Hot on the heels of the public preview of Windows 8,
Microsoft has released a beta version of its
Windows Server 8 operating system.
The beta of Windows Server "8" is now available to
download.
Introduced in September as a preview, the cloud-optimized
OS features an updated Hyper-V engine, improved disaster
recovery options, multi-machine management, and more.
For example, with Hyper-V Network Virtualization users
can create virtual networks so different business units,
or even multiple customers, can share network
infrastructure. Users will be able to move virtual
machines and servers around without losing their network
assignments.
In Windows Server "8" Microsoft is delivering high
availability and disaster recovery through software
technology on much more cost effective hardware. For
example, with File Server Transparent Failover users can
now more perform hardware or software maintenance of
nodes in a File Server cluster by moving file shares
between nodes with little interruption to server
applications that are storing data on those file shares.
Microsoft is also delivering new capabilities for
multi-machine management and automation. Users will want
to explore the new improvements to Server Manager, as
well as the new Windows PowerShell. With 2,300
commandlets provided out of the box, Windows PowerShell
allows users to automate everything they can do manually
with the user interface. And, with technologies like
Intellisense, Microsoft has made it very easy to master
all of that power.
Additionally, Windows Server "8" provides a server
application platform that enables users to develop and
host the most demanding of application workloads. For
example, with .NET Framework 4.5 users can take advantage
of new asynch language and library support to build
server and web applications that scale far beyond what
other platforms provide. The new IIS 8 web server
provides better security isolation and resource
sand-boxing between applications, native support for web
sockets, and the ability to host significantly more sites
on a server.
This is just a brief taste of the hundreds of features
and capabilities found in the beta. More information is
provided by Microsoft in
this blog.