I bet the subject will pull more interest for every IT user to see what kind of database, security and web design tools are available for free!

No doubt that the media & communication has became quick & fast to pass on the information by the way of blogs & websites in addition to the Television advertisements. So such a data & right to information explosion it is good to see that Microsoft is making it possible to compete with Open Source for the tools such as Database, Security and Web design related areas.

To get in to details Microsoft is making available its web design tool FREE for everyone which is called Sharepoint Designer (SPD), this is a successor of Microsoft Frontpage tool that many IT users are alread aware of in addition to the excellent support for customizing the free Sharepoint Services application that is installed along with Windows server services. No doubt that offering such a valuable tool for free doesn't stop or restrict development from Microsoft side and Sharepoint Designer development team will continue its development and next version will be released in the future. In this area a professional suite of web design tools are available too, Express web (not for free).

To continue the subject for freely available tools, we can talk about Database related which is SQL Server Express and further I recommend to visit that link about features that are supported. Also the Visual Studio 2008 Express  for  Application Development and other areas such as security is Windows Defender & Windows Sysinternals (this has many valueable tools to find the systems internals). In addition to that you could download  Live Essentials and PhotoSynth for video related tasks with an handy usage of  Accounting Express for small businesses & individuals to control their accounting purpose. Finally I always use the Virtual PC to host and test any new versions of above applications & operating systems without jeopardising the exisitng laptop/server.

No doubt that you will agree with such an availability of complimentary services you can run your complete business with the above set of free products without spending a fortune like for other technologies in the market or flaky open source software.