Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard is the most robust Windows Server operating system to date. With built-in, enhanced Web and virtualization capabilities, it is designed to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure while helping save time and reduce costs. Powerful tools give you greater control over your servers, and streamline configuration and management tasks. Plus, enhanced security features work to harden the operating system to help protect your data and network and provide a solid, highly dependable foundation for your business. Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of its Windows Server predecessors while delivering valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the base operating system. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.
Windows Server 2008 provides a solid foundation for all of your server workload and application requirements while also being easy to deploy and manage. The all new Server Manager provides a unified management console that simplifies and streamlines server setup, configuration, and ongoing management. Windows PowerShell, a new command-line shell, helps enable administrators to automate routine system administration tasks across multiple servers. Windows Deployment Services provides a simplified, highly secure means of rapidly deploying the operating system via network-based installations. And Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering wizards, and full Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support plus consolidated management of Network Load Balancing, make high availability easy to implement even by IT generalists.
Main Features
Server Consolidation and Resource Optimization -- Hyper-V - Most servers operate at far below their capacities, with as much as 80 to 90 percent of their processing power unused, on average. With Hyper-V, the Windows Server 2008 virtualization solution, a single physical server can host the workloads of multiple Line of Business servers. Hyper-V helps organizations to achieve optimal use of their hardware resources and provides the agility needed to adapt to changing IT needs
Flexible Application Access for Remote Users -- TS RemoteApp - Windows Server 2008 provides improvements and innovations to Terminal Services with solutions, like Terminal Services RemoteApp (TS RemoteApp), that allow users to access individual applications, instead of a computer desktop in a Terminal Server session.
Modular, Minimal Installation -- Server Core - Many network servers perform specific dedicated and mission-critical roles within the network. The new Server Core installation option provides a minimal environment for running specific server roles. This helps improve reliability and efficiency, giving the IT department the ability to better utilize existing hardware. It also simplifies ongoing administration and patch management requirements by reducing the need to update unneeded files and functionality.
Delivering Rich Web Content and Applications -- IIS 7.0 - As Web content gets richer and the Web becomes a viable platform for delivering business applications, the Web server is moving to the center of many networks. IIS 7.0 delivers solutions for todays demanding content, including streaming media and Web applications in Active Server Pages and PHP.
Improved Network Performance and Control -- New TCP/IP Stack - The efficient use of bandwidth has a direct impact on the productivity of users working in remote locations that rely on WAN connections to the organizations central servers. The redesigned ext generation TCP/IP included in Windows Server 2008 provides vastly improved performance in a remote location scenario, offering faster throughput and more efficient routing of network traffic.
Preventing Unhealthy Devices from Connecting to the Network -- NAP - With the increasing number of mobile users and corporate partners that must connect to an organizations network, protecting the security of that network from outside threats is an ongoing challenge. Network Access Protection (NAP) in Windows Server 2008 helps prevent non-compliant computers from accessing an organizations network.
Supporting Business Continuity for Demanding Workloads -- High Availability Features - Windows Server 2008 provides increased scalability for the most demanding business solutions and helps keep businesses operating through unplanned downtime with high availability features. With support for failover clusters, Network Load Balancing, dynamic hardware partitioning, robust storage options, and advanced machine-check architecture, Windows Server 2008 helps safeguard against single-point-of-failure problems.
Enabling Secure Collaboration -- Active Directory Federated Rights Management - Companies need to share information with partners and clients without losing control over that information. Rights Management Services enables organizations to control how documents are used -- including who can view them, whether they can be printed, even whether they can be forwarded or deleted -- both internally and externally.
Connecting Heterogeneous Environments - Windows Server 2008 includes Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA), a multi-user UNIX environment that supports more than 300 UNIX commands, utilities, and shell scripts. Users can maintain one user name and password for Windows domains and UNIX systems, synchronizing the credentials automatically when one changes.
Enabling Top-Shelf Service and Support for Remote Sites - Remote sites, such as branch offices, can be an IT challenge. Often, there is no local IT staff, making the deployment of software and security updates expensive and time-consuming. It can be difficult to enforce security and IP standards in a remote site.
Easing Administration, Management, and Automation -- Server Manager and PowerShell - The Server Manager Console provides a single, unified console for managing a servers configuration and system information, displaying server status, identifying problems with server role configuration, and managing all roles installed on the server. Built on the Service Modeling Language (SML) platform, Server Manager allows administrators to complete tasks with fewer clicks without having to navigate between multiple tools and interfaces.
System Requirements
Hard Disk 512 MB (2 GB recommended).
Memory 512MB.
Processor 1 GHz (x86 processor) or 1.4 GHz (x64 processor).
