A few weeks ago, I attended the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas, and I thought you might be interested in hearing my take on the various announcements, presentations and meetings (by the way, The Venetian hotel was great).

The big news was that there wasn’t any really big news. Microsoft made a point of emphasizing that it has been diligently working on what it promised last year.

Still, the company announced several new or re-branded products at the show. Microsoft said all of its upcoming management products will carry the “2005” moniker (for example, Microsoft Operations Manager, due for release later this year, will be called MOM 2005). Microsoft says this is because it wants all of its management products to be “in sync” in terms of their naming convention - although I couldn’t resist asking if, perhaps, this was also so that it could cover itself “just in case” one of its 2004 releases happens to slip into 2005. Microsoft insists that is not the case, but time will tell on that one.

Another interesting announcement was a new strategy relating to Microsoft’s “update” (nee “patch”) strategy. Microsoft is renaming Software Update Services (SUS) as Windows Update Services (WUS) - you can imagine the chuckles that acronym generated - and it is currently in beta, with general availability planned later this year.

WUS, which Microsoft insists should be pronounced like “bus,” will combine updates for Windows, Office, SQL Server, and Exchange into one engine, and like SUS, it will be free to Microsoft customers. The company also announced it is working on new patch, er, update technology that will decrease the average size of updates by 30% to 80%. Down the line, the company is planning a product called Microsoft Update Services that will allow third parties to distribute updates via Microsoft’s process.

Microsoft made a number of interesting announcements regarding MOM. In addition to a second-half 2004 release of MOM 2005, it announced 24 new MOM management packs, including Siebel and Veritas. MOM will have a Web services-based connector “framework” that is supposed to make the process of interfacing with the product much easier than before.

The company also announced MOM Express, a simplified version of MOM targeted at small businesses that have fewer than 10 servers and at least one IT administrator. The theory, in my opinion, is to get into the companies while they are small, and then become their standard as they grow. Not a bad strategy, but until Microsoft begins to play better with non-Microsoft operating systems, I predict MOM will continue to have limited appeal as a central “console of consoles.”

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.