Stories by: Doug Dineley

Bill Gates didn't see much of Steve Ballmer anymore, now that Bill was skipping most of the board meetings. But when they met they'd share a good laugh. After all, although things went pretty much according to plan, they never imagined the company would reach such a peak. Good ol' MSFT was now bigger, in terms of market cap, than any company in the US. If it weren't for the Chinese banks, they'd be kings of the world.

Today in Los Angeles -- and in a "launch wave" of events across the globe -- Microsoft's long-awaited unveiling of Windows Server 2008 (WS08) reaches its dizzying crescendo. At the same time, Microsoft celebrates two other milestones: the release of Visual Studio 2008, which arrived in November, and the forthcoming release of SQL Server 2008, which is due in Q3.

For managers of enterprise datacenters, the endless stream of security patches from Microsoft, Oracle, and other software vendors (not to mention open source projects) has been a prime source of frustration. For Blue Lane Technologies, it has provided a golden opportunity.