Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise 25 CAL Retail Box

Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of its Windows Server predecessors while delivering valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the base operating system. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.

A Solid Foundation for Your Business
Windows Server 2008 provides a solid foundation for all of your server workload and application requirements while also being easy to deploy and manage. The all new Server Manager provides a unified management console that simplifies and streamlines server setup, configuration, and ongoing management. Windows PowerShell, a new command-line shell, helps enable administrators to automate routine system administration tasks across multiple servers. Windows Deployment Services provides a simplified, highly secure means of rapidly deploying the operating system via network-based installations. And Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering wizards, and full Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support plus consolidated management of Network Load Balancing, make high availability easy to implement even by IT generalists.

High Security
Windows Server 2008 is the most secure Windows Server yet. The operating system has been hardened to help protect against failure and several new technologies help prevent unauthorized connections to your networks, servers, data, and user accounts. Network Access Protection (NAP) helps ensure that computers that try to connect to your network comply with your organization's security policy. Technology integration and several enhancements make Active Directory services a potent unified and integrated Identity and Access (IDA) solution. And Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) and BitLocker Drive Encryption allow you to more securely deploy your AD database at branch office locations.

WHAT'S NEW IN WINDOWS SEVER 2008:

Windows Server 2008 delivers valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system to help organizations of all sizes increase control, availability, and flexibility for their changing business needs. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.

Solid Foundation
Windows Server 2008 provides a solid foundation for all of your server workload and application requirements while being easy to deploy and manage. Hallmark Windows Server reliability and enhanced high availability features help ensure your critical applications and data are available when you need them.

• Initial Configuration Tasks moves interactive elements of setup to after installation, eliminating the need for the administrator to interact with the installation of the operating system.
• Server Manager, the expanded Microsoft Management Console (MMC), provides a one-stop interface for server configuration and monitoring with wizards to streamline common server management tasks.
• Windows PowerShell, a new optional command-line shell and scripting language, enables administrators to automate routine system administration tasks across multiple servers.

Virtualization
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, the next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization technology, allows you to consolidate servers and use hardware more efficiently. Several enhancements to Terminal Services (TS) improve presentation virtualization. And simpler licensing terms makes using these technologies more straightforward.

• Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V allows you to virtualize server roles as separate virtual machines (VMs) running on a single physical machine, without the need to buy third-party software.
• Multiple operating systems -- Windows, Linux, and others -- can be deployed in parallel on a single server using Hyper-V.
• New storage features, such as pass-through disk access and dynamic storage addition, allow VMs more access to data, and give external programs and services more access to data stored on VMs.

Web
Windows Server 2008 includes improved Web administration, diagnostics, development, and application tools with Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0), a major upgrade from IIS 6.0. Windows Server 2008 unifies the Microsoft Web publishing platform, including IIS 7.0, ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows SharePoint Services.

• Modular design and installation options allow installation of only the features needed, reducing attack surfaces and making patch management easier.
• IIS Manager, a new task-based management interface, plus a new appcmd.exe command-line tool make administration easier.
• Programmatic access to configuration stores through WMA or Microsoft.Web.Administration, a new management API that enables editing the XML configuration files for your Web server, sites, or applications.

Security
The Windows Server 2008 operating system is hardened, integrates several identity and access technologies, and includes multiple security innovations to more easily deploy a policy-driven network that helps protect your server infrastructure, your data, and your business.

• Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) helps administrators configure the operating system for the server roles being deployed to reduce the attack surface area, resulting in a more robust and more secure server environment.
• Network Access Protection helps ensure your network and systems aren't compromised by unhealthy computers, isolating and/or remediating those computers that don't comply with the security policies you set.
• Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) delivers several enhancements to the Windows Server 2008 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), including PKIView for monitoring the health of Certification Authorities (CAs) and a new, more secure COM control for certificate Web enrollment in place of ActiveX.

WHY UPGRADE?

Top 11 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, with built-in Web and virtualization technologies, enables businesses to increase the reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructure. New virtualization tools, Web resources, and security enhancements help save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimized datacenter. Powerful new tools, like Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 and Server Manager, provide more control over servers, and streamline Web, configuration, and management tasks. Advanced security and reliability enhancements, such as Network Access Protection and the Read-Only Domain Controller, harden the operating system and help protect the server environment to ensure a solid foundation on which to build businesses.

• Server Consolidation and Resource Optimization -- Hyper-V - Most servers operate at far below their capacities, with as much as 80 to 90 percent of their processing power unused, on average. With Hyper-V, the Windows Server 2008 virtualization solution, a single physical server can host the workloads of multiple Line of Business servers. Hyper-V helps organizations to achieve optimal use of their hardware resources and provides the agility needed to adapt to changing IT needs
• Flexible Application Access for Remote Users -- TS RemoteApp - Windows Server 2008 provides improvements and innovations to Terminal Services with solutions, like Terminal Services RemoteApp (TS RemoteApp), that allow users to access individual applications, instead of a computer desktop in a Terminal Server session.
• Modular, Minimal Installation -- Server Core - Many network servers perform specific dedicated and mission-critical roles within the network. The new Server Core installation option provides a minimal environment for running specific server roles. This helps improve reliability and efficiency, giving the IT department the ability to better utilize existing hardware. It also simplifies ongoing administration and patch management requirements by reducing the need to update unneeded files and functionality.
• Delivering Rich Web Content and Applications -- IIS 7.0 - As Web content gets richer and the Web becomes a viable platform for delivering business applications, the Web server is moving to the center of many networks. IIS 7.0 delivers solutions for today's demanding content, including streaming media and Web applications in Active Server Pages and PHP.
• Improved Network Performance and Control -- New TCP/IP Stack - The efficient use of bandwidth has a direct impact on the productivity of users working in remote locations that rely on WAN connections to the organization's central servers. The redesigned "next generation" TCP/IP included in Windows Server 2008 provides vastly improved performance in a remote location scenario, offering faster throughput and more efficient routing of network traffic.
• Preventing Unhealthy Devices from Connecting to the Network -- NAP - With the increasing number of mobile users and corporate partners that must connect to an organization's network, protecting the security of that network from outside threats is an ongoing challenge. Network Access Protection (NAP) in Windows Server 2008 helps prevent non-compliant computers from accessing an organization's network.
• Supporting Business Continuity for Demanding Workloads -- High Availability Features - Windows Server 2008 provides increased scalability for the most demanding business solutions and helps keep businesses operating through unplanned downtime with high availability features. With support for failover clusters, Network Load Balancing, dynamic hardware partitioning, robust storage options, and advanced machine-check architecture, Windows Server 2008 helps safeguard against single-point-of-failure problems.
• Enabling Secure Collaboration -- Active Directory Federated Rights Management - Companies need to share information with partners and clients without losing control over that information. Rights Management Services enables organizations to control how documents are used -- including who can view them, whether they can be printed, even whether they can be forwarded or deleted -- both internally and externally.
• Connecting Heterogeneous Environments - Windows Server 2008 includes Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA), a multi-user UNIX environment that supports more than 300 UNIX commands, utilities, and shell scripts. Users can maintain one user name and password for Windows domains and UNIX systems, synchronizing the credentials automatically when one changes.
• Enabling Top-Shelf Service and Support for Remote Sites - Remote sites, such as branch offices, can be an IT challenge. Often, there is no local IT staff, making the deployment of software and security updates expensive and time-consuming. It can be difficult to enforce security and IP standards in a remote site.
• Easing Administration, Management, and Automation -- Server Manager and PowerShell - The Server Manager Console provides a single, unified console for managing a server's configuration and system information, displaying server status, identifying problems with server role configuration, and managing all roles installed on the server. Built on the Service Modeling Language (SML) platform, Server Manager allows administrators to complete tasks with fewer clicks without having to navigate between multiple tools and interfaces.