Microsoft doubles space at GITEX 2004

The stand, located in the Sheikh Rashid Hall, will showcase Microsoft's vision of Integrated Innovation to visitors. Over 50 Microsoft partners will also be exhibiting their solutions on the stand.

The Microsoft stand will feature the latest product offerings from the company, as well as demos of upcoming products and a special future area that will showcase how Microsoft solutions will meet business needs in addition to enabling the offices and homes of the future.

"Microsoft's mission is to enable people and businesses to realize their full potential," said Abdullatif Al Mulla, General Manager of Microsoft South Gulf. "To achieve this, we create solutions that are innovative, leading the way in giving the end user more ways to get things done, integrated with other business solutions to provide a more powerful connected working environment, as well as being cost effective and secure. At this year's Gitex we will have our largest presence ever, to give visitors the chance to see how all of Microsoft's applications work together to as part of integrated solutions."

The futuristic area will showcase the power of Microsoft's latest connected offerings, to demonstrate how products like Tablet PC and Smartphone can be integrated with the business functionality of Microsoft Office 2003 applications to create advanced solutions for the world of work. The future zone also has a home zone, where show-goers can explore the possibilities of the connected home through products such as Windows XP Media Center Edition, and other consumer products.

One of the most important new offerings at Gitex 2004 is Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for the Windows XP operating system. SP2 is a major new update for Windows XP, which will bring many benefits to users, particularly in making PCs more secure. Microsoft is committed to making its products as secure as possible, and SP2, which is available as a free download, introduces a wide range of features to make PCs more secure, and make management of security processes simpler and easier.

Al Mulla explained: "Recently the frequency of attacks against computer systems has increased. Microsoft is focusing its efforts to help make our customers more secure, and our goal is to help customers reduce the risk associated with these malicious attacks and also to reduce the cost and complexity of managing the overall security threat.."

Microsoft Business Solutions will also be presenting its full range of applications which empower small, mid-market and corporate business customers to connect the people, processes and information they need to help improve business agility, increase business insight and run their business more efficiently. Microsoft Business Solutions offers applications for financial management (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) analytics, and other business tools.

The next version of Microsoft's SQL Server, codenamed 'Yukon', will also be on show. Building on the strengths of SQL Server 2000, SQL Server Yukon will provide an integrated information management solution that will deliver increased scalability, availability, and security to enterprise data and analytical applications while making them easier to create, deploy, and manage for organizations of any size. Windows Server 2003, Microsoft's server operating system and other Windows Server System products will also be on show.