HOUSTON -- Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2008 will be available in August with no price increase.

At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 here, Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Server and Tools business, announced that Microsoft would make SQL Server 2008 available in August. Kelly also said that on Sept. 8, Microsoft plans to launch its "end-to-end virtualization stack" in an event for press and analysts.

"We're taking virtualization deep into the infrastructure," Kelly said, noting that Microsoft plans to deliver virtualization capabilities to its server, desktop, application and presentation layer technologies. "Less than 10 percent of servers in the market today are acting as hosts for virtualization," he said. And Microsoft plans to have an impact on increasing that percentage. "We're one-third the price of VMware," Kelly said.

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer addressed the partner audience as his usual pumped up self, perhaps even a bit more pumped than usual. Ballmer came out to music that sounded a whole lot like that of a night time talk show and he was pointing and prancing around like Jay Leno or somebody. As he was not addressing a crowd of developers, Ballmer could not yell "Developers, developers, developers," instead he yelled "Partner Power" three times before settling in to deliver his keynote.

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