Microsoft customers and partners gathered today to show their support for the launch of Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 and Visual Studio® 2005 and the upcoming release of BizTalk® Server 2006. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer kicked off the event by highlighting the tens of thousands of customers and partners that played a major role in the product development process, providing ongoing input to deliver the next evolution in Microsoft’s application platform. Ballmer showed that with today’s launch, Microsoft Corp. is delivering a broad family of developer tools and server software that enable businesses to better connect their people, business processes and information, and give customers the ability to make better decisions faster.

“Through deep collaboration with our customers and partners, today we’re delivering powerful new platform capabilities with unprecedented integration between the server infrastructure and development tools,” Ballmer said. “We’re enabling people to gain more insight into their businesses and play an even bigger role in the success of their organizations.”