November 9th, 2009

Which should a small business choose: Windows Home Server or Windows Server Foundation?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:36 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Database, Exchange Server, Management tools, OEMs, Resellers, SQL Server, System Center, System builders, Virtualization, Windows Essential Business Server (Centro), Windows Home Server, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows Small Business Server (Cougar), Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Windows Home Server, Small Business, Microsoft Windows, Servers, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Until quite recently, Microsoft officials emphasized the “home” in Windows Home Server (WHS) when explaining how that product fit into its server line-up.

Last week, however, something changed. Microsoft officials added small office/home office (SOHO) users to its list of potential customers for WHS. On November 5, the WHS team posted a new blog entry entitled “Top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server in your SOHO.” From that post:

“Don’t let the name Windows Home Server fool you into thinking that this product was created for home use only. A lot of the reasons that you would use Windows Home Server in your home are just as applicable to a small or home office. Windows Home Server provides a dependable and affordable way to organize and safeguard your work on up to 10 computers.”

Up until this point, Microsoft’s business-focused Windows Server family looked like this (with entry-level servers listed first):

• Windows Server Foundation
• Windows Server Standard
• Windows Server Enterprise
• Windows Server Datacenter

Other “specialty” versions include the Web Edition, Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server. (The latter two bundle together various Microsoft applications, like Exchange Server and SQL Server, with Windows Server.)

Microsoft delivered the first release of Foundation Server in April 2009. The R2 version of Windows Server Foundation is globally available (covering all countries in Western Europe, Central Eastern Europe, France, German and Korea and Middle East/Africa) as of this week. Like WHS, Foundation is primarily an OEM product. The first release of Foundation was available preloaded on servers from Dell, HP, NEC and Fujitsu. The R2 version will be sold by these same server vendors, plus IBM, Lenovo, Acer and local OEMs such as Wortmann (in Germany) Datateknik (Turkey) Lanix (Mexico), Positivo (Brazil) and NTT (Japan), among others, according to the company.

So which should a small business user choose: Foundation or WHS? The biggest difference seems to be in the number of users that are supported. Foundation scales up to 15, while Home Server only supports up to 10, company officials said. In addition, Home Server is also designed specifically as a media server, with storage and file backup features for movies, music and photos,” a spokesperson added when I asked for more information.

“Windows Home Server is for people who work and play at home,” said Eugene Saburi, General Manager in the Windows Server & Solutions Division. “And it’s still based on Windows Server 2003,” at this point, he said. “Windows Foundation is more of a general-purpose platform,” Saburi added. “You can install a line-of-business app on it.”

(There’s no official word on when Microsoft plans to upgrade WHS so that it is based on Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2. Maybe that’s “Vail” — which could be out next year if the latest rumors are right.)

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering when will the R2-inclusive versions of Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server will be out, Microsoft officials aren’t saying. They are not talking about a month, a quarter or even a year (!) in terms of shipping commitments for these two products. Sigh.

One would think it wouldn’t take the Softies long to update the existing SBS and EBS products to include the “minor” Windows Server 2008 R2 update… but if they also include the new Exchange Server 2010 bits, it could take a bit longer. And if they wait for the SharePoint 2010 ones, the next releases might not be out until after mid-2010….

November 9th, 2009

Windows Server 2008 R2 finally gets its day in the sun

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:30 am

Categories: Advertising, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Management tools, PDC 2009, Security, System Center, Utility/cloud computing, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Corp., WS2008R2, Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, E-mail Servers, Groupware

Microsoft officials highlighted the company’s wave of enterprise server products during the kick-off keynotes at the company’s TechEd Europe conference on November 9.

While the majority of the Microsoft’s marketing and advertising muscle has been behind Windows 7 for the past couple of months, this week, the focus is on the server side of house. Windows Server 2008 R2 (WS2008R2) — the server complement to Windows 7 has a lot of unsung features that could be of interest to IT pros, if only they knew about them, company officials said.

Microsoft officials have been touting the same handful of new WS2008R2 features as being key to IT pros, such as Hyper-V live migration; and better branch caching support and VPN-less networking (BranchCache and  Direct Access) when Windows 7 is used in conjunction with WS2008R2. But there are more than 100 features that are part of the WS2008R2 release. I asked Microsoft recently for a list of what it considered the top ten unsung features in the product. I compiled the list in the form of a slideshow.

Check out the slideshow: Ten unsung Windows Server 2008 R2 Features

As Microsoft officials have said for the past month, customers can begin to take delivery of Exchange Server 2010 starting today. (Microsoft released Exchange 2010 to manufacturing in October.) Microsoft also announced on November 9 that it has released to customers Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server. That on-premise offering will be complemented by a new, Microsoft-hosted Forefront service that will protect on-premise inboxes from spam and malware.

Exchange Server 2010 is a 64-bit-only release. The product includes new, integrated e-mail archive functionality; the ability to see text previews of voice mail; a new “Conversation View” feature; customizable call-routing menus; and a “MailTips” feature designed to help stamp out e-mail “faux pas.” It also includes a newly renamed version of Outlook Web Access (now known as Outlook Web App) that works with a variety of browsers

Microsoft originally was on tap to unveil Office Mobile 2010 at this week’s TechEd show in Berlin but took that topic off its agenda late last week. (I’m betting Office Mobile 2010 will get its day in the sun at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, which starts on November 16.)

Microsoft officials emphasized during the TechEd Europe keynotes and Q&A that customers shouldn’t wait to deploy Windows 7, WS2008R2, Exchange Server 2010 and Microsoft’s other new wares. Microsoft has been going public with names of corporations that already have begun deploying these products to reinforce this message.

IT pros: Are there any Windows Server 2008 R2 and/or Exchange Server 2010 features you’re especially interested in?  Any features that didn’t make it into the final versions of these products that you’re hoping will be incorporated in the next round?

Update: Directions on Microsoft’s Rob Helm tweeted today that Exchange Online users won’t get Exchange Server 2010 functionality “for at least a couple of months.” I asked Microsoft for clarification and received a confirmation:

“Exchange Online is updated quarterly with new features and capabilities. With the launch of Exchange 2010 next week, we will begin the process of updating Exchange Online. We expect those to be available to Microsoft Online Services customers next year, and customers will determine when their users are upgraded to the new capabilities, without the traditional investment of time and energy required for an on-premises upgrade.”

November 5th, 2009

Microsoft to add SharePoint access to Live@edu

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:33 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Web conferencing

Tags: Microsoft SharePoint, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Live@edu, Content Management, Collaboration, Groupware, Enterprise Software, Microsoft Office, Software

Paving the way for its Office Web Apps rollout, Microsoft is adding SharePoint Online to the services it offers students and academics as part of its Live@edu offering.

Microsoft made the announcement at the Educause conference in Denver, according to a posting on the Live@edu blog. The SharePoint Online service should be available to Live@edu subscribers for no additional cost some time next year.

Microsoft officials played up both the collaboration and conferencing capabilities and the Office Web Apps access as being behind the planned addition. Students and educators are a big audience for Google Docs and expected to be one of Microsoft’s biggest group of initial adopters of Office Web Apps.

From the November 3 Live@edu blog post:

“In conjunction with the Live@edu program, we will be bringing a solution to market for students, based on SharePoint Online, for free. So what does that mean? Well, lets look at some possibilities:

“* Work with a class group on a research assignment – documents, background research, project plans can all be stored online and worked on from anywhere.
“* Office Web Apps support means that a user can access Office files on almost any machine to simply view the content, or to make essential modifications.
“* Microsoft Office integration ensures they get a rich, integrated experience with SharePoint Online and the Office Web Apps, if required… and of course offline access to files.”

Microsoft officials have said they plan to offer three different modes of distribution for Office Web Apps — Microsoft’s Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — due out by mid-2010. There will be a free, consumer-focused version that will be accessible via Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive service. There also will be two paid versions for business customers: A Microsoft-hosted version and an on-premises, user-hosted version. The two hosted versions will require SharePoint/SharePoint Online as part of the back-end infrastructure.

Microsoft already offers hosted Exchange email, among other Microsoft services, to Live@edu subscribers. The Exchange Online version for students/academics is known as “Outlook Live.” There’s no word yet on how Microsoft will rebrand the SharePoint Online offering that will be available via Live@edu.

(Hat tip to Network World for the heads-up on the SharePoint and Live@edu news.)

November 4th, 2009

Microsoft does a 180 on Exchange 2007 support (in a good way)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 2:33 pm

Categories: App Compatibility, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows, Servers, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

After notifying customers and partners that Exchange Server 2007 wouldn’t be able to run on Windows Server 2008 R2, the latest version of WIndows Server, the Exchange team has reversed its decision.

In a posting on the Exchange Team Blog, Microsoft officials said they’d heard the negative feedback loud and clear. Customers didn’t want to be forced to move to Exchange 2010 before they were ready, just so as to be able to run a version of Exchange on Windows Server 2008 R2.

To fix the problem, Microsoft is prepping an update that will be out some time next year. From a November 4 blog posting by Kevin Allison, General Manager of Exchange Customer Experience:

“In the coming calendar year we will issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support of Windows Server 2008 R2. We heard from many customers that this was important for streamlining their operations and reducing administrative challenges, so we have changed course and will add R2 support. We are still working through the specifics and will let you know once we have more to share on the timing of this update.”

One Exchange 2010 caveat that seemingly hasn’t changed: Users who want to run Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 together must upgrade to Exchange 2007 Service Pack (SP) 2.

Microsoft is slated to provide customers with Exchange 2010 final bits starting the week of November 9. Microsoft released to manufacturing Exchange 2010 in early October.

November 2nd, 2009

Microsoft chops prices of its hosted enterprise cloud offerings

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 3:28 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Office, Office Live, Resellers, SharePoint Server, Speech, Systems integrators, Telecommunications, Utility/cloud computing, VOIP, Web conferencing

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Cloud Computing, Tools & Techniques, Office Suites, Software, Management, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is cutting prices of its Microsoft-hosted Exchange, as well as its suite of business services (known as the Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS), and is refunding the difference to existing hosting customers.

Microsoft is cutting its Exchange Online pricing from $10 per user per month to $5 per user per month. It also is cutting the price of the BPOS bundle — which includes SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Communications Online and Live Meeting — from $15 per user per month, to $10 per user per month.

Microsoft is leaving the pricing for its Deskless Worker versions of its hosted Online offerings the same. Exchange Online Deskless Worker and SharePoint Online Deskless Worker remain $2 per user per month. The bundle of the two Deskless Worker offerings stays at $3 per user per month.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft officials didn’t attribute the price cut to competition from Google Apps or other hosted offerings. Instead, they attributed the cuts to “rapid customer adoption, global scale and improved efficiencies from new software such as Exchange Server 2010″ (according to the press release).

Microsoft is making BPOs available in 15 new countries before the end of the year. Later this week, BPOS will be commercially available in Singapore; trials are slated to begin in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania and Taiwan. Commercial availability in India is also expected later this year, officials said.

Microsoft officials are now claiming to have more than 1 million paying users for Microsoft’s Online family of services (not counting Live Meeting, for which there are many more paying customers, according to company officials). Newly signed BPOS customers include Hofstra University, Lions Gate Entertainment, McDonald’s Corporation, Rexel Group, Swedish Red Cross and Tyco Flow Control.

Microsoft will be adding a paid, Microsoft-hosted version of Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote– to its Online stable next year. Company officials have said that paid offering will also be available to Microsoft volume-license customers so that they can host Office Web Apps themselves, on-premises, instead of or in addition to allowing Microsoft to host it for them. There will be additional (and, as yet, still unannounce) features that will be part of the paid Office Web Apps offering that aren’t part of the free, ad-funded version.

Microsoft is currently rolling out refreshes to its Online family of services every 90 days or so, according to Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Online. Some of the new features the company is rolling out to its on-premises software — such as Exchange 2010 — are debuting in the hosted, Online offerings before they are available to customers as server-based products. (The final Exchange 2010 software bits are slated to go to customers starting next week.)

I’m sure Microsoft customers will be upbeat about the price cuts for Microsoft’s hosted offerings. But I’d think Redmond’s partners who are trying to make money from selling Microsoft’s hosted services (if not their own hosted version of Microsoft’s wares) might be less enthusiastic…

October 15th, 2009

Microsoft adds POP e-mail, better Mac support to its hosted business applications

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:13 am

Categories: Azure, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Speech, Telecommunications, Utility/cloud computing, VOIP, Web conferencing

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Business Application, Microsoft Corp., E-mail, Desktops, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is rolling out a number of new feature additions to its Microsoft-hosted family of “Online” services, including POP e-mail compatibility and better support for Mac clients.

Microsoft’s Online family currently includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online, Live Meeting and the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). All of these services are hosted by Microsoft (but not currently running on its Azure cloud operating system).

Microsoft is in the midst of rolling out the October update of Microsoft Online Services. The rollout should be complete and available to all Microsoft Online customers by the end of October, according to an October 14 blog post on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog.

With the October Service Update, Exchange Online users get support for POP-based clients. Previously, Exchange Online supported only Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007, the Online Services blog post acknowledged.

This month’s update also includes “several enhancements that will provide a more efficient communication and collaboration experience for organizations with Mac users,” according to the post. These include a new single sign-in client for Mac OS users running Safari and the auto-configuration of Office for Mac applications. The update also adds support for Entourage 2008 Exchange Web Services (Microsoft’s stop-gap solution until it replaces Entourage with Outlook in next year’s Office for Mac release); Global Address List support for Entourage 2004 and 2008; SharePoint Online support for Document Connection for Mac; and improved Firefox and Safari support for “My Company Portal.”

Microsoft is making the sign-in client for Mac available for download from the Microsoft Download Center in early November, officials said.

Other new features in the October Online Services rollup:

• The addition of PowerShell commandlets to enable bulk activation of users
• A new version of the Microsoft Online Services Transporter Tool supporting these commandlets
• Online Services Administration Center adds support for up to 30,000 users (up from the previous 10,000 limit)

October 8th, 2009

Microsoft Exchange 2010 is done and released to manufacturing

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:01 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server

Tags: Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft officials announced on October 8 that Exchange Server 2010 is done and has been released to manufacturing.

From the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog:

“We are happy to announce that Exchange 2010 is Code Complete!  Our senior leadership team has signed off on the final code, and it has been sent to our early adopters for one final look before its public release. This Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone means we are on our way to general availability and the launch at Tech·Ed Europe 2009 (http://www.microsoft.com/europe/teched/) in early November.”

Microsoft released a near-final Release Candidate (RC) test build of Exchange 2010 in August. As many as 1 million testers have been test-driving the public beta version of Microsoft’s on-premise Exchange Server 2010 product since April of this year. Another 5 million or so testers have been working with the cloud-based complement in the form of Outlook Live, which is a slightly modified version of the Exchange Online product.

Exchange 2010 is a 64-bit-only release. The product includes new, integrated e-mail archive functionality; the ability to see text previews of voice mail; a new “Conversation View” feature; customizable call-routing menus; and a “MailTips” feature designed to help stamp out e-mail “faux pas.” It also includes a newly renamed version of Outlook Web Access (now known as Outlook Web App) that works with a variety of browsers.

Update: Microsoft is not planning to post the RTM bits for Exchange 2010 to TechNet or MSDN early. A spokesperson told me the bits won’t be available to any users until the November TechEd Europe launch.

October 2nd, 2009

Comparing oranges to oranges: Microsoft's hosted collaboration suites vs. IBM's LotusLive iNotes

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:17 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Office, Office Live, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Web conferencing

Tags: Google Inc., Collaboration Suite, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., Exchange Online Deskless Worker, E-mail, Collaboration, Content Management, Groupware

IBM’s announcement of a new hosted entry-level communications offering has led to lots of punditry around how it compares to Google Apps. But I’m not sure that’s IBM’s main competition here.

Google Apps Premier, which costs $50 per user per year, includes Web-based office applications (Google Docs), plus Gmail for businesses, Google Calendar, Google Sites and Postini hosted/archived email. IBM’s LotusLive iNotes includes hosted email, calendar and contact management service — but no hosted productivity apps — for $36 per user per year.

I’ve seen almost no one analyzing IBM’s new hosted offering in comparison to what Microsoft is offering business users.

Microsoft already has a business-focused hosted e-mail/collaboration product on the market known as the Deskless Worker Suite, which includes Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. Customers can get that suite for $36 per user per year. Exchange Online Deskless Worker includes e-mail, calendaring, global contact lists, anti-virus and anti-spam filters, and provides access to company e-mail via Outlook Web Access Light. SharePoint Online Deskless Worker gives you read-only access to SharePoint portal and team sites. If users want only Exchange Online Deskless or SharePoint Online Deskless, it’s $24 per user per service per year.

Microsoft offers a more comprehensive hosted communications/collaboration subscription service — one that includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online (corporate instant messaging and presence) and Live Meeting (Web conferencing and videoconferencing) — for $180 per user per year. That is the company’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

I asked Microsoft for its take on IBM’s LotusLive iNotes announcement. I received back a statement from Clint Patterson, Director, Microsoft Unified Communications Group:

“Our competitors are just awakening to the fact that - when it comes to communications - one size doesn’t fit all.  This flexibility - to equip occasional users with a low-priced, integrated email service as part of Exchange Online - has really resonated with our customers, and we’ve seen companies like GlaxoSmithKline choose Exchange Online Deskless, which costs $2 per user per month and works with the applications they already use, for more than 10% of their employees. Businesses don’t care for consumer offerings dressed up as enterprise ready solutions, and millions of companies - and more every day - are choosing Exchange for the scalability and reliability it delivers, whether on-premises or online.”

When Microsoft unveiled its Deskless Worker offerings back in the summer of 2008 that a number of pundits wondered aloud who the “deskless workers” were whom Microsoft was targeting with these products. As I recall, Microsoft’s unveiling and explanation of the Deskless Worker features and pricing was confusing to us in the press and many in Microsoft’s partner network alike. Now it seems as though industry watchers have forgotten that Microsoft has been selling these products for more than a year.

October 2nd, 2009

Microsoft System Center team primes the beta pump

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:49 am

Categories: Azure, Code names, Corporate strategy, Database, Exchange Server, Management tools, Office 2010/Office 14, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, System Center, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server")

Tags: Team, Microsoft Corp., Beta, DPM Version 3, Microsoft Windows, Team Management, Microsoft Windows 7, Servers, Enterprise Software, Operating Systems

When Microsoft held its business soft-launch for Windows 7 and related enterprise products earlier this week, System Center got next-to-no love.

But that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening on Microsoft’s system-management front. In fact, in the past couple of weeks, the team has delivered relatively quietly more than a few new test builds of a variety of new wares in the works.

Even though Microsoft’s “The New Efficiency” launch focused primarily on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft officials increasingly are playing up the manageability of Microsoft and third-party software and services as one of the biggest differentiators between Microsoft and competitors in the PC, phone and Web-centric productivity arenas.

Over the past couple of weeks, the System Center team has pushed out and/or mentioned a number of new test builds. Among them:

System Center Essentials 2010: Microsoft made available for download a beta of its small/mid-size-business-focused suite of server management products. Essentials provides monitoring and diagnostics for Windows clients, servers, apps and network devices; deploys Microsoft Installer and EXE-installed software from Microsoft and third parties; conducts hardware and software inventories, handles health-status reports and updates deployment. Microsoft officials try to avoid calling Essentials a bundle of products, even though the suite uses technologies from Operations Manager, Windows Server Update Services, SQL Server and Microsoft Update. Final ship date target: Not sure.

Configuration Manager 2007 R3: Microsoft is lining up Technology Adoption Program (TAP) partners who will be testing Release 3. The focus of the R3 update is on power management. The beta for R3 is slatd for late October 2009. Final version due in first half of calendar 2010.

Data Protection Manager 2010: Also known as DPM Version 3 or “Zinger,” the next release of DPM hit beta at the end of September. DPM provides continuous data protection for Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Dynamics AX and more by backing them up to disk, tape and the cloud. The new release will add protection and recovery for live migration in Hyper-V, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010 and more. Final ship date target: Not sure (but I’d guess sometime after mid-2010, since SharePoint 2010 support is included).

System Center Online Desktop Manager: This is one of the System Center team’s first real forays into the Microsoft-hosted services space. In late August, the team said to expect a public beta of SCODM “soon.” There already is a fact sheet and a feature list (antimalware, Microsoft updates, desktop monmitoring, desktop configuration, IT asset management and remote assistance). Final version delivery target: I’d bet some time in 2010, but so far haven’t seen a firm date.

Service Manager 2010: Formerly known as “Service Desk,” Service Manager 2010 is in private beta now (with Beta 2 due imminently). Update: Service Manager 2010 Beta 2 is now available. This new tool is aimed at helping IT managers deal with trouble tickets, help requests and compliance auditing. Final version delivery target: Early 2010.

September 29th, 2009

Microsoft's message to IT pros: Meet us half way with Windows 7

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:57 pm

Categories: Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Management tools, Security, System Center, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows client, Windows server

Tags: Information Technology, Steve Ballmer, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Outlook Web App, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Cloud Computing, Operating Systems, Software

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is confident about Windows 7. But he’s nowhere near as outwardly cocky about the business prospects for the operating system as he and other Microsoft execs were with previous Windows releases.

In fact, Ballmer told IT pros during a low-key September 29 business-launch kick-off event “thanks for your consideration of Windows 7.”

Ballmer and a handful of invited corporate Microsoft customers took to the stage for Microsoft’s “The New Efficiency” event today. The overall theme of the hour-and-a-half event — which was live in San Francisco and Webcast, as well — was how IT pros can, with less, do more.

The products that Microsoft touted during the event included Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Exchange Server 2010, and, to a lesser extent, the Forefront enterprise security suite and System Center management line.

Ballmer said it was Microsoft’s job to help IT pros get corporate buy-in for Windows 7. He said Microsoft was responsible for half that effort (actually, he pegged the number at 60 percent). But the other 40 percent of the job was up to enterprise users. They’re the ones who need to convince their purse-string-controlling bosses that it’s worth upgrading to Windows 7, in spite of tight budgets and cost-cutting pressures.

“We have to help you make the business case,” Ballmer said.

Ballmer’s push for Microsoft’s soon-to-be-introduced products boiled down to a few key messages.

• Windows 7: It makes everyday tasks easier to achieve anywhere
• Windows Server 2008 R2: It provides next-generation and control (and Hyper-V offers users more options for consolidating servers)
• MDOP: It helps streamline PC management
• Exchange 2010: Its new back-end storage management are a boon

Because I write so often about Microsoft’s enterprise products and strategy, none of what Ballmer said today was a surprise. It’s the Microsoft “better together” messaging in new bottles.

The only thing that surprised me was I noticed during the demo that Microsoft has renamed its Outlook Web Access (OWA) feature in Exchange 2010 to “Outlook Web App.” I discovered that the company had done this in August of this year. Given Microsoft’s recent acknowledgment that it is going to keep the “Office Web Apps” name for its forthcoming suite of Webified Office products, I find the new OWA name rather confusing. Word Web App, PowerPoint Web App, OneNote Web App and Excel Web App are all part of Office Web Apps. Outlook Web App is not.

Microsoft is making case study information and trial versions of its Windows 7 and final and/or beta releases of its related enterprise products available on its New Efficiency Web site.