Windows Server Family

Windows Server ships in a variety of editions and server application suites. Shown here are some products based on Windows Server and the typical number of users supported by a single server.

General-purpose Windows Server OS editions (top) allow an organization to configure the OS for a variety of server roles. Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter are sold through volume licensing to all types of companies and differ primarily in single-server capacity limits (for example, the number of processors or concurrent connections permitted), high-availability features, and rights granted to run virtual machines. The Foundation edition, in contrast, is sold exclusively through OEMs as a first server for small companies running business applications and simple infrastructure services, such as file and print service. Technical limitations and licensing rules (including a 15-user cap) make Foundation practical only for small firms and unsuitable for branch offices within larger firms.

Specialized servers (middle) include Windows Server with components needed for a specific role, often at a lower cost than the corresponding general-purpose editions, but with licensing and technical restrictions. The most important specialized servers are Windows Web Server, for Internet-facing Web servers, and Windows Server for Itanium-Based Systems, for database servers that use the Intel Itanium (IA-64) processor architecture. Windows High Performance Computing Server delivers the OS with special components for managing groups of servers running a performance-intensive application in parallel, while Windows Storage Server, Unified Data Storage Server, and Home Server are OEM-only packages that provide Windows Server and additional components for storage, file, and print servers.