Security, Management Focus at TechEd

Improved patching and management systems will give IT professionals more time to spend on upgrades and integration, better enabling them to reap the benefits of upcoming products such as SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft executives told attendees at its TechEd conference in June 2005. Emphasizing security and management, the company rolled out new patch management tools and touted the management features in upcoming Windows and SQL Server releases, while also whetting attendees’ appetites for the other capabilities of SQL Server 2005 and longer-term product releases, such as BizTalk Server 2006 and Exchange 12.

Patching and Reliability Highlighted

Microsoft says corporate IT departments today spend about 70% of their time operating and managing existing systems. Only 30% of their budgets and resources go into new projects. Security problems in Microsoft software and confusion over its patching technologies are longstanding bugbears of system administrators, and at TechEd 2005 the company highlighted its current and future efforts to address these problems. If successful, these efforts will benefit not only the company’s customers but also Microsoft’s bottom line, as its image improves and organizations spend less on maintenance and more on new projects—and software licenses.