Microsoft Prepares for Worldwide Launch of Visual Studio, SQL Server and BizTalk Server

Microsoft readies next-generation tools and data platform designed to integrate heterogeneous environments.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — July 5, 2005 — Today at Tech•Ed 2005 Europe, Microsoft Corp. continued to disclose details surrounding the launch of Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005, Visual Studio® 2005 and BizTalk® Server 2006. As part of his keynote address, Andy Lees, corporate vice president of Server and Tools Marketing and Solutions, announced that these products would launch on Monday, Nov. 7 in San Francisco.

As part of the announcement, Microsoft revealed that throughout November there would be more than 90 launch events spanning 50 countries. The worldwide launch of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 offers significant advancements in interoperability, developer productivity and mission-critical support. The launch furthers Microsoft’s commitment to delivering the next-generation platform for connected systems to advance business decision-making through greater insight, visibility and alignment across software development and business processes.

“The launch of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 will truly be a global launch. We will kick off the availability of these products in San Francisco and carry it through Europe and the rest of the world in the following days and weeks,” Lees said. “These products mark a new generation of platforms for connected systems, and are not only designed to work better together, but will enable customers to better connect with existing systems, trading partners, customers and employees.”

Industry Prepares for the Availability of Next Generation of Server and Tools

In his keynote address, Lees cited the Paris Firefighters who are using Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 and have seen productivity and manageability gains. Microsoft expects more than 20 customers, including AB Sandvik Coromant, Nationwide Building Society and Austrian Broadcasting Corp. Radio & Television (ORF), to deploy these products before the launch. Microsoft also continues to deploy SQL Server 2005 internally, with more than 80 applications that store and analyze multiple terabytes of data. Global systems integrators and IT services companies including Atos Origin S.A., Avanade and Conchango also announced plans to build process-oriented methodologies on top of Visual Studio 2005 Team System, guiding software project teams in the delivery of enterprise-ready solutions.

Microsoft also announced two new TPC-H benchmarks from Bull and Unisys Corp.* These benchmarks demonstrate customers’ ability to achieve a security-enhanced, reliable and productive platform for enterprise data and business intelligence applications by deploying SQL Server 2005 on Windows Server™ 2003. In the first TPC-H benchmark using SQL Server 2005, Unisys set a record for 32 CPU performance in the 1TB category. Bull released its second TPC-H benchmark with SQL Server 2005, showing significantly higher performance with record-breaking price/performance.

Next Generation of Server and Tools Offers Greater Interoperability

Throughout his keynote address, Lees cited the investments Microsoft is making to ensure that IT organizations can effectively leverage the Microsoft platform to better interoperate with existing systems.
• JDBC Driver. The SQL Server 2005 Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Driver enables Java/J2EE applications on any platform to interoperate with SQL Server through the de facto Java standard for Database Connectivity. The SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2005/jdbc.mspx.
• Interoperability Standards.Today, Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0 enable developers to create documents that conform to Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In addition, all ASP.NET 2.0 pages and controls generate XHTML 1.0 Transitional markup by default.
• Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System. Deeper integration with Outlook® and support for Outlook-managed code will enable developers to create an entirely new category of custom line-of-business applications built on top of the familiar Microsoft Office environment. Developers can download the latest beta of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System, which includes Outlook support, at http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/vsto.
• New Reporting Services Report Pack. The SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Report Pack for Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 consists of eight predefined reports that provide a platform for monitoring the state of disk allocation, Web site usage and keyword searches. Microsoft also released the SQL Server Reporting Services Report Pack for Axapta® 3.0, which contains six predefined reports. These reports allow users to see an overview of customer relationship activity, review order delivery performance, manage open production and sales orders, plan purchase orders, and track rolling invoice activity. Both Report Packs can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/downloads/default.mspx.

About Microsoft Tech•Ed Europe

In its 12th year in Europe, Tech•Ed is Microsoft’s definitive European conference for building, deploying, securing and managing connected solutions. With a strong mix of developer, infrastructure and messaging content, Microsoft Tech•Ed Europe is Microsoft’s premier technical training conference for a wide range of technology professionals.

About Microsoft

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* TPC-H results referenced above are the following two results running SQL Server 2005: Unisys ES7000 Orion 440 Enterprise Server, 21506 QphH@1000GB, 41.92 $/QphH, available 12/07/05.; Bull NovaScale 5160, 13769 QphH@1000GB, 32.49 $/QphH, available 12/7/05.

Microsoft, Visual Studio, BizTalk, Windows Server, Outlook, SharePoint and Axapta are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Business Solutions ApS or their affiliates in the United States and/or other countries.

Microsoft Business Solutions ApS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein maybe the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Information

Waggener Edstrom

Rapid Response Team

Microsoft Corp.

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