Worldwide Partner Conference - Highlights from Wednesday
Highlights from Wednesday
Allison Watson kicked off Wednesday with product announcements and demos from executives Simon Witts and Bob Kelly. Steve Ballmer expressed his commitment to driving product innovation and partner success in the coming year and talked about new opportunities with software-plus-services.
Missed the exec presentations or have staff back home who couldn’t attend? Check out Digital WPC to view the keynote presentations at your convenience.
Announcements
- A new profitability toolset comprising the Software-plus-Services Partner Evolution Interactive Guide and the Software-plus-Services Profitability Modeler.
- Enrollment in the Software-plus-Services Incubation Center Program is at 550 independent software vendors and growing.
- The latest news about Hyper-V, a key virtualization feature of Windows Server 2008.
- The introduction of Microsoft Pinpoint, a unified online business marketplace for small- and midsize-business customers and partners.
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is scheduled to be released to manufacturing in the third quarter of 2008, and Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 are to reach Release Candidate 1 status next week.
- The Security Software Advisor program expanded to support new Identity and Security Division.
- The Microsoft Online Services business model and its pricing structure. Read the press release for details.
News Coverage
- Fox Business News: Social Networking and Microsoft’s Digital Forum
- CNET: Microsoft Updates Hyper-V, Server Products
- Investor’s Business Daily: Microsoft Embraces Software Services
- eWEEK: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Due in August
- eChannelLine: Microsoft WPC08: Channel 2.0
Technorati tags: Event, Partners, WPC, World Wide Partner Conference