After months of beta testing, Microsoft is expected to officially launch Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on Wednesday at an event held in Los Angeles. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer will be responsible for the February 27 launch at the Nokia Theater.

The Redmond-based company is hoping for a switch to Windows Vista after this launch from its corporate customers: “We think with Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, the integrated benefits that customers see will really encourage then to start looking at deployments of Vista on the desktop as well,” said Jagan Narendran, director of Microsoft Asia-Pacific’s Infrastructure Server Business, InfoWorld reports.

Windows Server 2008 is Microsoft’s most advanced Windows server to date, providing a secure network infrastructure and enriching user experiences and applications. Beta testers have declared themselves satisfied with the improvements, especially in terms of security (Windows Server 2008 helps prevent unauthorized connections to the user’s networks, servers, data and user accounts) and high performance.

Another feature Microsoft is counting on is virtualization (Windows Server Hyper-V, enabling applications to be virtualized through Windows Server 2008’s centralized application access technologies), which Narendran said “is going to be key not only in mature markets but in emerging markets, currently about 5 percent of servers are virtualized, but we do think virtualization is getting more popular and will increase in reach.”

At the same time with Windows Server 2008, Microsoft will introduce SQL Server 2008, which is said to become available in the third quarter of this year. The SQL Server 2008 enables data storage and management any place, any time, providing a high level of security and liability, as the company itself describes it.

Microsoft’s stance this year tends towards the 64-bits OS, especially due to its Hyper-V technology, in other words, bye-bye 32-bits, time to move on. Analysts predict the launch of Hyper-V will demand for some competition once it will be out, while some still doubt it’s capabilities, after its launch has been delayed by six months.

Image credits: Microsoft