Along with the Windows 10 Technical Preview for Enterprise, Microsoft is planning to launch previews of its next versions of its Windows Server and System Center preview today as well.
While Microsoft has released preview versions of its Windows server products in the past, today's release is different because it will be available for anyone to download and check out, rather than being available to a limited number of customers. Microsoft stated:
" If you want to download the bits or try them on Azure, then by all means go for it. But do know that this is an early release, and many of the features and scenarios are still in development. As such this build is not intended for production environments, labs, nor full evaluations."
Here's a quick look at what's new in the next versions of Windows Server and System Center:
- Infrastructure upgrades: Rolling upgrades for Hyper-V clusters to the next version of Windows Server without downtime for your applications and workloads. This includes support for mixed versions as you transition your infrastructure.
- Networking: New components for our software-defined networking stack that enable greater flexibility and control, including a network controller role to manage virtual and physical networks.
- Storage: New synchronous storage replication that enhances availability for key applications and workloads plus storage Quality of Service to deliver minimum and maximum IOPS in environments with workloads with diverse storage requirements.
- Remote Desktop: Enhanced application compatibility with OpenGL and OpenCL support.
- Identity and Access Management: New scenarios to reduce the risk profile of administrators with elevated rights, including time-based access with fine-grained privileges, and new application publishing capabilties.
What do you think of Microsoft's decision to make this Windows Server preview available to anyone?
Source: Microsoft
