Steve Balmers announcement on Wednesday at the CES show announcing availability of the public beta of Windows 7 Client isn't the only big news we have for you! The announcement of Windows 7 Beta also signals the arrival of Windows Server 2008 R2 beta.
In joint development along side of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 is the next release of the server operating system. Several features have been added to Windows Server to improve scalability and reliability including updates to virtualization, web and management. Some of the added features include:
- Live Migration allowing the movement of virtual machines from one host to another in seconds with ZERO perceived downtime by users. This allows for maintenance and upgrades.
- Direct Access allowing for remote workers to securely connect to their work environment as if they were connected to the corporate network. Also you as an IT administrator will be able to manage these remote systems as if they were right there on premise, without having to use VPN.
- Branch Cache continues the commitment to improve access to resources in remote offices without consuming expensive bandwidth.
There are other areas of improvement including managment enhancements for Active Directory and Server Manager and an update to Powershell.
We here at Edge have some great content headed your way detailing these new features as well as features in Windows 7 in the coming days but if you need your thirst for information quenched, drop by the Windows Server 2008 R2 Website, grab the beta, and take a look at the whitepapers and other guides that are available.
