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Microsoft Gets Virtual at Tech-Ed

These days, Microsoft's Tech-Ed conference is an obnoxious two-week binge, with one week devoted to developers and the second to IT folks. With a minimum of product announcements on the slate, the more interesting (or at least somewhat less nerdy) second week is all about agenda-setting for Redmond rather than about product pumping. (And, no, RCPU is not there, in case you were wondering.)

So, what's on Microsoft's agenda? This week, anyway, it's our old friend virtualization. Microsoft is touting its architecture and applications as excellent candidates for the virtualized environment, pushing the forthcoming Hyper-V and noting that the Forefront security suite, if anybody wants it, will run in a virtualized environment.

The other big item on the agenda is SQL Server, a release candidate of which is now available. Short-timer Bill Gates pitched SQL Server at the other Tech-Ed conference last week as being extremely critical to the Microsoft data platform.

So, that's where we are right now on the Tech-Ed front. Really, it seems appropriate that Microsoft it talking more about technology agendas than about pure product releases (although the SQL news really falls into the latter category). After all, the days of product-driven IT are ending, what with SaaS, virtualization and other less physical (for lack of a better word) technologies piercing the enterprise. Why it takes Microsoft two weeks to talk about this stuff is beyond us, but at least it's recognition that we're not just living in an old-fashioned software-and-servers world anymore.

What would you like to hear Microsoft say about virtualization? About other new technologies? Sound off at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on 06/11/2008 at 1:22 PM


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