Windows® Server 2008 R2

PEER 1 Hosting presents the most advanced and powerful Windows server operating system yet.

The new Windows operating system builds on the strengths of its predecessors while delivering valuable new functions and improvements.

It allows you to develop, deliver and manage rich experiences for your users, increasing your technical efficiency and providing a highly secure network infrastructure for your organisation. Meanwhile, new web tools, security enhancements and management utilities will help you to save time, reduce costs and provide a solid foundation for your IT infrastructure.

Simple to manage and deploy

The Server Manager provides a unified management console that simplifies and streamlines the setting-up, configuration and ongoing management of the server.

Windows PowerShell enables you to automate routine system administration tasks across several servers, while a reduction in roles and features allows you to minimize disk and service footprints and to reduce attack surfaces. It also enables your IT staff to specialise according to which server roles they need to support. 

Built specifically for the web

The 2008 R2 comes with Internet Information Services 7.5 - an easy-to-manage platform with enhanced security, for developing and hosting web applications and services and providing greater support for .NET on Server Core.

Included in the Windows Server 2008 R2 are a number of improvements to IIS and the Windows Web platform:

  • Easier to administer and support web-based applications
  • Easier to support and troubleshoot
  • Improved file transfer services
  • Potential to add functions and features
  • Improved .NET support

Together with the .NET Framework, IIS 7.5 provides a comprehensive platform for building applications that connect users with data, enabling them to visualize, share and act on information.

Moreover, IIS 7.5 plays a central role in unifying Microsoft's Web platform technologies - ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation Web services and Windows SharePoint Services.

Scalability and reliability

The 2008 R2 can handle unprecedented workloads and also provides dynamic scalability with excellent all-round availability and reliability.

It features a host of new and updated features:

  • Sophisticated CPU architectures. Supports up to 256 logical processor cores for a single operating system instance. Hyper-V virtual machines are able to address up to 64 logical processors in the host processor pool
  • Increased operating system componentisation. Server provides additional support for more roles and a broadening of current role support, like the addition of ASP.NET within IIS 7.5.
  • Improved performance and scalability for applications and services. Windows Server 2008 R2 performs better than previous versions running on the same system resources. It supports increased scaling capabilities that allow you to support greater workloads than ever before.

High Security

The 2008 R2 is the most secure Windows server yet. The operating system has been hardened to protect against failure and several new technologies help to prevent unauthorised connections to your networks, servers, data and user accounts.

Network Access Protection (NAP) ensures that computers attempting to connect with your network comply with your organisation's security policy.

The integration of technology and several other enhancements make Active Directory services a potent Identity and Access (IDA) solution. And Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) and BitLocker Drive Encryption allow you to deploy more securely your AD database at branch office locations.