RSSNew Windows Server, Visual Studio, SQL Server to Launch in February
By Nate Mook | Published July 10, 2007, 11:10 AM
On February 27, 2008, Microsoft will jointly release Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008, kicking off what it calls a "launch wave" with hundreds of events worldwide. Microsoft will pitch the products as a platform for next-generation Web service applications.
Windows Server 2008 is still expected to be released to manufacturing before the end of the year, with November as the rumored timeframe. Microsoft took a similar tack with Windows Vista, making it available to businesses in November before its public launch in late January.
The Redmond company made the announcement at its annual Worldwide Partner Conference, which begins today in Denver. The overarching theme of the conference will be "software plus services" - essentially recognizing the importance of Web-based and connected services, but accessing them through traditional desktop software.
To aid in its software plus services push, Microsoft will be heavily promoting Office 2007 as a platform for development. Although many customers see Office primarily as a productivity suite, Microsoft is hoping to change that image with what it calls Office Business Applications, or OBAs.
Companies can build OBAs to streamline complex business tasks and improve organization, especially with a mobile workforce. The advantage, says Microsoft, is the ease in which such applications can be built. Because OBAs utilize Office applications directly, creating separate interfaces for inputting and displaying data is no longer necessary.
“Everyone in our industry is rethinking the relationship between software and services,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "We believe the future is in software plus services — combinations that give customers more options and create great new opportunities for partners. Microsoft, with our partners, is positioned to lead the way."
Such an approach will pit Microsoft against market leaders such as Salesforce.com. The company announced Tuesday the fourth version of its CRM solution, now known as Dynamics CRM Live, which will be available next year in two versions: Professional priced at $44 per month, and Enterprise priced at $59 per month. Enterprise includes offline data synchronization.
"Our product portfolio, long-term investments in XML and .Net and the diversity of our partner ecosystem give Microsoft a competitive advantage in the software-plus-services era," remarked Allison Watson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group. "This unique combination allows us to empower people and partners in their roles with rich solutions that drive new business opportunities."
Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 will play a central role in this effort when they launch next year. However, Microsoft is making sure customers have early access to the products so they can begin work immediately. Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2008 -- code-named "Orcas" -- is expected to be released this summer, while Community Technology Previews of SQL Server 2008 -- know as "Katmai" -- are available now.
before it was planned to be launched in the 3q of 2007
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Hahaha. Microsoft really has no innovation left.
quote: “Everyone in our industry is rethinking the relationship between software and services,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
How this is going to compete with equivalent open source software that has existed for years I really dont understand.
And it's no wonder why MS-SQL 2005 didnt have a large impact. I have heard more than one developer telling me their company either stuck with MS-SQL 2000 or completely dropped it in favor for MySQL or PG-SQL while they had the chance to upgrade.
Only enterprise tie-wearing s***heads make such lousy desicions as to keep a Microsoft licence because they can't see the benefits of open source software. And those people should be fired because they are incompetent if they cannot see how they can save money for their companies (in the short run because of licence fees, in the long run for a living community that actually supports the products).
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"And it's no wonder why MS-SQL 2005 didnt have a large impact."
According to the balance sheets it's doing just fine.
http://www.microsoft.com...version/10k_fr_dis.html
"Our revenue growth for fiscal year 2006 was driven primarily by growth in SQL Server following the launch of SQL Server 2005 in the second quarter, ..."
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I didnt claim that Microsoft is going bancrupt.
I am simply stating that many companies that are offered to upgrade are looking at the competition.
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A DB Server can host many DBs for several applications. Overall, the cost of SQL Server is negligible. The higher cost is actually the time to maintain, administration & development. These costs are lower with SQL Server 2005.
People are not as dumb as you thought. There are real value in SQL Server 2005 (and commercial DBs generally speaking). Any thing a free DB Server does, SQL Server 2005 can do. The opposite is not true. Some people are ready to pay for these extra features. Sorry for the may be off topic comparison, but someone is not going to give up his car because you tell him he can also commute with a bike.
I am a fervent supporter of freeware and open source. But in the DB areas, there is no match between freeware and commercial products.
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Let's see...the competition. That would be Oracle and umm maybe you could count DB2? Oracle probably does beat MS SQL Server in terms of features but it is also quite a bit more expensive.
If you're running DB2 my guess is you're not running on Windows anyway.
So yea, everyone does look at the competition and then goes ahead and buys what ever their application vendor supports. Nine times out of ten, if your app is on windows, this will be MS SQL Server.
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Lately, I've been interviewing with companies asking for SQL Server 2005 experience, yet most of them end up neither using it or planning on it anytime soon. I wonder how long it'll take before SQL 2008 makes any noticeable traction.
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I don't understand how companies can use software that is no longer supported. Its 7 year old software. I bet they don't drive cars that old, yet they run their business on this old software.
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Heck you want to talk about old. There are still some companies that run their pay rolls on old VAX systems. Keep in mind accountants HATE change and will work with a given piece of software and hardware until it dies.
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no longer supported? Please link your source.
From http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2852
"Mainstream Support Retired 4/8/2008"
It seems there is a little less than a year left for support on SQL 2000.
Do you know how many databases were built on SQL Server 2000? It takes time to get them all converted.
Besides, well developed and maintained SQL 2000 databases are bulletproof, if the software didn't do the job well, people would be looking for some other product to use.
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Do you realize how risky is to upgrade hundred of databases on stabilized applications? Even in the middle of a multi teams application life cycle, it is hard to switch DB Server like that. There are a lots of people to train.
And even if you could upgrade the DB servers, the clients could still hold back because of various reasons, mostly financial and impact on maintenance and delivery dates.
Dev tools are like a giant oil tankers, they are not easily maneuverable.
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You must make a business case to upgrade. If something is working, and there is little real value to upgrade, why do it? Yes, running a non-supported product is a risk, but risk is part of the business case. Many times, even if official support has ended, you can purchase support for a period of time.
In my company, I know of several systems that are still running NT4. Through VMware and consolidation we've finally made the case to either retire these systems or upgrade in 2008, but it has taken years to make this economically feasible.
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You aren't kidding! We take about 6-9 monthes to work all the kinks out of major version upgrades to our Accounting/Billing app. I think we do pretty good too. I bet in the finacial sector it can take years to toally upgrade
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Looking forward to Serv 08 and VS 08.
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