Microsoft Reworks Windows Server 8 Core for Mass Appeal
If you haven’t noticed, Microsoft has been getting serious with its Windows 8 rollout. Although most of the hype tends to revolve around the consumer side of things, the server side is getting it’s own makeover. Here’s a quick non-technical look at what Windows Server 8 Core can bring VARs and MSPs hosting cloud services …
Quick refresher: Windows Server 8 Core is a version of Windows Server 8 designed to do only what you need it to do. The concept was introduced a while back with Windows Server 2008, but options were limited. You either ran the bare-bones server core, or you didn’t. Microsoft realized this dichotomous approach isn’t exactly user-friendly or always practical. Enter Windows Server 8 Core. Predictably, the Windows Server blog describes Microsoft’s motivations best:
Based on customer feedback and desires to more widely use Server Core in private cloud deployments, we have made a large investment in Server Core capabilities in Windows Server “8” to increase deployment flexibility and also bring Server Core support to more server roles. … One of our goals in Windows Server “8” was to [keep] Server Core as streamlined as possible by allowing customers to limit their installs to “just enough” of Windows to fulfill their server’s desired function.
The Windows Server blog has a full technical list of all the switches you can turn on and off, which range from Active Directory integration services to virtualization components and remote connection brokerage. In addition, users can decide whether to run a full-windows GUI, a paired-down GUI for GUI-based management tools, or skip the whole thing and just go command line. What’s more, these features are bidirectional, meaning a full-blown Windows Server 8 installation can get pared down to a command line and basic services.
If this all sounds a bit familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve seen it in the Linux scene — compartmentalized component installation. But coming from Microsoft, these are some pretty cool innovations that could spur a new wave of Windows-based server deployments. It could even make things easier for VARs and MSPs who are less knowable about open source alternatives and would prefer something a bit more streamlined. As the hype around the Windows 8 tablet scene reaches a critical mass, you can be sure we’ll be following the much quieter parallel progress of Windows Server 8 Core as it rolls out to servers everywhere.