Windows Server 8: 8 Key Facts

InformationWeek: The recently released consumer preview of Windows 8 has received a lot of media attention, but Microsoft issued another release at the same time that could arguably be even more significant for enterprise IT: a beta of Windows Server 8. In fact, some experts predict that the enterprise migration to Windows Server 8 will occur much more quickly than the desktop migration to Windows 8. The beta includes improvements in eight key areas:

1. Networking: NIC teaming technology, DHCP, SMB 2.2 and new support for Single-Root I/O Virtualization
2. Virtualization: improvements to the multi-tenancy capabilities in Hyper-V and a new Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Extensible Virtual Switch
3. Remote Access: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), DirectAccess and BranchCache
4. Security: Dynamic Access Control
5. Storage: Storage Spaces
6. Server Management: enhanced Server Manager and Power Shell 3.0
7. Web and Application Platform: support for hybrid and cloud environments
8. Metro Interface: the server version of Windows 8 also gets the splashy new interface