More from Bob at WPC

WPC - FIRST DAY

Well the sold out Microsoft Worldwide Conference is now in full swing. I am writing this during the noon hour but can report on the keynotes.

One of the themes of the conference is greater attention to community. This extends well beyond partners working together, but also partners reaching out and utilizing the talents of the technology community. Of course, this is a very good thing. 

From my perspective the most interesting session today was provided by Microsoft COO Kevin Turner. His discussion clearly outlined the company's product and service plans for 2008 and beyond. I would encourage myITforum.com members to stream his presentation. The heavy emphasis on the forthcoming server software product lines together with software as a service (SaaS) will have an impact on the way many of us in the Microsoft management arena conduct business. I would be very interested to know what impression you have regarding this direction. Kevin's presentation is available at http://members.microsoft.com/partner/digitalwpc/.

Steve Ballmer's presentation can also be streamed at the same link. Steve was his usual high energy self. While a number cool technologies were shown, Ballmer again placed a very heavy emphasis on SaaS. This seemed to raise many questions. Tim Krueger and Jacob Eker of PEI (www.pei.com) seemed pleased with the spotlight being placed on managed services. However, they are eager to get more clarity on how these plans are implemented and how companies such as PEI will be able build and expand their practices within this new framework. Given this new direction, I believe we will see a great number of changes ... but to the point made by Tim and Jacob, clarity is required before an honest assessment can be made as to the impact.

More on the show as it unfolds ... from the Milehigh City, Cheers ....

Robert Williams, MVP – Enterprise Certified Corp – Request your demo copy of the ECC eSCOP for SCOM2007 ACS and DataWare