Microsoft News Tracker

In addition to the Windows Server 2008 version menu revealed at TechEd IT Forum 2007, Microsoft also announced the general availability of three System Center products and the November CTP for SQL Server 2008. The System Center releases are:

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As promised in April, Microsoft announced on Monday that the successor to the venerable Systems Management Server (SMS) called System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 has been released to manufacturing.

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Last week, Microsoft held its Microsoft Management Summit 2007 in San Diego and Mary Jo Foley, Omar van der Hoeven, and Maarten Goet have details and summaries of the high points. Key items related to Microsoft product plans:

• System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007: As rumored, general availability was announced for April 1. Microsoft also announced the licensing of EMC’s Smarts network discovery and health monitoring technology to be included in a future version of SCOM (presumably the 2008 version) and an EMC Smarts Connector with some of the eventual functionality to be available in May for SCOM 2007.
• Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003: Service Pack 3 is due in three to four weeks.
• System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007: SCCM is the successor to SMS and is due to ship this summer. The features for SCCM 2007 SP1 and a R2 version are already being planned.
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager: Beta 2 due in April with GA this summer.
• System Center Service Manager 2007: Beta 1 due in April with no public estimate for ship.
• System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007: (via Bink.nu) Beta 2 in April and GA in the fall.

Also related, Microsoft with a group of other tech companies have submitted their Service Modeling Language specification to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for review as an industrywide standard.

Some Microsoft news items from last week that did not get a post of their own.

Microsoft competitor VMware is profiled in the NY Times. Uh-oh! Someone just said “Microsoft” and ”bundling.”

Wii outsold PS2 which outsold Xbox 360 which outsold PS3 in January big box retail sales in the US. Think there might be a message from consumers there?

Windows Vista Express Upgrades could finally begin shipping next week:

If you purchased a PC before January 30 and took advantage of the Vista Express Upgrade program, you know by now that this program is everything else but “Express”.

Blu-ray disc sales finally passed HD DVD, but the question is why the attach rate is so low given that Blu-ray players outnumber HD DVD about 5 to 1. Could it be that most Blu-ray players are the Sony PS3?

Details of Exchange 2007 SP1 revealed. Beta coming in April with final release alongside Longhorn server.

Configuration Manager 2007 Beta 2 is now available for public download. It’s the rebranded old favorite, Systems Management Server (SMS). Also, RC1 of System Center Essentials is now publicly available.

Microsoft to launch new consortium aimed at Oracle users on Feb. 26. It’s all about interoperability, I’m sure.

The South African government plans to switch from Microsoft to Open Source. So does Cuba. Meanwhile in the USA, Dell users demand Linux and OpenOffice on PCs via the new Dell company blog.

Microsoft sued over “Office Live” trademark.

And last, but not least: Microsoft offers to take Iowa antitrust jurors to dinner. I wonder if they can pay with vouchers?

Microsoft today staged a rolling launch of Windows Vista, Office 2007, Exchange 2007 , and associated products starting in Sydney, Australia and wrapping around the world through Asia and Europe to Steve Ballmer in New York who is still speaking as I write. The launch event so far has been as devoid of excitement as expected, but the important thing is that Microsoft at long last got Vista out the door.

Update: For the sake of completeness, according to the press release linked above, the full set of products launched today was:

Products Released

An * below indicates the product is available now.

Client upgrades
• Windows Vista Business *
• Office Professional 2007 *
• Office Project Professional 2007 *
• Office Visio Professional 2007 *
• Office InfoPath 2007 *
• Office OneNote 2007 *
• Office Communicator 2007

Client enterprise editions
• Windows Vista Enterprise *
• Office Enterprise 2007 *

Server upgrades
• Exchange Server 2007 *
• Office SharePoint Server 2007*
• Office Project Server 2007 *
• Forefront Security for Exchange Server *
• Forefront Security for SharePoint *
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Server Enterprise editions
• Windows Rights Management Services *
• System Center Operations Manager Enterprise 2007
• Unified Messaging Services for Exchange *
• Excel and Forms Services for SharePoint *

New products
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance
• Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 *
• Office Forms Server 2007 *
• Office SharePoint Designer 2007*
• Office Communications Server 2007
• “Voice Call Management” for Office Communication Server 2007
• Office PerformancePoint Server 2007
• Forefront Client Security
• Office Sharepoint Server for Search 2007 *
• SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007
• System Center “Desktop”
• Office Groove Server 2007*
• Office Groove 2007 *
• Exchange Hosted Services*