Windows Server Division WebLog

Windows Server and Windows Azure come together in a new STB organization: the Server & Cloud Division

2009-12-08T20:00:00Z

Microsoft is announcing today the formation of a new organization within the Server & Tools Business that combines the Windows Server & Solutions group and the Windows Azure group, into a single organization called the Server & Cloud Division (SCD).

This change reflects the alignment of our resources with our strategy, and represents a natural evolution for Microsoft as the Windows Azure business moves from an advanced development project to a mainstream business, as we announced last month at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC).

SCD will deliver solutions that help our customers realize even greater benefits from Microsoft’s investments in on-premises and cloud technologies. And the new division will help strengthen an already solid and extensive partner ecosystem.

As the only company in the industry that has the leading server platform complemented by a massive investment in online services, we have the unique ability to offer our customers a choice to tap into one or both approaches simultaneously through one consistent platform.

Together, Windows Server, Windows Azure, SQL Server, SQL Azure, Visual Studio and System Center help customers extend existing investments to include a future that will combine both on-premises and cloud solutions, and SCD is now a key player in that effort.

The details of this organizational change are noted below:

1. The Windows Azure development team, will move from under Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie to the Server & Tools Business, led by Bob Muglia, President, Server and Tools Division. Senior Vice President Amitabh Srivastava will lead the newly formed SCD, reporting to Bob.

2. The Windows Server and Solutions group, led by Corporate Vice President Bill Laing, will join the Windows Azure team to form the Server & Cloud Division. Bill will report to Amitabh and will continue his role as a key member of the STB leadership team. Bill will partner with Amitabh to continue the bilateral sharing of technology between Windows Server and Windows Azure, which has been a key design goal of Microsoft’s software + services strategy.

3. The Windows Azure business and marketing team, will continue to be led by Doug Hauger. Doug will join the Server and Tools Marketing Group, led by Corporate Vice President Robert Wahbe, reporting to Corporate Vice President Bob Kelly, who is also responsible for Windows Server, System Center, and Forefront.

The Windows Server team is very excited to be part of SCD and to continue our work together with the Windows Azure team to deliver the best of both software + services.

Wingin' Migration -- Now migrate even MORE server roles to Windows Server 2008 R2!

2009-12-03T00:42:00Z

The Windows Server Migration team's been cooking...no, not cranberry sauce and stuffing, but a new Windows Server Migration Utilities download package that lets you use the Windows Server Migration Tools to migrate Hyper-V and Routing and Remote Access Services (RRAS). Brand-spankin'-new beta migration guides are available for both Hyper-V and RRAS, with detailed, step-by-step guidance about how to use the Windows Server Migration Tools (after the Utilities package is installed, of course) to migrate to servers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2.

Still not feeling the love? We've got new beta migration guides for Health Registration Authority (HRA), Network Policy Server (NPS), and Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 (WSUS). HRA, NPS, and WSUS don't even require the Windows Server Migration Tools; you can migrate from prep to production, just by following the guides.

We can't say it enough: your feedback rocks. The Windows Server Migration team is collecting feedback about the beta guides and the Utilities download package through the end of 2009. You can use the following methods to speak your mind about Migration Guides and the Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Utilities Beta package. Share your migration experiences; they're critical to the quality of the Migration Guides, Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Utilities, and the whole Migration solution for WS08 R2!

Take the Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Utilities Beta Survey. Nothing goes better with a cup of coffee.
Got an earful about how to improve Migration guides or utilities? Reply to the Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Utilities release announcement on the Windows Server Migration forum.
Found a bug in our migration guides? Send e-mail to smcpe at Microsoft.com. Include a description of your migration scenario (especially the operating systems that are running on your source and destination servers), and any workarounds that you used to resolve the problem. Unless the problem defied workarounds, of course; in that case, you can just send us a hard luck story and/or flame mail, we still want to hear from you.
Found a bug in the tools? Send e-mail to smcpe at Microsoft.com. Include a description of your migration scenario (especially the operating systems that are running on your source and destination servers), the steps to reproduce the bug, and the following logs:
- %windir%\Logs\SmigDeploy.log
- %windir%\Logs\ServerMigration.log
- On Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2: %localappdata%\SvrMig\Log
- On Windows Server 2003: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\SvrMig\Log

Visit the Windows Server Migration Portal on TechCenter to see the complete collection of Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Guides, and a truckload of other migration resources, too.

-- Cheers from the Windows Server Migration team!

Thoughts on the Professional Developers Conference

2009-11-19T18:33:29Z

Greetings! Chris Steffen here again. You may have read my posts regarding virtualization and green IT in the past.

I had the opportunity to spend the week at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) recently. While I am not a programmer, as a technical architect, I took away several interesting tidbits from the conference that I thought I would take a moment to share:

1. Windows Azure is the real deal. Previously, it seemed to be a hodge-podge of somewhat related technologies, with some of them helping customers get into the “cloud” – something elusive and barely defined, but very likely the next cool thing. PDC 2009 changed that forever. Now there is a complete roadmap, from application development to system monitoring tools to OS and database support. Microsoft is the only company out there that has the complete solution—and it is about time someone did.

2. The “cloud” defined (sort of). What does it mean to be part of a “cloud”? I have actually had this discussion on multiple occasions, and while two individuals might be able to come up with an acceptable definition, no one has come out and established what it means to be “cloudy.” Finally, Bob Muglia, in his keynote address on Tuesday, has done so. Flexibility, scalability, self service, on-demand provisioning and virtualization are all key components to being part of the cloud. More importantly, he also made it clear that you don’t need to do all these things to be part of the cloud – covering most of them is acceptable. Of course, Microsoft has a solution for each of these components, with more tools in development to make it even easier.

3. Some is better than none. It was refreshing to hear that Microsoft is not thinking that everyone will migrate everything to the cloud immediately. In fact, they are taking a very realistic approach to the cloud as a whole, fully expecting that it will be a deliberative process and that it is very likely that some sort of hybrid environment (part public cloud and part private cloud) will always exist. Some of the other existing cloud providers could stand to learn a thing or two from this approach.

4. One size does not fit all. Probably the most interesting thing that I heard (repeatedly, I might add) is the idea that Azure is not a “one size fits all” solution. Quite the opposite, in fact. Microsoft wants to bring cloud computing to the masses, but is keenly aware that providing for the masses means that there are niche markets for which they will not be able to directly provide, and that their partner hosting providers are expected to fill this space. They understand that they are going to get the business – either directly through subscriptions to Windows Azure or through hosting partners, using Microsoft’s operating systems and management tools. Pretty smart long-term thinking…

Overall, the developers that I talked to at the conference were excited about cloud computing. Much in the same way that virtualization is the “it” technology among systems and operations folks.

The forecast is cloudy!

Chris Steffen

Principal Technical Architect

Kroll Factual Data

Haiku for Fun and Prizes

2009-11-18T23:39:00Z

For all geek poets,

A Windows Server haiku

Means prizes click here

Oliver Rist

PDC 2009 – Windows Server and Windows Azure Platform

2009-11-18T19:15:00Z

Yesterday at PDC, Ray Ozzie and Bob Muglia announced the global availability of Microsoft’s new cloud computing service – Windows Azure Platform. In addition, Ray and Bob announced a number of additional announcements related to Windows Server. I wanted to take a moment and provide some context for all our existing Windows Server customers and partners.

For our existing Windows Server customers, the most important announcement at PDC was that in the future Windows Azure will support Windows Server virtual machines. This Windows Server VM support will make it easier for customers to move their existing Windows Server applications onto Windows Azure. Microsoft is still evaluating the best approach and the timeline for VM support on Azure but we do know that virtual machines on Windows Azure will allow customers to take advantage of Windows Azure’s automated management capabilities. We also strongly encourage our customers to work with our thousands of hosting partners such as GoGrid, RackSpace, MaximumASP that provide hosting of Windows Server and SQL Server. If customers have increased compute capacity demands or need to deliver new applications to their customers as soon as possible, our Windows Server and SQL Server hosting partners are another great option. Here is a site to find out more about our Windows Server hosting partners.

Bob Muglia also announced today the beta release of Windows Server AppFabric. This new Windows Server technology allows developers and IT Pros to more easily build and manage composite web-applications and to more easily create scale-out application on Windows Server and IIS. Windows Server AppFabric Beta 1 is available now and will be available and will be supported on Windows Azure in the future. This will allow customers to write an application once and then run it either on Windows Server or Windows Azure with minimal or no re-factoring.

So what is Windows Azure? Windows Azure is both a new cloud platform and a management service hosted in Microsoft datacenters. It is optimized for independent software vendors and enterprises to build new applications that span from consumer Web applications (such as the Dominos Pizza web site) to enterprise applications. Windows Azure is not simply hosted Windows Server. It is a new cloud computing platform that makes it easy to build new scale-out applications and provides an integrated development platform via Visual Studio.

Importantly, Windows Azure was designed to interoperate with Microsoft’s existing products. This integration allows our customers to leverage existing skills sets and investments in Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio and System Center. For instance, an enterprise can use their existing Active Directory infrastructure to provide user access to a Windows Azure application in order to maintain a single authentication approach for all applications. As another example of leveraging existing investments, developers build Windows Azure applications in the same tool that they develop applications for Windows Server. Over time, customers will be able to manage Windows Azure applications in System Center in the same way they manage their on-premises applications. These examples highlight a key strategy of Microsoft – we will provide customers platform flexibility while delivering common application technologies, developer tools and system management tools for datacenters behind the firewall or in the cloud.

Some great news from PDC. I encourage you to watch the conference online at www.MicrosoftPDC.com and to start evaluating both Windows Azure and Windows Server AppFabric.

Mike Neil

General Manager

Windows Server

Improve Web User Experience with IIS SEO Toolkit RTW and IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 RC

2009-11-17T17:00:00Z

Remember the scene in Diehard when he shoots the glass? That was cool. What’s even cooler is now you can fine tune your Web site for the search engine, thus improving the experience for your Web users.

Today, Microsoft announced the releases of IIS Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit RTW and IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 RC – both extensions for IIS.

Don’t take it personally – I know it can be hard when your significant other tells you how to make improvements on something you worked hard on, let alone a faceless piece of software. But really, they are both just trying to help. Think of the customers.

The IIS SEO Toolkit helps Web developers, hosting providers, and Web server administrators to improve their Web site’s relevance in search results by recommending how to make the site content more search engine-friendly. The IIS SEO Toolkit helps to improve the volume and quality of traffic to your Web site from search engines, control how search engines access and display Web content, and inform search engines about locations that are available for indexing.

We’ve all been to a cocktail party when you’re trying to impress that certain person, and they ask for the URL of the latest project you are working on. It’s embarrassing when you have to rattle off a long-winded URL with question marks, equal signs, random ID numbers, and ampersands. But with URL Rewriter, you don’t have to anymore.

IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 adds support for outbound response rewriting and enables Web administrators to create powerful rules to implement URLs that are easier for users to remember and easier for search engines to find. IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 can now replace the URLs generated by a Web application in the response HTML with a more user friendly and search engine friendly equivalent, modify the links in the HTML markup generated by a Web application behind a reverse proxy, and fix up the content of any HTTP response by using regular expression pattern matching. IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 helps to easily define rules that match URLs or HTTP headers to generate more friendly and consistent URLs, protect content and assets from unauthorized linking and scanning, and integrate with existing IIS features to improve management, performance, and troubleshooting.

Did I mention it’s free? And it’s available to download and install today with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0, your one-stop shop to get everything for the Microsoft Web Platform – including IIS SEO Toolkit RTW and IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 RC. From IIS Extensions to the Windows Web App Gallery and beyond, there is sure to be something useful for your Web site endeavors.

Oh, if you run PHP, be sure to check out our learning section on Running PHP Applications on IIS. We have a ton of brand new and updated content to help provide PHP on Windows users a single source of end-to-end guidance. Pretty sweet!

For more information or to download, please visit the IIS SEO Toolkit RTW page and the IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 RC page.

Eric Rezabek

Senior Product Manager

IIS/Web

Microsoft Professional Developer Conference 2009 Opens Today!

2009-11-17T12:24:00Z

From Berlin one week to LA the next, Microsoft product managers love planes. Apparently. Me? Trans-Atlantic plane rides are still a good way to extract military secrets from me, but I'm new. Maybe long plane rides will grow on me. Like fungus.

But if you're in Los Angeles or have the plane-loving impetus to go there, the Professional Developer Conference 2009, one of the world’s leading events for software developers and strategic architects focused on the future of the Microsoft platform starts today! I hope you can make it to PDC 2009, but if you're not able or plane rides are as happy for you as they are for me, you can still participate via the Web. Tune in to watch Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect and Bob Muglia, president of the Microsoft Server and Tools Business (STB), give the PDC 2009 keynote address streaming live at 8:30 a.m. Pacific. In addition, you can follow PDC 2009 on Twitter (hash tag #PDC09) and checkout this blog and the Forefront blog for more updates during the show.

Oliver Rist

Sr. Product Manager

Windows Server Marketing

Windows Server 2008 R2 Developer Training Course Now Live

2009-11-11T13:20:00Z

If you're a developer looking to build apps for Windows Server 2008 R2, there are a host of new technologies to consider. Although R2 is an incremental release, it's not your "average R2". Key new feature areas include "many-core" scalability, virtualization, power management, web workloads, and enterprise network solutions. To build the best app, you'll need to learn about select R2 platform technologies and build your own integrated solutions.

Fortunately, Microsoft has completed an online training course aimed specifically at developers looking to leverage all the new feature sweetness in R2. Head over here to get a deeper desciption and access.

Oliver Rist

Catch a Great Keynote from TechEd Europe 2009

2009-11-09T16:21:21Z

I’m just heading out of Monday’s Keynote address here at TechEd Europe 2009, and it was definitely a stunner. If you couldn’t attend, here’s a short summary, and if any of this floats your boat, check back to the New Efficiency Virtual Launch Event in a few hours because we’ll be posting a recording of the session there.

The session began with an intro by Achim Berg, Chairman of the Managing Board Microsoft Germany and Area Vice President International, who explained why I was left with standing room only: over 7200 people from 104 countries completely sold out the TechEd Europe 2009 event a few days ago and a large percentage of them had filled the keynote theater to capacity! Achim then introduced Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, but first he paid homage to the historic celebration happening in Berlin today. It’s been 20 years to the day since the Berlin Wall came down, symbolically ending the cold war and re-uniting both Germany and Europe. He also pointed us to an impressive artistic project focusing on today’s celebration of the event and using several Microsoft technologies to build a mosaic of impressions, remembrances and opinions of the Wall from people around the world. You can take part yourself by clicking over to www.citymosaic.de to participate.

Stephen Elop also paid homage to Berlin’s history, but then got down to business, explaining just what Microsoft means with our New Efficiency campaign. With help from Microsoft execs and customers deploying our newest platforms, he did a great job of clearly explaining the New Efficiency and what it means to businesses and IT operators today. Tune in when we post the recording for a fascinating discussion with IT operators on the cutting edge. All are facing challenges like a workforce that now spans four generations, an economic landscape that can shift on a dime, and new competitive technologies, including cloud computing and virtualization, and balancing them against a cost-conscious management mind set. My favorite line? “Ninja-proofing your IT infrastructure.”

He also oversaw a great demo of Exchange 2010 – loads of stuff I didn’t even know Outlook 2010 or Exchange 2010 could do, even though I’ve been using both for over a month now! Get set for much smarter voicemail, email discussion views and way easier Exchange server management.

Stephen then introduced Robert Wahbe, Corporate Vice President, Server and Tools Marketing, to talk about all the new capabilities of Windows Server 2008 R2. We’ve covered them here in depth, but even so Robert dropped a few new facts, like that 460,000 customers have so far downloaded Windows Server 2008 R2 since it became available and that all major server makers are already offering it on new hardware. He also monitored a great demo of the synergy between System Center 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2, including not just an easy dashboard-style interface but the cool capabilities of PowerShell.

All this is well worth the look once the recording posts. Meantime, check out a new Forrester study on the Total Economic Impact of Windows Server 2008 R2. I’ve sat through many a keynote in my day, and this one really is worth the time; thanks to Stephen and Robert for making it so interesting.

Oliver Rist

Sr. Product Manager

Windows Server Marketing

Increase Web Application Scalability and Reliability with ARR 2.0 RTW

2009-11-09T14:30:00Z

Today, Microsoft announced the final release of IIS Application Request Routing (ARR) 2.0 RTW.

Customers - such as hosting providers, Content Delivery Network (CDN) providers, and IT Professionals are changing the way they do business as a result of ARR 2.0. ARR 2.0 delivers cost savings, elastic scalability, and flexible deployment options. With IIS 7.5 and ARR 2.0, customers can create a native Silverlight infrastructure and configure their CDN so that it provides superior live and on-demand media offerings for their users. Customers can implement new capabilities in their CDN and as a result, can replace Apache Squid on their edge servers and cut costs. By deploying this new solution based on ARR 2.0, customers can provide a better viewing experience for Web consumers, boost the scalability and level of control they have over their CDN, and enhance the reports they can provide their users.

There are now several new scenarios available to the Microsoft Web Platform. My personal favorite is a media solution combining IIS Live Smooth Streaming with ARR 2.0 to deliver live HD video over a CDN – a scenario nobody else can do today. ARR 2.0 also adds support to enhance disk based cache and cache proxy for CDNs while increasing Web application reliability and scalability through rule-based routing and load balancing of HTTP server requests. ARR 2.0 is able to cache on disk any HTTP traffic that passes through the server. By combining the disk caching capabilities along with a hierarchy of IIS Web servers running ARR 2.0, CDNs and hosting providers are able to considerably reduce the network traffic that traverses up to the origin server.

In other words – get your free software load balancer with caching on top of Windows Server! And oh, if you want to stream live HD media across a CDN – we got you covered! Did I mention it’s free? And it’s available to download and install today with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0, your one-stop shop to get everything for the Microsoft Web Platform – including ARR 2.0 RTW. From IIS Extensions to the Windows App Gallery, there is sure to be something useful for your Web site endeavors.

If you still aren't convinced that ARR 2.0 is the coolest thing since sliced bread, as LeVar from Reading Rainbow would say, "But don't take my word for it!" Internap, an Internet Service Provider company based out of Atlanta, Georgia deployed ARR 2.0 and IIS 7.5 in the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system to implement new capabilities in its content delivery network. As a result, the company can replace Apache Squid on its edge servers, cut costs, and improve scalability, reporting, and the users' Web experience. Be sure to check out their brand new case study.

For more information or to download, please visit the IIS ARR 2.0 RTW page.

Eric Rezabek

Senior Product Manager

IIS/Web

Berlin 2009: Old Walls, New Platforms

2009-11-06T19:03:00Z

My bags are packed and the U.S. Government has graciously admitted my existence, providing me with a brand new passport to prove it. Now I’ve just got to nurse my spine through 10 hours in a coach aisle seat, and I’ll be at TechEd Europe 2009 in Berlin. This will be an exciting week to be there with Berlin celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall, and Microsoft celebrating the launch of Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 and Exchange 2010.

If you’re not lucky enough to get folded into a hobbit-sized airline seat and whimper your way to Millennium City, you can still attend virtually by watching Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, and Robert Wahbe, corporate vice president of the Server and Tools Marketing Group, give the keynote address live online November 9 at 6:30 a.m. Pacific/9:30 a.m. Eastern/3:30 p.m. GMT.

And there’s more after the keynote speech: join Microsoft executives in a post-keynote speech videoconference to discuss the latest news and technologies including Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. You can even join in the fun and ask questions following a brief introduction. Just submit your questions during the teleconference or any time leading up to it by tweeting with the Twitter hashtag, #TEE09.

So visit the Microsoft Tech•Ed Global Pressroom to access the keynote live streams and participate in the post-keynote speech Q&A with Microsoft executives. Also look for more blog posts here on the keynotes as well as Facebook and Twitter updates on cool Windows Server 2008 R2 info-sessions before they happen.

Oliver Rist

Sr. Product Manager

Windows Server Marketing

New release from Citrix supports Windows Server 2008 R2

2009-11-04T23:32:00Z

Windows Server 2008 R2 contains Microsoft's most powerful virtualization portfolio ever, spanning both server and desktop virtualization with flexible solutions for consolidation, software deployment, application compatibility, disaster recovery and more. But no single solution is right for everyone, and in a great example of Microsoft partner synergy, Citrix has released a new version of its Citrix Essentials that's not only compatible with R2, it actually trakes advantage of technologies only the latest Windows Server can provide.

Citrix Essentials 5.5 supports all the latest features available in Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V in R2 and System Center. Citrix's StorageLink Site Recovery can utilize Hyper-V in R2 and new features in Microsoft Clustering to ease disaster recovery testing and staging and has a lighter management burden using Windows Server 2008 R2's new management capabilties as well as features like Live Migration.

Get more information on this valued new partner offering here.

Oliver Rist

Sr. Product Manager

Windows Server Marketing

Announcing several technologies to enable Windows Server 2008 customers to run certain applications designed for Windows Server 2008 R2

2009-10-27T17:43:01Z

Following the tremendously successful launch of Windows Server 2008 R2, a lot of software developers are eager to begin writing applications and drivers that take advantage of some of its new technologies. To help developers transitioning to Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft is proud to announce the release to Web (RTW) of the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008. This set of runtime libraries makes it easy for developers to target Windows Server 2008 R2 without sacrificing their customer base running Windows Server 2008.

These updates include the following:

· The Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library components for developers to leverage the latest advancements in modern graphics technologies for gaming, multimedia, imaging and printing applications. It includes updates to DirectX to support hardware acceleration for 2D, 3D and text based scenarios; DirectCompute for hardware accelerated parallel computing scenarios; and XPS Library for document printing scenarios.

· The latest Windows Automation API, which allows accessibility tools and test automations to access Windows user interface in a consistent way across operating system versions.

· The Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library, which contains the Windows Ribbon API, a command framework that enables developers to quickly and easily create rich ribbon experiences in their applications, and the Windows Animation Manager API, an animation framework for managing the scheduling and execution of user interface element animations.

For specific details about the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008, please visit Microsoft Product Support.

Microsoft is making the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 available to customers via Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Microsoft Download Center at no cost. Because Microsoft is making these libraries so broadly available, we expect customers will find an increasing number of applications using the new features.

Thanks

Justin Graham

Senior Product Manager

Windows Server

Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 eBook Available as Free Download

2009-10-23T19:13:00Z

Thanks much to the Microsoft Learning and MS Press folks for such a fantastic giveaway. I remember getting the pre-cursor for this book, Introducing Microsoft Windows Server 2008, before I joined Microsoft and it was a huge help in getting grounded with the then-new OS. Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 is a deep-dive work, that'll get you up to speed on how R2's new features and capabilities work, including Hyper-V and RDS virtualization, management, IIS and the new Web application platform and, of course, all the synergistic goodness between Windows Server and Windows 7. Free for a click, so don't miss out.

Oliver Rist

Technical Product Manager

Windows Server Marketing

Windows 7 goes GA!!

2009-10-22T20:02:00Z

It's been a fantastic ride: Windows 7 has hit the GA milestone. That's General Availability for the acronym-challenged, so go forth and upgrade! As of now, you'll find Windows 7 readily available from retailers as well as hardware manufacturers and business solution providers. The new operating system has lots to admire for desktop users, but it also sports the closest relationship with Windows Server since Windows 2000. Put Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 on the same set of network cables and all kinds of new abilities are suddenly yours to command, including uber-flexible desktop and application virtualization with Remote Desktop Services, seamless remote productivity with DirectAccess, smiling branch office workers with BranchCache and happier desktop administrators who get loads of new options for managing desktops right down to the bare metal on each and every desk.

For our part, Windows Server 2008 R2 has been available through partners and OEMs, like Dell and Fujitsu, for several weeks. Our server experts have done a great job of describing Windows Server 2008 R2's many new and improved features over the past several months, but with the full availability of Windows 7 now upon us, customers and partners will be able to see all the power that a desktop-to-server Microsoft solution can have in the enterprise. You can experience much of this new functionality via online demos and presentations at our New Efficiency Virtual Launch Event (VLE) site.

Here, you can get a first-hand look at Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7's new enterprise synergies, including new management features, productivity enhancers and virtualization capabilities, via online training and info sessions, demo recordings and customer descriptions of their early adoption experiences with the new platform. Enterprise IT administrators will find lots of valuable information here, but we'd also like to remind SMB customers that both Windows Server and Windows 7 contain features specifically aimed at them. There are several New Efficiency VLE content sessions aimed at SMB scenarios currently available, and we'll be adding more in the coming weeks, so check out what's there and stay tuned for more. Again, congratulations to Windows 7 on achieving this important milestone, and look for more content on our virtual launch site as well as new events highlighting these products in the near future, including TechEd Europe and PDC in just a few weeks.

Oliver Rist

Technical Product Manager

Windows Server 20008 R2