Windows Server 2012

Last week I was at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas and they announced the release of Windows 2012 will be in November.  I got some "hands on" with the new OS, and I have to say that if they actually deliver on the hype of last week, this will be an interesting update to their flagship operating system.

Among the features that stood out for me:

• Powershell 3.0 - 2300+ cmdlets and a totally new ISE.
• Server management MMC can now manage multiple servers with status available "at a glance" via color codes (green = good, red = problems.)
• Revamped storage allows provisioning (including thin provisioning) directly from the OS and disk changes can be made "on the fly" without reboots.
• New file system (ReFS).
• NIC Teaming is now built into the OS and works across hardware vendors.
• "Core" is now the default install.

If the actual software lives up to even 60% of the marketing hype from the conference, I think that this new OS will make it easier on I.T. departments as the modern infrastructure model shifts from virtualization to the public/private cloud model and I.T.A.A.S.  I'll be interested to get some hands-on with this OS in an actual production environment and see how it performs, and I'll post my experiences here.