Microsoft Makes November 'Essential'

What is it with Microsoft and the second and third weeks of November?

Today, the company announced that Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 would launch on Nov. 12. That's a popular week for Microsoft products. Some November blasts from the past:

• Zune 2, Nov. 12, 2007
• Office 2007 and Windows Vista, Nov. 30, 2006
• Zune, Nov. 13, 2006
• Xbox 360, Nov. 22, 2005
• Halo 2, Nov. 9, 2004
• Tablet PC 2004, Nov. 17, 2003
• Xbox Live, Nov. 15, 2002
• Xbox, Nov. 15, 2001

Is it like tradition for Microsoft to have big November product launches? The consumer products make sense for the holidays and then there was Comdex for business stuff. But the trade show is long gone. So, the reason to launch new server software is November for small and medium businesses that probably won't be looking to deploy over the holidays. "Merry Christmas, honey. It's Small Business Server 2008!"

Microsoft announced product pricing in June, so the products are moving ahead, but ever so slowly. Right now, release to manufacturing is tracking late August to early September. SQL Server 2008's late delivery is one major reason for the slow advance. And Microsoft has set dates whether or not SQL Server 2008 will be ready.

"We are going to be shipping SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 on our media in the box," Steven VanRoekel, Microsoft's senior director of the Windows Server Solutions group, told me last week. Microsoft is providing both versions for customers that might want the 2005 edition and coverage for still uncertain SQL Server 2008 availability.

Meanwhile, Microsoft isn't thumb twiddling until November. The company is readying the channel for SBS and EBS, such as delivering new SDKs and Solutions Pathway, a tool for calculating migration discounts from other Microsoft software (25 to 35 percent). Microsoft also will offer up to $200 rebates to partners whose customers acquire Software Assurance on new SBS 2003 R2 installations.

Microsoft will disclose more about the SBS and EBS partner programs and incentives, starting tomorrow, July 8, at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

"We're going to have a huge presence at the partner conference," VanRoekel said. "We'll have a larger booth than Windows and Windows Live. You're going to see us there loud and proud."

While "loud" applies to both products, EBS is a new category and one targeting a segment that has long been neglected, at least by Microsoft. EBS will be louder.

"One of the problems that we had in the midmarket is they've [partners] never had something they could really offer," VanRoekel acknowledged. EBS is Microsoft's server software entry into this segment. "There's a great consolidation story," he said. "The typical midmarket org uses seven to nine servers compared to EBS' three to four servers."

Microsoft wants to bring cultural change to midmarket IT managers. Steven said "the lifestyle midmarket IT lives" is "reactionary." EBS' goal: to make proactive management the lifestyle.