Microsoft’s biggest-ever enterprise product launch appears to be more marketing ploy than a true launch.While COO Kevin Turner said Microsoft would simultaneously launch Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 together at a Feb. 27 event in Los Angeles, that news does not override previously announced product timetables, other execs said Tuesday afternoon.

The RTM (release to manufacturing) date for SQL Server is the second half of Microsoft’s fiscal year (between January and June of next year) said Kim Saunders, senior director of SQL Server marketing. Visual Studio 2008 is due to RTM this calendar year as is Windows Server 2008, aka Longhorn.So there remains quite a bit of timing wiggle room for this “platform release.”

And, cynics in the audience at the Worldwide Partner Conference maintain that Microsoft’s track record of meeting RTM or general availability dates remains underwhelming.

The idea of a platform release, rather than a staggered set of releases, pleases some VARs who would rather get all their technology at once. Others, however, maintain that tightly linked releases tend to delay shipment because so much more testing is involved.

So when will this product triple threat arrive? Today’s answer is the same as last weeks: Nobody knows.

Folks discounted an earlier report that Microsoft would sync up its gigantic Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio Server 2008 launches into a single “platform release” but that’s exactly what it’s going to do.

That’s the word from Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, speaking at today’s Worldwide Partner Conference kickoff keynote in Denver.Turner called this the biggest product rollout in company history.Microsoft had promised to release

Windows Server 2008 (aka Longhorn) to manufacturing by year’s end, opening the way for what some partners call a slip in the long-in-the-works server operating system. The main big-bang event will be in
Los Angeles on Feb. 27 with many more regional events planned.

Partner reaction to the earlier report was decidedly mixed, with one database specialist bemoaning the impact of earlier synched releases on product shipments.

Microsoft, true to its volume sales heritage, will offer its upcoming hosted CRM Live service for as little as $39 per user per month.

That figure puts it well under the list prices of competitive offerings from Salesforce.com and NetSuite. Most of those rival SKUs list for well over $100 per user per month although discounting undoubtedly occurs.

There will be two main CRM Live “SKUs:” an Enterprise edition for $59 per user per month and a lower-end Professional edition for $39 per user per month as an introductory price good for 2008. The main difference is that the professional version provides no offline data synchronization.

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Microsoft Corp.’s plans for the solutions provider channel started to become clearer last night, during sessions previewing some of the announcements Microsoft will make today and later in the week about its major new programs and services.

Heading the list is Microsoft’s take on software as a service (SaaS), which it defines as “software and services” – a combination that relies on Microsoft server-based applications such as Exchange, SQL Server, customer resource management (CRM) and other applications on the back end, talking to Office applications on the front end.

Microsoft is calling the approach Office Business Applications (OBA), which Microsoft execs pronounce “obuh.” They are encouraging solutions providers to begin building new applications using OBA, and use the approach to complete existing contracts for customers.

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Intel buys stake in EMC’s VMware Intel Corp. will invest about $219 million for a stake in VMware Inc. and a seat on the board of the Silicon Valley software company that parent EMC Corp. is taking public, the companies said on Monday. [Reuters]

Microsoft to pitch software plus services to partners The big-picture message Microsoft executives will try to convey at its annual Worldwide Partner Conference is that software plus services is the future. [eWeek]

Cisco, Microsoft, EMC form govt data alliance Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., and EMC Corp. said they have formed an alliance to develop technology for protecting and sharing sensitive government information. The technology, called the Secure Information Sharing Architecture or SISA, will allow government agencies to better communicate while protecting content from being lost or stolen, the companies said. [Reuters]

JP Morgan: Next iPhone based on iPod Nano design Speculation about iPhone 2.0 is already well underway, and the latest tidbit involves an iPod Nano-like phone supposedly scheduled for later this year. [CNET]

Phoneless iPhones coming by Macworld? The large screen and landscape viewing mode that come with the iPhone could make for a cheaper video iPod that can’t phone home. [CNET]

Oracle Database 11g ready for launch After nearly a nine-month beta, Oracle Database 11g is set to launch Wednesday morning. Oracle’s 11g is expected to offer a number of features that were included under its beta, such as data compression, “flashback” technology data recovery and online application upgrades. [CNET]

Microsoft to patch critical .Net flaw Microsoft is issuing six patches on Patch Tuesday today, one of which addresses a critical .Net Framework vulnerability that has the potential to affect a wide array of applications on all of Microsoft’s actively supported platforms. [eWeek]

Salary premiums for security certifications increasing, study shows For all the continuing debate about the real value of IT certification programs, the premiums that companies are willing to pay for certified information security professionals is actually trending upwards. [Computerworld]

CommVault launches search and discover software Storage management vendor CommVault introduced an upgrade of its data protection, archiving and replication software on Monday that features new search and indexing capabilities. [Network World]

Nielsen scraps Web page view rankings A leading online measurement service will scrap rankings based on the longtime industry yardstick of page views and begin tracking how long visitors spend at the sites. [Associated Press]