Windows Server 2008 Released

By: Steven Chu
Staff Writer
Published: Feb 28, 2008

Free Windows Server 2008 evaluation offered but limited.

Windows Server 2008 has been released the new version of its Windows server operating system and is ready for free evaluation.

The launch is crucial for the software company as it hopes sales of the updated server will urge corporate customers to upgrade to Windows Vista from Windows XP.

Visual Studio 2008 was also announced, used by computer programmers to create desktop and Web applications. Microsoft also promoted the new SQL Server 2008 database server which will officially release during the third quarter of 2008.

"We think with Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, the integrated benefits that customers see will really encourage them to start looking at deployments of Vista on the desktop as well," said Jagan Narendran, the director of Microsoft Asia-Pacific's Infrastructure Server Business.

The new Windows 2008 server will allow further customization than the legacy releases and is built from the same code language as Microsoft Vista. Like Vista, Windows Server 2008 has enhanced security and administrative features.

The standard version will retail for $999 with five client access licenses. Enterprise will run $3,999 with 25 client access licenses, while the data center edition will cost $2,999 per CPU.