In fact, three new softwares will be officially launched some time in April, but you got to hand it to Microsoft for giving the media a taste of good things to come.

The recent 2008 Microsoft WAVE Bootcamp held at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Microsoft Philippines gave us the chance to see three infrastructure and application platform products fit for the enterprise market - Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

The said products were built considering the rising "dynamic" IT infrastructure. With this being considered as the center of every business’ data assets, Microsoft wanted to change the usual trend - where a business would invest 80% of their IT budget for maintenance and 20% for developing new innovation or businesses. A reverse of the said budget allocation can achieved a dynamic IT, along with the use of their new operating systems.

A first for Microsoft Philippines, the launch of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 aim to help customers optimize their people, processes and technology, and in turn position IT as a strategic asset for their business.

These new enterprise products are more efficient and allows users to securely manage their entire infrastructure and move to a virtualized environment.

At the same time, it aims to deliver business intelligence and next-generation Web experiences to boost business results.

Built on the improved reliability and security of Windows Server 2003 R2 to help organizations create an optimized, more dynamic IT infrastructure by addressing the automation of daily management tasks, tightening security, improving efficiency and increasing availability.

New Technologies include:

Microsoft Windows PowerShell - The new command-line shell and scripting language designed to increase IT professionals’ productivity and control by allowing them to more easily automate system management tasks.

Windows PowerShell does not require a background in programming or requires customers migrate their existing scripts; it can be deployed in production in a customer’s current infrastructure because it runs on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Server 2008.

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 - Provides a more secure, extensible platform for efficiently managing and reliably hosting Web applications and services.

Network Access Protection - Built on network security standards such as IPsec and RADIUS, it provides a new framework allowing an IT administrator to establish health requirements for the network and restrict network access for connecting computers that do not meet those requirements, and to provide ongoing compliance checking to help ensure the network remains healthy.

Server Core Installation Option - Administrators can choose to install Windows Server 2008 by using the new Server Core installation option to deliver full server functionality for select server roles without extra overhead.

This option can improve security and reduce management because fewer components are installed, requiring less maintenance and fewer updates, improving security, and reducing demands on management.

Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) - Windows Server 2008 RODC is designed to be installed in remote locations that may lack physical security such as branch offices.

It enables local user authentication through unidirectional replication from the global Active Directory, while ensuring that sensitive information is not cached.

Windows Server virtualization - This is Microsoft’s new hypervisor-based virtualization technology. It is a thin software layer between the hardware and Windows Server 2008 operating system that allows multiple operating systems to run, unmodified, on a host computer at the same time.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 provides a trusted, productive, and intelligent data platform that enables users to run the most demanding mission-critical applications on a secure, reliable, and scalable platform.

Protect your data - Dynamically encrypt valuable data within an entire database, data files, or log files, without the need for application changes. Simplify increasing regulatory compliance by using the advanced data auditing abilities of SQL Server 2008.

Minimize exposure for security attacks by using Surface Area Configuration to enable only the services required by the user.

Ensure business continuity - seamlessly increase the reliability of applications with Database Mirroring. Simplify the recovery of applications from storage failures. Transfer operational data between the active operational systems and backup systems. Add system resources, like CPU and memory, without affecting applications.

Provide predictable response - ensure consistent performance by using Resource Governor to define resource limits and priorities for different workloads and enable consistent performance.

Reduce your storage costs and improve performance of large I/O bounde workloads by using data compression.

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 delivers on the Microsoft vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality, rich user experiences.

With Visual Studio 2008, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information to help them make effective business decisions.

Visual Studio 2008 enables organizations of every size to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista™ and the 2007 Office system.

Rapid Application Development - helps developers rapidly create modern software. Visual Studio 2008 delivers improved language and data features, such as Language Integrated Query (LINQ) - making it easier for individual programmers to build solutions that analyze and act on information.

Break Through User Experience- Visual Studio 2008 offers developers new tools that speed creation of connected applications on the latest platforms including the Web, Windows Vista, Office 2007, SQL Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008.

Effective Team Collaboration - Visual Studio 2008 delivers expanded and improved offerings that help improve collaboration in development teams, including tools that help integrate database professionals and graphic designers into the development process.

This coming April, the theme of the launch, "Heroes Happen Here," highlights the outstanding work that IT professionals, developers and partners do every day to create solutions and cutting-edge applications that keep global commerce and industry running.