Microsoft’s unveiling of its Windows Server 2008 (WS08) operating system in Los Angeles marked what the firm is billing as the biggest enterprise launch of its 33-year history.
Alongside WS08, Microsoft also presented new versions of its SQL Server database management system and Visual Studio development platform. The promise of improved system security, reliability and performance is likely to prove tempting for users of the existing Windows Server 2003 (WS03). But Microsoft’s much anticipated Hyper-V server virtualisation technology will not be integrated into WS08 for another six months at least. And most users will wait for service packs dealing with early bugs and delivering better application and hardware support before taking the plunge.
Experts say the new system is an incremental improvement, rather than a change of direction. “In many cases, the business case for putting WS08 into production will be less dependent on the system itself, and more on other applications,” said Gartner vice president Phil Dawson.
WS03 is the dominant operating system on new servers and accounted for slightly more than 40% of global server revenue in the third quarter of last year, according to IDC.
Key features:
Windows Server 2008
- Integrated support for Internet Information Server 7.0
- Improved security
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