Windows Server 2008 R2 Edition Comparison

The most important Windows Server 2008 R2 editions vary on virtualization, capacity, high availability, and services they can run. Shown here are the editions most commonly bought by large organizations in volume licensing, with each edition’s most important distinguishing features and server license price. (Prices are for Microsoft’s Open program, the highest price volume licensing customers would typically pay.)

All editions shown here except Web Server can host virtual machines (VMs) with Hyper-V virtualization technology, but licensing rules limit the number of VMs per server license: At most one on Standard, four on Enterprise, and an unlimited number on Datacenter.

The editions also vary on the number of processors and amount of physical memory they can use, connection limits, and high-availability features such as the Windows Server Cluster Service for “failing over” applications and services among servers. (Microsoft considers multicore and hyperthreaded processors to be a single processor, regardless of the number of cores or threads that they contain.) Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard limits two features, Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Gateway and Routing and Remote Access (RRAS), to 250 concurrent connections.