Donald Ferguson led project development for applications such as Web Sphere, Tivoli and Lotus. Ferguson is now placed in Technical Fellow in Platforms and Strategy at Microsoft, a team being built by Ray Ozzie, who himself came from IBM. Ozzie wrote the Lotus Notes product from the beginning while at IBM and joined Microsoft in June 2006.

Microsoft released a community technology preview (CTP) of Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2005 today. This CTP can be downloaded for SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services.

All the essential relational database functionality in a small footprint, Microsoft releases SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, a direct competitor to MySQL OEM. Compact Edition is a single user database enviroment for use in mobile and desktop applications. Developers requiring multi user applications that do not need the full functionality of SQL Server 2005 are still encouraged to use SQL Server Express Edition.

Paul Flessner, a Senior VP at Microsoft, stepped down today to spend more time on personal projects and family. Flessner, credited with the success of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005, will continue to work part time on special assignments for Microsoft. Flessner will continue his position until Jan 1, when VP of Security Ted Kummert takes over. Kummert, whom has worked at Microsoft since 1989, has lead several VP roles and had previously worked for Apple Computer.