Hosting is one of the key decisions ISVs make when moving to the Software Plus Services (S+S) technical and business model.  Dave Wright has written a whitepaper that helps walk you through the decisions on self hosting or how to choose a hosting vendor.Many ISVs try to self-host their own solution...

FrontLine is a program where a Microsoft technical person comes to your business for a week.  Have you implemented or plan to deploy enterprise solutions using Microsoft server technologies?  Would your organization benefit from engaging with product team leaders who develop these solutions for Microsoft?Each...

Due to popular demand, the PDC2008 Early Bird Discount for Professional Developers Conference (PDC) has been extended three weeks.  Register by 11:59 PM PT on Monday, September 8, and save $200 off the full Conference Registration of $2395.For more information about PDC sessions, see PDC 2008 Agenda...

The Windows Server Division clarified that the next server version will be called Windows Server 2008 R2.  In a blog posting, Windows Server ‘7’ aka "Windows Server 2008 R2", Group Product Manager Ward Ralston says, “we would be keeping with a 2/4 year major/minor release cadence with the next version...

The .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit is now available.  It includes presentations, hands-on labs, demos and event materials.  This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the .NET 3.5 Enhancement features including: ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, ASP.NET AJAX History, ASP.NET...

While Silverlight may be taking center stage with streaming video, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with its search features serves as the portal for thousands to access the Summer Olympics.The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games is using SharePoint for its INFO 2008 Web portal,...

Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is not a traditional service pack, which usually consists of bug fixes and performance improvements.  While Microsoft did fix some bugs and dramatically improved performance in several areas, Microsoft listened to customer feedback and...

During the XXIX Olympiad, Microsoft and NBC Sports have teamed to deliver event coverage on a scale never seen before on the Internet, let alone on TV.  NBC and Microsoft will be streaming more than 3,500 hours of Olympics video to millions of online viewers in the United States, including LIVE coverage...

Your ISV Architect Evangelist has a limited number of vouchers that will refund the cost of two platform tests.  Tests are available for both on premises, hosted solutions and business solutions.  A platform test is the minimum bar that must be passed for

The latest community technology preview of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition is now available at the Microsoft Download Center.In addition to providing support for SQL Server 2008 database projects, this release incorporates many previously released Power Tools as well as several new features....

The fourth community technology preview of ASP.NET MVC has been released to Web.  ASP.NET MVC provides a framework that enables you to easily implement the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern for Web applications.  This pattern lets you separate applications into loosely coupled, pluggable components...

We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8 as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this year targeted for all consumers.One of the main goals of Internet Explorer 8 is to render content in its most standards-compliant...

Microsoft rounds out its virtualization offerings with a formal launch on September 8.  The launch highlights Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V that has already shipped and is available here.  Two other products to join in the launch activities include System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM) and...

Digital Forum is a new website for partners to create, post, view and rate videos.  The website will focus on communicating the value of partner innovative solutions and building a community between partners and customers.  It is the perfect way for partners to make the case for their solutions, with...

Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Server and Tools business, announced at Worldwide Partner Conference that SQL Server 2008 would be on the price list in August.  Kelly added there would be no price increase.Several features are of interest specific to developers.LINQ Provider: SQL...

The first early release of Microsoft Pinpoint was announced at Worldwide Partner Conference.  Microsoft Pinpoint will become the premier online business marketplace for small and medium-sized business customers and partners.  It is a benefit of the Microsoft Partner Program.  Through Pinpoint, partners...

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 will include two new security tools.  SmartScreen Filter adds malware blocking to the antiphishing protection that warns users when they’re about to visit a site known or suspected of spreading malicious code.  IE8 will dynamically determine whether a site is potentially dangerous...

When you’re selling your products and services on the Windows Vista operating system, you can accelerate your sales cycle with the Demo Readiness Toolkit.  Windows Vista Ultimate deployment built specifically for demos, the toolkit includes a script, sample content, preinstalled applications like 2007...

Microsoft has published a set of documents that affirm our Interoperability Principles that increases openness, drive greater interoperability and provide more choice for developers, customers and competitors.Highlights of the announcement include:Posting version 1.0 releases of technical documentation...

A recent escalation in attacks on Web sites exploits unverified user data input.  Microsoft Security Advisory (954462): Rise in SQL Injection Attacks Exploiting Unverified User Data provides advice and tools to protect against a rise in SQL injection attacks.  The attacks target Web sites that do not...

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is shipping.  ISVs use virtualization as a way to ship fully configured applications to customers.  Customers can use virtualization as a way to consolidate servers, provide business continuity plans.  ISVs are already using virtualization in their testing plans.Using virtual...

Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President at Microsoft, explores the plans for Windows XP, progress with Windows Vista, and the view toward Windows 7 in an open letter to Windows customers.Security and other critical updates continue for Windows XP through 2014.  Although the “end of sales” date is June 30,...

The first version of the software developer kit (SDK) for Open XML has been released to the web.  The Open XML document standard is awaiting publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).The SDK is designed to help you produce code in your applications to create, access and...

Super-scalable applications have gotten easier with the community technology preview (CTP) of Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity”.“Velocity” is a distributed in-memory application cache platform that fuses memory across multiple computers to give a single unified cache view to applications.  Your...

With the end of the fiscal year coming to Microsoft, a new set of emerging technologies will be starting up soon.  The new Rhythm technologies will be announced in June and July with enrollment beginning in August and September.  You will continue to find information, forums, developer training, events...