Windows Server 2008 R2 announced!

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Today at PDC 2008 we announced Windows Server 2008 R2  This release is part of our roadmap strategy just like theBanner-R2 R2 release of Windows Server 2003 and will have some great new features to consider.

  • First of all 32-Bit is all done!  Windows Server 2008 R2 will mark the first release of Windows that is 64-Bit only.  In my opinion it’s about time.  Customers haven’t been able to buy 32-Bit servers for 2 years now.  So it’s time to move to 64-Bit servers!
  • Virtualization – Hyper-V which is included as a feature of Windows Server 2008 right now has been making very strong progress.  However with the R2 release we will add the Live Migration feature to further enhance availability of virtual machines during patching cycles and other service interruptions.  We’ll also see better management higher resources for VM’s and much more!
  • Streamlined Management – First of all there will be a host of new role specific management UI’s and my personal favourite PowerShell 2.0.  The UI’s will be built on top of PowerShell 2.0 and there will be 240 new cmdlets inside R2.  We are also adding a PowerShell GUI which will help developers write their own cmdlets.  other features include an enhanced Active Directory DS management console, enhanced group policy functions(wonder if Kleefy is having anything to do with this?) and a remote-capable Server manager.
  • Web – There is a big focus in this release to provide updates to IIS 7.0. In particular there will be new PowerShell management support and a host of updates that include; new IIS extensions, new reporting capabilities, better and more flexible deployment options.
  • Better with Windows 7 – this sounds like a marketing term but there really are some cool things being worked on.  I’ll talk more about Windows 7 in the coming months but I wanted to highlight a feature that is going to be really useful for administrators as well as end users.  It’s called Direct Access and essentially it makes remote computing for end users seamless.  Essentially removing the need to VPN in to your workplace!  This has been something we’ve needed for a long time.

That’s about all I have right now but if you want to find out more check out the Windows Server 2008 R2 Website for more information including a beta Reviewers Guide.

Now I just need to get my hands on the code so I can have a good play!

Technorati Tags: Beta's,Windows Server 2008

Jeffa