Windows Server 2008 Takes Shape

Windows Server 2008, code-named Longhorn, is on schedule for release in early 2008. Customers will want to begin evaluating Windows Server 2008 now because its features will be interesting to a broader audience than the features in the last version (Windows Server 2003 R2), and might affect how customers deploy other servers and server applications that rely on the Windows Server infrastructure.

Why Begin Evaluations Now?

Unlike Windows Vista and other Microsoft products that have incorporated major changes or allowed feature additions during the release candidate phase of the development life cycle, Windows Server 2008 (with the exception of the Hyper-V feature) has been feature-complete for some time. Although large organizations typically need a long lead time to evaluate application and hardware issues created by a new client OS release, the time needed to evaluate a new server OS can be even longer: not only is application compatibility a potential problem, but the new and changed server features can also impact the organization’s authentication and authorization, networking, and security infrastructure.