Windows Server Overview

Microsoft’s current major release of Windows Server is Windows Server 2008, which was released in Feb. 2008. Windows Server 2008 (formerly code-named Longhorn) includes updates to management and configuration programs, and new features such as Network Access Protection, to validate clients connecting to an organization’s computing infrastructure. (Microsoft calls the initial Windows Server 2008 release “SP1” because its code is synchronized with that of Windows Vista SP1; therefore, customers who want to wait for a first service pack to adopt the server OS will have to wait for Windows Server 2008 SP2.)

The next version of Windows Server, Windows Server 2008 R2, is currently in beta testing and is expected to be released in early 2010.

After Windows Server 2008, future releases of Windows Server and derivative products, such as Windows Storage Server, will be 64-bit only.

Microsoft’s Windows hypervisor virtualization technology, Hyper-V, did not ship with Windows Server 2008, but was released for download in June 2008. It will be an included feature of Windows Server 2008 R2. A stand-alone version, named Hyper-V Server 2008, was released in Oct. 2008. It is likely that an update to Hyper-V Server 2008 (labeled R2 here) will occur between three to six months after the release of Windows Server 2008 R2.