Windows Server 2008 Has Gone Gold (RTM)

After a long road to completion, Microsoft has officially released the long-awaited Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing. The long road to RTM for Windows Server 2008 is now over, with the product now released to manufacturing, Microsoft will officially launch Windows Server 2008 on February 27, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is the most advanced Windows Server operating system yet, designed to power the next-generation of networks, applications, and Web services. With Windows Server 2008 you can develop, deliver, and manage rich user experiences and applications, provide a secure network infrastructure, and increase technological efficiency and value within an organization.

Windows Server 2008 comes with Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7), a Web server and security-enhanced, easy-to-manage platform for developing and reliably hosting Web applications and services. A major enhancement to the Windows Web platform, IIS7 includes a componentized architecture for greater flexibility and control. IIS7 also provides simplified management, powerful diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities that save time, and comprehensive extensibility.

Internet Information Server IIS7 together with the .NET Framework 3.0 provide a comprehensive platform for building applications that connect users and data, enabling them to visualize, share, and act on information. Additionally, IIS7 plays a central role in unifying Microsoft’s Web platform technologies—ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation Web services, and Windows SharePoint Services.

Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V, the next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization technology, allows you to make the best use of your server hardware investments by consolidating multiple server roles as separate virtual machines running on a single physical machine. You can also efficiently run multiple operating systems—Windows, Linux and others—in parallel on a single server. With virtualization built into the Windows Server 2008 operating system and simple licensing policies, it’s now easier than ever to take advantage of the cost savings of virtualization.

Applications can also be efficiently virtualized using Windows Server 2008 centralized application access technologies. Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services RemoteApp allow easy remote access to standard Windows-based programs from anywhere by running them on a terminal server instead of directly on a client computer—without the need for a complicated VPN.

Note: This blog entry was originally posted on thewindowsblog.net. View original post