Microsoft's Bill Gates Monday opened the first ever SharePoint Conference by anointing SharePoint Server 2007 the key to the company’s collaboration future and ripping rival IBM/Lotus

Gates also said SQL Server will become the common data storage platform for all Microsoft server applications in order to create one programming and backup model for storage and said the Windows platform would have a variety of workflow engines for the foreseeable future.

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Microsoft has gathered 1,300 IT professionals and partners in Bellevue, Wash., to kick-start interest in SharePoint Server 2007, which is due to ship later this year when Office 2007 is made available to corporate users. Beta 2 of the platform is due before the end of June.

“The key point is that SharePoint is becoming the key platform for collaboration of all types,” said Gates during his 45-minute keynote address. “When people look back on what we are doing with Office [2007] here, the most revolutionary element will be what we are doing with SharePoint.”

He said SharePoint would reshape the way people think about information sharing both inside and outside their companies.

But it was a question and answer session with attendees after the keynote where Gates smacked IBM/Lotus and outlined future plans to make SQL Server the native underlying platform for SharePoint, Exchange, meta-directory and all Microsoft server applications with data storage needs. He also said it would take some time for Microsoft to unify its workflow engines. Currently, BizTalk, SQL Server, Identity Integration Server and SharePoint are among the Microsoft products that have their own workflow engines. Microsoft is developing a workflow technology for the operating system called the Windows Workflow Foundation, but Gates did not mention it.

When an audience member asked for his views on IBM’s Workplace platform and Lotus Notes, Gates, with tongue-in-cheek, admitted his bias toward Microsoft before slamming his rival.

He said IBM/Lotus has done nothing new in the productivity software space since Notes founder Ray Ozzie left in 1997 to found Groove. Ozzie is now CTO at Microsoft having joined the company when it bought Groove last year.

“They have really gone back to not so much thinking about productivity software,” said Gates. “Workplace. I don’t know of any substantial use of Workplace that is out there.