REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 4, 2012 — Today in a global online launch event Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft Server and Tools Business, announced the general availability of Windows Server 2012. In his keynote speech, Nadella described how Windows Server 2012 is a cornerstone of the Cloud OS, which provides one consistent platform across private, hosted and public clouds.

“The operating system has always been the heartbeat of IT and is now undergoing a renaissance in the new world of continuous cloud services, connected devices and big data,” Nadella said. “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.”

Enabling the Modern Datacenter

Microsoft built Windows Server 2012 from the cloud up, applying its experience operating global datacenters that rely on hundreds of thousands of servers to deliver more than 200 cloud services. Windows Server 2012 expands the definition of a server operating system, with significant new advancements in virtualization, storage, networking and automation. Hundreds of new features can help customers achieve a transformational leap in the speed, scale and power of their datacenters and applications. In combination with Windows Azure and System Center, Windows Server 2012 empowers customers to manage and deliver applications and services across private, hosted and public clouds.

Customers Find Success With Windows Server 2012

Customers can use their existing skills and investments in systems management, application development, database, identity and virtualization to take advantage of Windows Server 2012 and realize the promise of cloud computing. Many enterprise customers are already seeing tremendous value in early deployments. A survey of 70 early adopter customers from across the globe revealed that they expect, on average, 52 percent reduction in downtime, 41 percent reduction in workload deployment time, and 15 hours of productivity time saved per year, per employee. 91 percent of the companies surveyed expect a reduction in server administration labor, and 88 percent expect reduction in network administration labor.*

Menzies Aviation, an airline passenger and cargo handling company that employs more than 17,000 people, is using Windows Server 2012 to provide identity access management and information access policies to its employees as it rapidly incorporates newly acquired businesses.

“We are very impressed by Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft’s overall solution to help us manage our systems and applications across our private cloud environments as they scale with our business,” said Martin Gallington, senior vice president of IT at Menzies Aviation. “This is a dramatic leap forward, matched by a simple, cost-effective pricing model.”

Equifax is a global information solutions provider that organizes and assimilates data on more than 500 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide. It now counts on Windows Server 2012 for improved reliability and uptime of its information services to clients.

“Windows Server 2012 revolutionizes how we can operate our datacenter, allowing us to better meet our commitments,” said Bryan Garcia, chief technology officer at Equifax. “The new high availably technologies help us deliver ‘always-on’ applications, and we’re betting on Hyper-V as a critical component of our private cloud strategy. We are gaining tremendous efficiencies, which translate into more time to innovate for company growth.”

More information about Windows Server 2012 and the Cloud OS is available here. Read Satya Nadella’s post on The Official Microsoft Blog here. The conversation on Twitter can be followed at #WinServer.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* “Windows Server 2012 Rapid Deployment Program: TCO Study Whitepaper,” Microsoft Corp., June 2012

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PARIS, France – September 3, 2012 – PostgreSQL Europe today published the schedule for PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2012 and announced that Joe Celko, industry veteran and bestselling author, will be delivering the opening keynote. Joe will share with the audience a look into the way the industry first developed SQL, and what we will do next in the world of databases. PostgreSQL Conference Europe, one of the leading worldwide conferences on PostgreSQL, is taking place from 23-26 October at the Corinthia Hotel in Prague, The Czech Republic.

In addition to Celko's keynote, other luminaries of the open source community and the business and public sectors including Bruce Momjian, co-founder of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group, EnterpriseDB, Magnus Hagander, Redpill Linpro, and Josh Berkus, PGExperts, all members of the PostgreSQL Core Team, as well as Simon Riggs, CTO of 2ndQuadrant and Guillaume Lelarge, CTO of Dalibo, both long-time contributors to the PostgreSQL community, will address topics ranging from database internals to end-user case studies for small companies, large multinational corporations and government organisations. The conference offers multiple parallel tracks and sessions in English and Czech. There will be PostgreSQL training sessions on October 23, the day prior to the opening day, with half and full day sessions on a range of topics.

The broad range of technical topics continues the PostgreSQL tradition of creating a conference that attracts a diverse attendance, from DBAs already using PostgreSQL or considering doing so to PostgreSQL contributors, application developers, and decision makers seeking to evaluate alternatives to proprietary databases. Topics this year include performance tuning, replication and scalability, cloud deployments, management of non-traditional data including geospatial information and ranges, and integration.

For more information, please visit the conference website at http://pgconf.eu/ or go directly to the schedule at http://2012.pgconf.eu/schedule/.

About PostgreSQL Conference Europe

PostgreSQL Conference Europe is organized by PostgreSQL Europe. PostgreSQL is the leading open source database system, with a global community of thousands of users and contributors and dozens of companies and organizations. The PostgreSQL Project builds on 25 years of engineering, starting at the University of California, Berkeley, and has an unmatched pace of development today. PostgreSQL's mature feature set not only matches top proprietary database systems, but also exceeds them in advanced database features, extensibility, security and stability. Learn more about PostgreSQL and participate in our community at www.postgresql.org.