By David Hamilton, theWHIR.com
October 30, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — At its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft has provided attendees with the pre-beta developer release of Windows Server 2008 R2, which it said includes “live migration of virtual machines, power saving capabilities, and developer features to build and host next-generation applications and services.”
According to a Tuesday release, the M3 build of Windows Server 2008 R2 or “Windows 7 Server” has been showcased at the conference along with its Windows 7 desktop operating system.
Attendees have reported that R2 will also have many more PowerShell cmdlets built into its Windows Server apps, with the possibiliiy of the inclusion of the next version of Powershell (1.5), a command line shell and scripting language that helps administrators achieve greater control and productivity. Also, unlike Server 2008, which is available in both 32 and 64-bit versions, R2 will only support 64 bit processing.
Web developers may be interested to know Microsoft plans to ease the integration between the desktop and the Web, taking measures to make it easier for developers to build applications for the Web and the company’s new Azure Services Platform, through both the recent Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 service packs, and the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 releases.
Microsoft also rolled out a roadmap of its 2008 server releases starting with the February 27 of Windows Server 2008. The next finished release is Windows Essential Business Server, scheduled to launch on November 12, 2008. This all-in-one, multi-server solution designed and priced for the midsize business market. More interesting for Web hosts, however, is Windows Storage Server 2008 which is scheduled for release before the end of the year, promising a variety of new technical enhancements. The completed version of Windows Server 2008 R2 is not scheduled for release until 2010, when Microsoft expects to begin phasing out Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server support.
Another important development to come from the roadmap is a more predictable release cycle helping customers make better long-term planning and budgeting decisions. The company intends to deliver a major Windows Server release every four years, followed by an update between each major release.
