Posted by Kerry Godes
Senior Manager, Worldwide Marketing and Operations

As developers around the world create applications for an ever-growing set of devices and uses, the need for a powerful toolset that can support faster innovation is essential. With today’s launch of Visual Studio 2012, developers have a simplified, integrated experience that can help them create compelling experiences across multiple connected devices powered by continuous services, regardless of platform.

Visual Studio 2012 contains a variety of tools that create transparency, reduce inefficiency, and accelerate project flow. Columbia Sportswear developers today described how they used a combination of Visual Studio 2012 and Team Foundation Server 2012 to facilitate collaboration by cross-platform teams, including Java and .NET developers, in the process “saving hundreds of hours of development time.”

Today’s launch follows last month’s news that Microsoft LightSwitch in Visual Studio 2012 provides broader support for open standards like OData, allowing for the faster production of business applications that run well across multiple platforms and devices.

To learn more about how Visual Studio customers are creating great app experiences across platforms, watch the launch event keynote with Microsoft Corporate Vice Presidents, S. Somasegar and Jason Zander.

Posted by Kerry Godes
Senior Manager, Worldwide Marketing and Operations

Earlier today, Microsoft released the beta version of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1. This release includes extended client management support for Windows 8, Mac OS X, Linux and Unix operating systems, functionality originally included in June’s Community Technology Preview.

Consumerization is a growing challenge for IT organizations as employees need consistent access to applications from wherever they are, on any device they’re using—desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The B.Y.O.D. (Bring Your Own Device) trend can yield productivity gains for employees, but also presents unique challenges for IT managers in delivering secure applications. System Center 2012 Configuration Manager helps to manage this influx of devices, regardless of platform, while still enabling compliance and data protection.

For more on today’s announcement, please see the Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform blog. Or visit the Microsoft Download Center to download and evaluate the beta release.

Posted by Kerry Godes
Senior Manager, Worldwide Marketing and Operations

Social networking accounts for 1 of every 6 minutes spent online, generating an enormous amount of content that could be useful to consumers, schools, governments and corporations – almost anyone interested in measuring trends – if only there were a way to harness it.

Enter Klout, a data services company, which offers fast, detailed insights from an index of the online activity of 100 million people, more than 2.7 billion pieces of content daily and 30 billion API calls per month on 15 leading social networks.

From these hundreds of terabytes of data, Klout customers and partners get nearly real-time access to information on what people are doing, searching and talking about on their social networks. “We take in raw data and make it into something that is actionable for our consumers, brands, and partners,” says David Mariani, Vice President of Engineering at Klout.

Posted by Kerry Godes
Senior Manager, Worldwide Marketing and Operations

Today’s global online launch event showcased the general availability of Windows Server 2012. In his keynote and blog post, Satya Nadella, President of the Sever and Tools Business, describes how Windows Server 2012 delivers significant new advancements in virtualization, storage, networking and automation.

Windows Server 2012 has been reimagined to power a new world of continuous services and connected devices. It is a cornerstone of what we call a Cloud OS, which provides a consistent platform for infrastructure and applications across private, hosted, and public clouds. According to Satya, “Microsoft’s unique legacy in the most widely used operating systems, applications and cloud services positions us to deliver the Cloud OS, based on Windows Server and Windows Azure, helping customers achieve a datacenter without boundaries.”

For more on today’s news, check out the online launch experience, where you can engage with Microsoft and the community through on-demand sessions and participate in games and social media.