Spending the Day with Microsoft

Last week I had the opportunity to spend the day with Microsoft at their Heroes happen {here} Microsoft 2008 Launch Wave in Boston.  Evidence of Microsoft’s commitment to virtualization were plentiful.  Many of the demonstrations they provided, clearly were accessing virtualized machines.  Application virtualization was not quite as prominently noticeable however I understand one session which I did not attend, their session on virtualization in your infrastructure, did show application virtualization on Windows Server 2008.

I chose to follow the presentations provided in the “developers track” — surprise, surprise?  Microsoft managed to provide information sessions, for the most part, rather than vailed sales pitches — I commend them on that.  Of course, the greatest percentage of sessions and information provided were really geared toward the larger enterprise customers.

It’s always difficult to know after shows like this just what value I have gained from the time spent.  It probably will be a while before I truly understand the value to me, however, having the opportunity to work with the provided Not for Resale software — Server 2008, SQL 2000 and Visual Studio 2008 — I’m sure will provide value to me in the coming months.