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But everything the company is saying here in Orlando at TechEd 2008 is consistent with the idea that IT has to support the linchpins of complex, agile, multivariate organizations. And Microsoft is giving IT professionals the tools to support mobile information workers, social networking, cloud computing and virtualized environments.

That observation cuts across the swath of announcements around identity and access management, interoperability, virtualization, and what the company is referring to as "Dynamic IT."

Windows Server 2008 just started shipping in February, but I got a hint of what's to come in the next release from Bob Visse, senior director of Windows Server marketing, here.

The high points:

- WS2008 R2 will have improved authentication features, making it easier for clients to authenticate into the data center and creating more seamless access to corporate networks;

- new power management features, particularly in the case of multicore servers; and

- support for 64-bit architecture exclusively. The current release also supports 32-bit, but Visse noted that Hyper-V, Microsoft's forthcoming server virtualization tool, is built on 64-bit architecture, making 32-bit a moot issue for most customers.