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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 2007Client 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 2007Server 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*
Elizabeth Montalbano at Infoworld:
Microsoft has rolled offerings from several acquisitions into one product that will be available in January to volume-license customers who purchased its Software Assurance maintenance program.
The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance is comprised of software from Microsoft’s purchases of Softricity, AssetMetrix, Winternals Software, and DesktopStandard, said Gabriella Schuster, senior director of product management for Microsoft’s Windows client business group.
The product rolls up virtualization software from Softricity, asset-management software from AssetMetrix, group policy-management software from DesktopSoftware (sic), and diagnostic and recovery tools from Winternals into a product designed to help companies manage desktops in an enterprise, she said.
The Desktop Optimization Pack will be available first with the Softricity offering, now branded Microsoft Softgrid, in January 2007 for a subscription rate of $10 per desktop per year for customers who have purchased Microsoft Software Assurance, Schuster said. These customers will get the software in kits they receive periodically as volume-license customers. The software will also be available for download on the Web, Schuster said.
The rest of the package will roll out through the first half of 2007. Specifically, the pieces are (from the press release):
Producing this bundle was apparently the objective of the acquisitions:
Putting technology from different acquisitions into one product bundle was no accident, Schuster said. She said Microsoft talked to customers about the pain points of managing Windows desktops across the enterprise, and they mentioned asset-management, virtualization, group policy-management and diagnostic and recovery of applications as tools they needed to help solve those problems.
“We found what we thought were best-of-breed [companies] and acquired them specifically to create this pack,” Schuster said. “We wanted to do this comprehensively for enterprise customers.”
It’s nice that the Microsoft Software Assurance customers are being offered this package since their big complaint in the past has been that they don’t get anything from their subscriptions but free product upgrades which have been rather scarce in recent years. However, one can’t help but wonder if Software Assurance is to be the only outlet for the tools acquired from these companies.
In that regard, the Softricity products seem to have a life of their own and the press release calls out the fact that AssetMetrix technology is also available via Microsoft’s Systems Management Server, but there doesn’t seem to be an immediate alternative for the others. In particular, one would think that the offered Winternals toolset would have much broader applicability for Microsoft customers than just those with a Software Assurance subscription and it doesn’t encompass all the former Winternals tools. Hopefully the other products and non-Software Assurance customers won’t be forgotten.
Aside from the AssetMetrix acquisition, there was a variety of other news from the Microsoft Management Summit 2006. At one point Microsoft had planned to build a product called System Center that combined its management software icons, System Management Server (SMS) and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) but has given that up in the face of customer resistance and “now plans to use System Center as a brand, covering a half dozen different products.”
Here’s the rundown:
The new System Center offerings released and announced over the past year are:• System Center Data Protection Manager 2006
• System Center Capacity Planner 2006
• System Center Reporting Manager 2006
…
MOM V3 will become Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, while SMS V4 will become Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007.
and there’s a new service desk product planned:
We also announced our investment in a new product for the service-desk market, to be delivered toward the end of 2007. This is a very significant announcement as with this product, codenamed Service Desk, we are providing two key components that will form the foundation for the entire System Center family: 1) A workflow engine that will provide the basis for how we automate IT processes, and 2) the implementation of the SDM-based Configuration Management Database (CMDB), which will be the foundation of our asset and change management capability.
Underlying all this is a new administrative scripting language called Windows PowerShell:
We announced the delivery schedule for Windows PowerShell, formerly known as MONAD. Windows PowerShell is a powerful administrative command shell and scripting environment. It will be available as a no-charge Web download in the second half of this year. Also, we announced that the next version of Microsoft Exchange, which will be the first Microsoft application to deliver new automation capability based on PowerShell, will officially be named Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. In addition, System Center Operations Manager 2007 is building a solution based on PowerShell. The Exchange Management Shell in Exchange Server 2007 is based on PowerShell and will save IT administrators valuable hours by allowing routine and repetitive tasks to be automated through a scriptable command line shell.In addition, Exchange Server 2007, which is due end of 2006 or early 2007, will include the Exchange Management Console – a graphical console also built entirely on top of MMC 3.0 and PowerShell that will increase administrative productivity through simplified navigation and new filtering capabilities for managing the messaging environment.
The above is apparently the first announcement of the formal name for the next version of Exchange, heretofore called Exchange 12. You can download RC1 of PowerShell via the links at this post on the Monad Technology Blog.
Microsoft augmented its management software offerings line by acquiring Canadian assest tracking firm AssetMetrix today. Ina Fried has the scoop at CNET:
Founded in March 2000, AssetMetrix helps businesses manage their fleet of PCs and software. Felicity McGourty, director of product management in Microsoft’s Windows and enterprise management division, said that AssetMetrix’ technology will allow customers to get a better handle on their non-Microsoft software.
…
(AssetMetrix CEO) Campbell declined to discuss the terms of the deal, which was first reported by CNET News.com and announced Wednesday at the Microsoft Management Summit in San Diego.
…
Microsoft plans to incorporate some of the Ottawa-based company’s technology into its forthcoming System Center Configuration Manager product, in particular AssetMetrix’s technology for helping companies manage their software licenses.
Update 4/27: If the name AssetMatrix seemed familiar, Gregg Keizer’s article Microsoft Snaps Up Asset-Tracking Vendor, Co-Founder Unhappy should remind you:
“It was more of a technology purchase than of the company’s business,” said Steve O’Halloran, one of the co-founders of AssetMetrix.“I don’t think that Microsoft will continue with the AssetMetrix business. I think a lot of companies would be leery of their [hardware and software] inventory data being held in a Microsoft-owned data structure,” O’Halloran added.
O’Halloran left AssetMetrix shortly before the Microsoft acquisition was announced, over business plan disagreements with the company’s managers. He said Wednesday that his departure was independent of the talks with Microsoft that led to the purchase. O’Halloran still holds what he called a “large stake” in AssetMetrix.
“On one hand, I’m happy about the acquisition,” he said, “but in another way, I’m sad. It’s unfortunate that the IT community has lost a sentinel, a watchdog, that could report on how hardware and software are used.
“I’d be surprised if Microsoft maintained that transparency.”
In the past AssetMetrix has rebutted Microsoft’s claims that newer operating systems were widely used, and that older versions of Windows were no longer in play.
A 2005 report, for instance, noted that nearly half of enterprises still ran Windows 2000. The report was based on data from AssetMetrix’s research lab, which O’Halloran ran.
“We were also a factor in Microsoft extending Windows 98 support,” O’Halloran said, referring to a 2003 report that said Windows 98 users faced serious security risks even as support was to be terminated. Later, Microsoft extended Windows 98 support for about two-and-a-half years.
