Microsoft to Deliver SQL Server 2008 in August

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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