Microsoft Product Roadmaps

Windows Server 2012 will probably arrive with a wave of platform updates in the fourth quarter of 2012. Shown here are likely releases through 2013 from Microsoft’s Server and Tools Division, which is responsible for the Windows Server OS as well as SQL Server, System Center, Visual Studio, and other platform products.

The next version of Windows Server is to ship with a new version of the .NET Framework application platform and Visual Studio development environment. Around the same time, SP1 for System Center 2012 will enable the systems management and antimalware suite to run on and manage the new OS version. Similarly, the Forefront Identity Manager software might receive an update to enable compatibility with the new OS and take advantage of improvements in OS components such as Active Directory Domain Services. The Microsoft-hosted Windows Azure service will also probably launch a major update that leverages Windows Server 2012 to offer infrastructure as a service (IaaS), hosting of customer-configured virtual machines and networks in Microsoft data centers. Another Microsoft-hosted service, the Windows Intune PC and mobile device management infrastructure, will probably get an update to enable management of devices running the Windows 8 client OS, which will ship around the same time as Windows Server 2012.