ORLANDO, Fla. — June 6, 2005 — Speaking to a sold-out audience of nearly 12,000 information technology professionals, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shared his insights and enthusiasm about the role of people in positively impacting business success and the breadth and depth of Microsoft’s resources for IT professionals and developers to enable existing and new scenarios.
Ballmer kicked off Microsoft® Tech•Ed 2005, Microsoft Corp.’s largest annual technology education conference, by noting the growing importance of IT in business success. He outlined key investments Microsoft is making — from robust developer tools to IT operations infrastructure to solutions for information workers — to help people leverage IT to make more of an impact in their business.
“We’re all here because we share a vision of how technology can enhance business performance and help people do great new things,” Ballmer told attendees. “Microsoft’s job is to help realize this vision by arming IT professionals and developers with the right tools, best-of-breed products and an unparalleled computing platform.”
Ballmer added, ”We’re working to anticipate industry trends, we’re very focused on technical innovation, and we’re committed to reducing complexity and cost — all to help you contribute to the growth and success of your organization.”
Enabling the New World of Work
Referencing the vision discussed at Microsoft’s recent CEO Summit, Ballmer enumerated how Microsoft will provide customers with the necessary tools and infrastructure to support work-force demands in the new world of work.
To further Microsoft’s commitment to this vision, Ballmer highlighted:
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Microsoft’s plans to deliver a direct, cost-effective and more secure mobile messaging solution with the combination of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile™ 5.0. This combination, available in the fall, will enable organizations to directly push e-mail and information in Outlook® from Exchange Server to Windows Mobile-based devices, keep critical business information up to date and more secure, and help get more productivity from their mobile workers. In addition, Service Pack 2 will deliver improved anti-spam protection with Sender ID and increase the storage limit for Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition. See related press release.
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Guidance for IT professionals to fundamentally shift the way they define and implement their infrastructure to best connect people and information based on logical boundaries defined by policy, not physical boundaries confined by corporate firewalls
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Microsoft’s three key design principles for its next wave of server infrastructure designed to amplify employee impact and help transition IT from a cost center to a strategic partner within the organization: anywhere access without compromising network security, self-service capabilities to free IT from routine task management, and requisite IT fundamentals to continue to reduce cost and complexity
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The new ThinkPad© X41 Tablet, a powerful business PC from Lenovo, designed to provide an extremely secure environment with an optional Integrated Fingerprint Reader and Embedded Security Subsystem. The tablet combines the productivity benefits of Tablet PC functionality and ThinkVantage Technologies with a lightweight and thin form factor and first-class wireless connections. Backed by the innovative and distinguished history of the ThinkPad brand, the ThinkPad X41 Tablet marks a milestone for notebook computing, providing mobile workers with more flexibility and security.
For more information about enabling the New World of Work, please visit the Windows Server System Web site.
Building Connected Systems
Today at Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the new ThinkPad X41 Tablet, a powerful business PC from Lenovo.
Microsoft strives to deliver software and tools that make it possible to interoperate with different systems, break down the walls between information silos, and permit an organization to gain deeper insights into the company, no matter where the information resides. Ballmer noted the strong progress Microsoft has made in furthering the .NET and industry standards to promote the adoption of Web services and the ability of disparate systems to interoperate more effectively. He also outlined investments Microsoft and industry partners have made across Windows Server System™, in particular with SQL Server™ 2005, Visual Studio® 2005 and BizTalk® Server 2006, to ensure that IT professionals can leverage the Microsoft platform and existing skill sets to maximize value, reduce costs and ease deployment of new applications.
Specifically, Ballmer highlighted the following:
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New benchmark results posted on TheServerSide.com today highlighting that Microsoft retains a performance lead over J2EE (specifically IBM WebSphere) of up to 200 percent for Web Services.
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A new business scorecard tool code-named “Maestro,” which will bring rich application data and flexible reporting services to business users in conjunction with the upcoming release of SQL Server 2005.
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The upcoming availability of the Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System this fall. These tools will include deeper integration with Outlook and support for Outlook managed code, enabling developers to create an entirely new category of custom line-of-business applications built on top of the familiar Microsoft Office environment.
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Additional information about the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats, a series of new XML-based file formats, which will become the default in the next versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint®. Announced last week, the Office Open XML Formats will help IT professionals and developers build integrated systems and address information management and security challenges associated with the evolving workplace. More information can be found in the related announcement.
Increasing Operational Efficiency
Building on his keynote address at the Microsoft Management Summit in April, Ballmer articulated the challenges IT managers face in assuming a more proactive and strategic role in the business, noting that currently 70 percent of IT budgets is spent maintaining existing systems, while only 30 percent is dedicated to adding new capabilities. He stated that Microsoft and industry partners are committed to helping IT customers improve productivity, increase responsiveness to business demands, better comply with business and IT policies, and reduce overall costs. Through its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), Microsoft and partners are focused on enabling IT teams to capture and transfer knowledge across the life cycle from development to operations to business users.
In support of Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative, Ballmer reinforced the following:
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Microsoft’s initial delivery of the System Definition Model (SDM), a modeling language used to express knowledge across the life cycle, in Visual Studio 2005 Team System. SDM enables operations managers and application architects to collaborate early in the development phase to ensure systems are designed with operational requirements in mind.
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Ongoing work with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), BMC Software Inc., Dell Inc., Intel Corporation, Sun Microsystems Inc. and others on the WS-Management Web services standard to improve the manageability of heterogeneous environments by providing a common way for systems of all types to access and exchange management information.
Making IT More Secure
The amount of time that individuals and IT departments spend on security is an important factor in operational efficiency. To help address this, Microsoft continues to invest in security innovation across its entire portfolio to increase the overall trustworthy computing experience. From providing prescriptive guidance and helping developers write more secure code and reducing complexity and increasing security management to enabling better security through innovative technologies, Microsoft seeks to help ensure that systems are better protected and more resilient and that the updating experience for customers is intuitive, consistent and reliable.
Specific security announcements Ballmer outlined today include these:
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Ballmer announced the immediate availability of Windows Server™ Update Services and Microsoft Update, and the upcoming availability of Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0 and the Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft in the summer. These product offerings will allow Microsoft to provide customers with a uniquely integrated and consistent set of technologies to help customers of all types better manage the software update process.
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Microsoft will also release a new version of Windows® Update, version 6.0 to ensure that customers who continue using Windows can keep their computers up to date. Windows Update 6 adds minor usability improvements and will eventually support Windows Genuine Advantage.
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Ballmer described record-breaking customer adoption of Windows XP SP2. Enterprise distributions have surpassed 200 million around the world, in 25 languages. This momentum demonstrates the value of Windows XP SP 2 in reducing the number of critical vulnerabilities and making the Windows operating system more resilient to attack.
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He also told of the upcoming availability of the first beta of the next version of the Windows operating system, code-named “Longhorn.” This upcoming version will include advances in security and deployment, resulting in significant cost savings for customers. Specific security enhancements will include integrated anti-malware to help shield PCs and their users from threats; user account protection to reduce the threat to users’ systems by reducing the ability of interference from malicious code; and new service hardening technology to help protect personal data and actively prevent malware from propagating.
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Ballmer described recent Microsoft-commissioned research highlighting how customers are achieving better operational efficiencies and increased security on the Windows platform. In its survey of 90 organizations, Wipro Ltd. concluded that managing security updates for Windows Server cost 13 percent less to patch than alternative platforms.
A live webcast of Steve Ballmer’s keynote presentation, entitled “Delivering New Value to the Business,” will be accessible via the web at 9:00AM EST.
About Microsoft Tech•Ed 2005
Tech•Ed, one of Microsoft’s premier developer and IT professional training events, reaches more than 75,000 people worldwide annually, providing attendees with access to technical experts, the latest technical information and hands-on labs to learn the skills they need to build state-of-the-art solutions. Sponsors of Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando include AMD, Computer Associates International Inc., EMC Corp., HP, Intel and Veritas Software Corp.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
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