Research Assignment 1

Research Assignment 1

Windows Server 2008 comes in different versions to accommodate features useful to different types of users. It is similar to buying a car with different features. The more features or the better, the more money it will cost. Since Microsoft created multiple versions, they were able to maximize their profits by capturing both types of customers (Large business, and smaller ones).
The significance of each of the Windows Server 2008 version depends on what it being used for. Some versions are designed for small businesses, medium businesses, or for Itanium-based systems. The IA-64 version has been optimized for high-workload scenarios like database servers. Most editions of Windows Server 2008 are available in x86-64 and IA-32 versions, but Microsoft has already claimed that Windows Server 2008 is the last 32-bit operating system.1
The new features or enhancements made to Windows Server 2008 are Core OS improvements, Active Directory improvements, Policy related improvements, Disk management and file storage improvements, Protocol and cryptography improvements, and improvements due to client-side (Windows Vista) enhancements.
The main difference between Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 is management and virtualization. Windows Server 2008 has the self-healing NTFS file system while Windows Server 2003 does not. With Windows Server 2003, session creation was a serial operation. With Windows Server 2008, its parallel operation has a better Clean service shutdown.2
The 64-bit architecture is an advantage for several reasons. One advantage is there is up to 2TB addressing available for RAM in servers. Another advantage is it accommodates up to 64 CPU’s in servers. The 64-bit architecture is also a High-speed architecture.3
Server Core is an installation where there is no Windows Explorer shell installed.