Microsoft's been getting funky recently with the names of its consumer software -- see Vista, Silverlight, Popfly, and Zune. But as it proved today at its annual TechEd conference for the IT crowd, business apps are getting the short end of the stick on the name front, despite their cool code names.

Here's the name lowdown:

SQL Server "Katmai," the next version of SQL Server, is slated for release next year. Its new name? SQL Server 2008 (as has been previously hinted).

Visual Studio "Orcas," the next version of Visual Studio, is slated for release at the end of this year. Its new name? Visual Studio 2008.

This follows up, of course, on the renaming of Windows Server "Longhorn" to Windows Server 2008 at Microsoft's WinHEC conference last month.

Not that this doesn't make sense. Consumers crave cool, they want sleek and interesting. In business, people just want something that works, something easy to categorize and implement into their environment, something simplified. Then again, it does reinforce the notion of IT as being "boring."