Overview of major changes made between Sept. 2006 and Mar. 2007 to Microsoft's roadmap for virtualization technologies, systems management products and technology, and in its product lines for security, interoperability, and backup

Major developments in Microsoft’s systems management products and technology, and in its product lines for security, interoperability, and backup, include the following:

• Microsoft acquired Softricity in July 2006; the company’s SoftGrid OS virtualization technology enables applications to run in isolation from one another to prevent application conflicts and speed deployment and maintenance.
• The next update to Virtual Server, formerly planned for the second half of 2006, has been delayed to the first half of 2007.
• Virtual PC and Virtual Server were both made free products.
• Systems Management Server 2003 R2 has shipped; the next full release will be named System Center Configuration Manager 2007.
• A Service Desk product planned for the second half of 2007 will support trouble ticketing and problem resolution, and will integrate with Operations Manager, Configuration Manager, and other Systems Center management products.
• System Center Essentials, a subset of the planned