went by the name "Monad," is now ready for download off the Web, Microsoft announced this week. Microsoft sees PowerShell playing a central role in server management in the years to come, as the DOS-like environment can get some repetitive tasks done in a fraction of the amount of time it would take going through the traditional GUI.

Microsoft also talked up several management products related to PowerShell, including Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 R2, which was previously announced, and the upcoming release of System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007, which just entered the final RC stage of development and is slated for availability in the first quarter of 2007.

In particular, the software giant pointed out how SMS 2003 R2, which is now available, has the capacity to speed the deployment of Windows Vista via the virtualization technologies found in the SoftGrid SMS connector. Similarly, SMS 2003 SP3, which is due in the first quarter of 2007, will also bring new Vista migration capabilities. Meanwhile, customers will gain the capability to monitor the health of large-scale Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange Server 2007 environments with SCOM 2007 when it ships in the next few months.

On the security front, several developments were discussed relating to the Forefront series of anti-malware products, based on the Sybari Antigen product Microsoft acquired last year. Topping the list is the first public beta of Forefront Client Security, a new security product designed to protect business desktops, laptops, and Windows Server operating systems. And next month, volume license customers will be able to buy two new products, including Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint, which are being updated to support the 2007 series of these products.

Rounding out the list of new products are the immediate availability of an updated SharePoint Portal Optimizer and a new Dynamics CRM Application Optimizer for the Intelligent Application Gateway, which is based on technology that came with Microsoft's acquisition of Whale Communications earlier this year. Microsoft says these new optimizers provide customized, policy-based access, content inspection, and optimized publishing of Dynamics CRM and SharePoint products and technologies.

Muglia covered all of these new products in a keynote speech yesterday at TechEd Europe, which is being held from November 14 to 17. "As we look ahead to the release of new versions of our flagship products, our focus is to help our customers evaluate how the new wave of innovation can help them drive new levels of business success," Muglia said. "We have worked with partners in Europe and across the globe to create a vast ecosystem that gives our customers a rich set of solutions for Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system, and Exchange Server 2007."