I am currently sitting in the Windows 2008 Virtualization session and it is quite informative. They are offering good live demonstrations of the products. People seem quite excited, I can't wait to get right into the heart of Hyper-V and SAN,etc to see true performance versus ESX.

1 year evals of everything comes with attendance.

Well, I am writing from phone, will update more later!

Updates:

I attended sessions from both the IT Professional and Technology Decision-Maker tracks at the event.

Session 1: TDM: Enabling Dynamic IT and Optimizing Your Infrastructure, Processes and People
  – Presenter:  Indikab@microsoft.com (Indy)
  – Building a Dynamic IT
    -  Fully automated, knowledge captured, and access to information from anywhere
       -  Archiving and Reporting
       -  Data mining and Reporting
   -  Business Enabler
       -  Microsoft Infrasture Optimization
       -  Most businesses fail at Disaster Recovery
   -  Virtualization
      -  Virtualization of not just the hardware level but also the application and presentation layers for access to information and applications from anywhere.
         -  Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008
            -  Runs off local and remote resources to allow for greater number of users per server.
            -  Virtualizes each application and runs each application only over one session per user, no longer a session per application per user.
   -  SBS 2008 will allow for multiple servers to allow for more functionality at a lower price point for SMBs.

Session 2: TDM: Optimizing your IT Infrastructure with Windows Server 2008
  – Presenter:  Indikab@microsoft.com (Indy)
    -  Microsoft System Center
      -  Microsoft System Center
      -  Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager
      -  Microsoft Virtualization
      -  Patching, Knowledgebase, and System Health from one Dashboard
         -  Virtual Machine Manager is also available for Hyper-V
            -  Hyper-V/VMM will be able to virtualize live physical or VMWare systems running Windows Vista, Windows 2003 and Windows 2008.   Windows 2000 does require offline migration.
    -  Microsoft Case Studies
    -  Roadmap for the future includes many products built around componetized and secure platform.
       -  One example is updating Biztalk Server and offering Biztalk Services for free, similar to Windows Sharepoint Services and Sharepoint Portal Server.
    -  Microsoft Security
       -  NAP (Network Access Protection)
          -  Already does exist in Windows Server 2003 SP1!
          -  Microsoft Eating It's Own Dogfood – Uses only ISA Server, they no longer use ANY Cisco or Checkpoint firewalls.
       -  Bitlocker
           -  Encrypt whole drives
           -  Encrypt Read-only Domain Controllers, laptops, desktop, etc to be shipped to remote locations.
           -  Able to backup certificates to fileshares, etc.
       -  Data Protection Manager 2007
           -  Sits on the network as a Snapshot/Tape/Disk backup server.
           -  Can be virtualized itself.
           -  Support for Windows/Exchange/Sharepoint/Active Directory/SQL Server in one server.
           -  Windows 2008 Core allows for a minimized attack surface.
              -  Allows for remote GUI administration as well as local command-line administration.

Session 3: IT Pro: Virtualization and Your Infrastructure

Session 4: IT Pro: Securing Your IT Infrasturure with Windows Server 2008

Session 5: IT Pro: Exploring Winddows Server 2008 Web and Application Technologies