Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, built with Web and virtualization technologies, is the most robust, secure, and reliable foundation on which to develop, deliver, and manage rich user experiences and applications. Windows Server 2008 R2, builds on the award-winning foundation of Windows Server 2008, expanding existing technology and adding features to enable IT professionals to increase the reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructures. Virtualization tools, Web resources, management enhancements, and exciting Windows 7 integration help save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and efficiently managed data center. Powerful tools such as Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.0, updated Server Manager and Hyper-V platforms and Windows PowerShell version 2.0 combine to give customers greater control, increased efficiency and the ability to react to front-line business needs faster than ever before.

Web and Applications Platform

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard provides organizations with the ability to deliver rich Web-based experiences efficiently and effectively, with improved administration and diagnostics, advanced development and application tools, and lower infrastructure costs.

– Internet Information Services 7.5

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard is a powerful Web application and services platform. The Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5 in Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard delivers a completely modular, extensible Web server with expanded application hosting, while retaining excellent compatibility and solving key customer challenges.

Virtualization

Many organizations find that patch management, resource utilization, maintenance costs, and server sprawl are among their biggest challenges. Server virtualization technologies, including Windows Server Hyper-V and enhancements to Remote Desktop Services, can help meet all of these challenges by helping you consolidate your resources and realize significant infrastructure and management cost savings.

– Windows Server Hyper-V

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V is the hypervisor-based virtualization feature included as a role of Windows Server 2008 R2. It contains everything needed to support machine virtualization. Hyper-V enables IT organizations to reduce costs, to improve server utilization, and to create a more dynamic IT infrastructure. Hyper-V provides the greater flexibility because of dynamic, reliable, and scalable platform capabilities combined with a single set of integrated management tools to manage both physical and virtual resources, which enables you to create an agile and dynamic datacenter and progress toward achieving self-managing dynamic systems.

– Remote Desktop Services

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard provides a security-enhanced, easy-to-manage platform for delivering access to centrally managed applications and resources from the Internet by using HTTPS; you do not need to provide access through a virtual private network (VPN) or by opening unwanted ports on firewalls.

Remote Desktop Services RemoteApp completely integrates applications running on a terminal server with users' desktops so that they behave as if they were running on the user's local computer; users can run programs from a remote location side by side with their local programs.

Remote Desktop Services Web Access permits this same remote application access flexibility via a Web browser, granting an even wider variety of ways users can access programs executing on a terminal server.

Remote Desktop Services Gateway enables authorized remote users to connect to terminal servers and remote desktops on the corporate network from any Internet-connected device that is running Remote Desktop Connection (RDC).

– Application Virtualization

Application virtualization separates the application configuration layer from the operating system. It enables applications to run on clients—including desktops, servers, and laptops—without being installed, and allows applications to be administered from a central location. This enables you to run applications that otherwise may not be able to coexist on the same server.

Improved Data Center Power Consumption and Streamlining Management

The ongoing management of servers in the data center is one of the most time-consuming tasks facing IT professionals today. Any management strategy you deploy must support the management of both your physical and virtual environments. To help with this problem, Windows Server 2008 R2 has new features to reduce the ongoing management of Windows Server 2008 R2 and to reduce the administrative effort for common day-to-day operational tasks.

– Improved data center power consumption management

With the proliferation of physical computers in data centers, power consumption is of paramount importance. In addition to the cost-saving associated with reducing power consumption, many data centers are constrained by the number of computers they can support in their data center by the actual power available to the data center. Therefore reducing your power consumption also allows you to support more physical computers while using the same amount of power, or less power, than before.

– Improved Management of File Services

Storage is no longer a marginal expense. Nor is managing storage any longer simply about volume and availability; organizations need to manage their data more effectively as well as more efficiently. Only by gaining insight into their data can companies reduce the cost of storing, maintaining, and managing data. Only by enforcing company policies and knowing how storage is utilized can administrators efficiently use their storage and mitigate the risks of leaking data. The next frontier for administrators is to be able to manage data based on business value.
The Windows File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) in Windows Server 2008 R2 provides insight into your data to help you manage your data more effectively, reduce costs, and mitigate risks.

– Improved remote administration

Remote administration of server computers is essential to any efficient data center. It is very rare that server computers are administered locally. Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces a number of improvements in remote administration, including improved remote management through graphical management consoles and improved remote management from command-line and automated scripts.

– Reduced administrative effort for administrative tasks performed interactively

Reducing administrative effort for day-to-day administrative tasks is another key design goal for Windows Server 2008 R2. Many of the management consoles used to manage Windows Server 2008 R2 have been updated or completely redesigned to help reduce your administrative effort. Some of the prominent updated and redesigned management consoles are listed in the following table with descriptions of the improvements.

– Enhanced command-line and automated management by using PowerShell version 2.0

The PowerShell 1.0 scripting environment was shipped with Windows Server 2008 RTM. Windows Server 2008 R2 includes PowerShell 2.0, which offers a number of improvements over version 1.0, including the following:

– Improved remote management by using PowerShell remoting.

– Improved security for management data, including state and configuration information, by using constrained runspaces.

– Enhanced GUIs for creating and debugging PowerShell scripts and viewing PowerShell script output by using Graphical PowerShell and the Out-GridView cmdlet.

– Extended scripting functionality that supports creation of more powerful scripts with less development effort.