Microsoft's Server 2008 R2 to Boost Remote Desktop, Virtualization

The company collaborated with Citrix, Hewlett-Packard and others on the new virtualization features in R2, which will include a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), as well as enhanced, remote server management. The package seeks to expand the feature set from Terminal Services - - the popular, remote-access functions that deployed during earlier versions of Windows server software.

Microsoft engineers say that new RemoteApp and Desktop (RAD) feeds will be available to Windows 7 users through a new control panel; Web access functionality will permit for the connection to resources from Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 7, according to engineers and Microsoft briefing documents. According to briefing documents, Terminal Services Web Access will have a very similar look and feel to Microsoft's Outlook Web Access - - which is used to access email, calendaring and data from Exchange servers over the web.

The sum of the new virtualization functions, if Microsoft carries them off technically with minimal or no glitches, will be to extend and deepen its reach from one end of the enterprise to the other. The improvements in Server 2008 R2 will wrap Hyper-V, Live Migration, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Vista Enterprise VECD licensing into a neat package. They are also aimed at providing a more robust user experience in a remote setting, and include the ability to deliver streaming multimedia to a remote client in its original format; multiple monitor support in a remote client; audio and recording support; Direct X redirection and more.

For example, that would give a user the ability to access his desktop remotely, across a Windows Server 2008-based network, and continue to use even somtimes-thorny applications like VoIP.

Live Migration, which will be available in Server 2008 R2, provides the ability to move a virtual machine from one server or computer to another (as long as both are running Hyper-V), with what Microsoft says is only a "slight drop in performance for a few moments." That would give servers the ability to migrate entire virtual servers or virtual desktops on the fly, without downtime.

From a management standpoint, according to briefing documents, Server 2008 R2 and RAD will provide "a dedicated management interface that lets IT managers assign remote resources to users quickly and dynamically."

At the time of the briefings and near the time the company first began publicly disclosing details of Windows 7, Microsoft made code for Server 2008 R2 available to reviewers; it's now under evaluation.

Microsoft launched Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V, its virtualization component, earlier this year. While rivals including VMware have said they don't believe Microsoft's virtualization play is as enterprise-ready, mature or robust as theirs, the enhancements to Server 2008 in R2 are clearly aimed at minimizing those arguments.