At the 2008 Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), an exciting business model--software-plus-services--drew the spotlight in keynote addresses, breakout sessions, and on the exhibit floor. Core Microsoft products marked development milestones. And attendees learned about ground-breaking initiatives that Microsoft hopes will foster unprecedented growth in the Microsoft partner community. In this issue, we highlight key WPC 2008 announcements and invite you to take advantage of the emerging opportunities.

Microsoft Partner Program Global Newsletter Team

Many of you attended the event virtually through Digital WPC and saw Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, COO Kevin Turner, Corporate VP Allison Watson, and other executives unveil core Microsoft initiatives and strategies, live. Don’t forget that you can revisit and share these exciting keynote presentations--as well as other engaging breakout sessions--anytime, through Digital WPC. Make a special note to watch Dr. Muhammad Yunus’ inspirational address and hear his vision for the eradication of poverty through socially responsible business.

Through Digital WPC, you may have already discovered Partner Labs--the dynamic, collaborative environment where you can help shape the Microsoft Partner Program by exchanging ideas, testing prototypes, and providing instant feedback. See what it’s all about in the Digital Forum--a flagship experiment of Partner Labs--where you can tap the power of viral video to share your stories of innovation around Microsoft technologies. Then explore Microsoft Pinpoint, a new community-based directory of Microsoft Certified companies that small- and midsize-business customers can quickly search or browse to find your products and services. You can use Pinpoint to showcase how you’re making a difference to your customers, to attract new business.

WPC provides a great forum for hot-off-the-press software news. This year’s conference delivered word that Hyper-V, a key virtualization feature of the Windows Server 2008 operating system, has been released to manufacturing (RTM). You can now update the beta version of Hyper-V included with your Windows Server 2008 software, to use in production environments. Next up? The announcement that Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is on schedule to RTM later this year. To help you prepare, the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 was released at WPC. Download the toolkit to start planning sales and deployments of the Windows Vista operating system, Hyper-V, SQL Server, and more. What to watch: Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 are set to reach Release Candidate 1 status within the month.

As you can imagine, a lot happens in four, activity-packed days. Read all of the WPC announcements to catch any news you might have missed, at your convenience. And visit Digital WPC regularly to stay in the know now through WPC 2009 in New Orleans.