Microsoft unveils next-generation enterprise technology offerings in Oman

With the new offerings, Microsoft expects to transform the local technology landscape as organizations in Oman get set to adopt the latest technology solutions and get virtual. The company also showcased the next version of its data platform, the SQL Server 2008 and the feature rich browser plug-in, Silverlight 2.0.

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker, Microsoft Hyper-V is growing rapidly and has a market share of 23% of new shipments when combined with Virtual Server 2005. With nearly 1.5 million copies of the Hyper-V pre-release version distributed globally, customer interest in virtualization is moving from evaluation to the deployment phase. As a feature of Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V is available as a free web download and is designed to provide customers with familiar and cost-effective virtualization infrastructure software that can help reduce operating costs, increase hardware utilization and optimize infrastructure. Hyper-V provides a simplified, reliable and optimized virtualization solution for customers to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server or to run client operating systems in server-based virtual machines in the data center. With management being the core component of virtualization, the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, enables customers to configure and deploy new virtual machines and centrally manage their virtualized infrastructure.

Ahmer Hassan, Server and Tools, Business Group Lead, Microsoft Gulf, said:

"Now is the time for customers to get virtual. Customers have been telling us that virtualization is a top priority, but they continue to face multiple barriers to adoption, such as costs and complex tools. In response, Microsoft is breaking down these barriers through the launch of new solution, centralized management tools and a broad partner ecosystem to help make virtualization ubiquitous.With desktop and datacenter virtualization offerings available from Microsoft and our partners, customers are adopting Microsoft solutions because they have better value and will make IT operations more dynamic."

The company also showcased Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Silverlight 2.0. SQL Server 2008 provides powerful new capabilities for business-critical applications and is a key component of the Microsoft Application Platform that is designed to help customers build, run and manage dynamic business applications. According to a September 2008 report conducted by Forrester Research, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 already has the strongest combination of price, performance, manageability, security and productivity. The latest version offers hundreds of new features that boost the productivity of database administrators, improve support and enhance security. Silverlight 2.0 is the industry's most comprehensive and powerful solution for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser.

Abdullah Lootah, Country Manager, Microsoft Oman, said:

"These new products help customers more efficiently and securely manage their entire infrastructure and move to a virtualized environment. The launch demonstrates Microsoft's long-standing commitment to our customers and partners in Oman. Microsoft's new technology solutions are the most powerful platforms that a business needs to achieve significant productivity and efficiency benefits along with a dynamic technology infrastructure."

With its strong partnerships, Microsoft is committed to understanding the business and technology needs of customers in the Gulf. HP, Intel, AMD, Citrix and Dell are the launch partners and work closely with Microsoft to set the industry standard to deliver the future of enterprise computing technologies globally and in the region. Together, these industry giants offer the foundations for a truly dynamic data center that is able to deliver unparalleled business agility.

"Virtualization increases data centre efficiency while reducing hardware footprints, said Ramzi Abdulbaki, SMG Group, Intel Corporation. "Intel Xeon products include built in virtualization capabilities. Intel Flex Migration is a feature that assists virtualization software to better address issues such as fail-over, load balancing and disaster recovery and is built into Xeon 7400 and 5400 product series. It enables customers to do live virtual machine migration across all Intel Core micro-architecture products without having to worry about compatibility. Together with Microsoft we aim to deliver sophisticated, ubiquitous virtualization capabilities to the data centre and across every business computing platform."

"Virtualization is a powerful step in transforming IT," said Ann Livermore, executive vice president, Technology Solutions Group, HP. "To do it right means successfully managing and automating mixed physical and virtual environments. HP delivers the industry's broadest portfolio for virtualized environments, covering applications and operations management, infrastructure and client architectures. HP's approach to virtualization dramatically simplifies management across a combined virtual and physical world and addresses the issue of pooling infrastructure resources across an organization."

Lastly, Margaret Lewis, director, Commercial Software and Solutions, AMD said, "AMD has taken a leading role in driving virtualization innovation into the x86 processor, helping to meet a compelling need in the commercial market for cost reduction, increased performance and energy efficiency. Now, through our continued partnership with Microsoft, AMD is expanding virtualization's reach and the benefits of consolidation."