The licenses for this will also include the right to run unlimited virtual instances on one server at no additional charge, which can potentially extend the savings customers can realize through server consolidation on the Windows Server platform, VanRoekel said.

Click here to read more about how Microsoft has simplified Windows Server Licensing.

Lees will also talk about the upcoming update to the SQL Server Competitive Migration Program, which will include enhancements for partner solutions, migration tools to help partners transition customers to SQL Server 2005, and give a discount of as much as 50 percent for migrating customers.

Microsoft also recently released a second community technology preview of the SQL Server Migration Assistant for Sybase to help customers and partners migrate from legacy Sybase databases, supplementing the SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle.

Microsoft also plans systems management offerings to help value-added resellers and value-added providers offer remote monitoring and IT managed services business to small and midsize organizations, based on the System Center family of products.

To listen to more from Microsoft's Partner Conference, click here.

This managed services solution, known as System Center Essentials 2007, will be anchored by System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007 technology, which is a new management product built from the ground up to address the IT management needs of midsize businesses.

Partners can deploy this integrated managed solution at their customer infrastructure to provide end-to-end management of the Windows Server System platform, VanRoekel said.

"This combined solution creates a powerful platform with which VARs and VAPs can provide remote software update management, monitoring and troubleshooting of customer environments over a secure Internet connection to provide end-to-end management of the Windows Server System platform," he said.

In addition, partners can resell licenses to System Center Essentials 2007 as an "attach" offering to their existing server infrastructure practice to increase their incremental revenue.

When asked about reported delays in the shipping schedule for its midmarket solution under development, code-named Centro, VanRoekel said the product was always planned to ship in 2007, but he declined to be more specific, saying that is dependent on when Longhorn Server ships.

Click here to read more about Centro.

The delays in the release of Windows Vista and Office 2007 have not impacted the product development and delivery strategy for SMB solutions, VanRoekel said.

This article was originally published on eWEEK.com.