There are a whole bunch of new and improved features in the upcoming Windows Server 2012 R2, but some of the best improvements are reserved for its enterprise virtualization features.
Microsoft’s next generation Hyper-V is set to debut in R2.
And the technology titan has added and updated several features in Hyper-V, as it indulges in a fight to the finish with other virtualization competitors like EMC VMware and Citrix Systems.
Several of these key new additions and improvements to current features are listed in this report, but features like shared virtual hard disk, storage quality of service, virtual machine generation, enhanced session mode and automatic virtual machine activation are killer new additions.
The technology titan is also updating several existing features.
Prime among them options like resizing of virtual hard disks — which is now supported while the VM is running, provided the right configuration is employed. Live migrations also get performance improvements in compression and the use of SMB 3.0 protocol.
Hyper-V replicas can now be configured for extended replication, allowing the replica server to replicate to a third server, which could either be off-premises or a cloud datacenter.
Enhanced Linux support and improved management of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V via Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 systems is also on offer.
Microsoft’s server products have made some impressive strides in the past couple of years. All these changes are, as a matter of pure fact, huge, and will only help push Redmond towards its goal of increased enterprise acceptance.
