Core Infrastructure

Several enhancements have been made to the Active Directory offerings within Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

To learn more, please visit the Windows Server 2008 R2 Identity and Access Management page.

Internet Information Services 7.5 (IIS 7.5) enhances the application support that was found in IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 by providing a security-enhanced, easy-to-manage platform for developing and reliably hosting Web sites, applications, and services. Improvements include:

To learn more, please visit the Internet Information Services page.

Network Load Balancing (NLB)

In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the improvements to Network Load Balancing (NLB) include support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) 6.0, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) enhancements, and improved functionality with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server. Enhancements include:

To learn more, please visit the Windows Server 2008 R2 High Availability page.

Failover Clustering

Providing high availability to mission-critical applications, services, and data is a primary objective of successful IT departments. When services are down or fail, business continuity is interrupted, which can result in significant losses. Failover clustering in Windows Server 2008 R2 helps ensure that your mission-critical applications and services, such as e-mail and line-of-business applications, are available when you need them. 

Failover clustering in Windows Server 2008 R2 can help you build redundancy into your network and eliminate single points of failure. The improvements to failover clusters (formerly known as server clusters) in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are aimed at simplifying clusters, making them more secure and enhancing cluster stability, all of which help to reduce downtime, guard against data loss, and reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO).

Because they are included in the enhanced-capability editions of Windows Server 2008 R2, such as Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2008 failover clusters are much less expensive than comparable systems, which can cost thousands of dollars. Ease of deployment and affordability make Windows Server 2008 R2 an ideal high-availability solution for organizations of all sizes.

To learn more, please visit the Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering page.

Windows Server Backup provides a basic backup and recovery solution for the server it is installed on. You can also use this feature to manage backups on remote servers. The new version of Windows Server Backup in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 includes several enhancements over previous versions:

To learn more, please visit the Windows Server 2008 Backup and Recovery site.

BranchCache in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems can help increase network responsiveness of centralized applications when accessed from remote offices, giving users in those offices the experience of working on your local area network. BranchCache also helps reduce wide area network (WAN) utilization.

When BranchCache is enabled, a copy of data accessed from intranet Web and file servers is cached locally within the branch office. When another client on the same network requests the file, the client downloads it from the local cache without downloading the same content across the WAN.

For more information, please see the BranchCache Technology page.

Device Management and Installation is a group of technologies that supports the installation of hardware devices and the device driver software that enables them to communicate with Windows. Features in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 give administrators the ability to control the devices that can be installed on the computers they manage.

To learn more, please visit the Device Management and Installation TechCenter.

DirectAccess is a new feature in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems that gives users the experience of being seamlessly connected to their corporate network any time they have Internet access. With DirectAccess, users are able to access corporate resources, such as e-mail servers, shared folders, or intranet Web sites, securely without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN).

For more information, please see the DirectAccess site.

By using a fax server, you can manage shared fax resources. This topic discusses what you can do with a fax server, the required and optional features of a fax server, and hardware and software used for running fax servers. It also explains how to install the Fax Server role and how to open Fax Service Manager to work with fax servers.

You can use a fax server to configure fax devices to enable the users in your network to send and receive faxes. On a computer running the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, you must install the Fax Server role, which is available from Server Manager, to create a fax server and install the Fax Service and Fax Service Manager.

Once you have created a fax server, you can use the server to do the following:

Fax users can then send, receive, and manage faxes by using a network fax device that is managed by the fax server.  To learn more, please visit the Fax Server Technology Center.

File and print services have been enhanced in Windows Server 2008 R2 to allow better file management and improved print support. The TCP/IP stack increases that transfer speed between Windows Server 2008 R2 and client systems running Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Service Pack 2. Distributed File System for Replication (DFS-R) is included to optimize the network load when working with branch office and remote locations.

Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure provides insight into your data to help you manage your data more effectively, reduce costs, and mitigate risks by providing a built-in solution for file classification, allowing administrators to automate manual processes with predefined policies based on the data’s business value.

Windows Server 2008 R2 also includes the Print Management Console (PMC) Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that enables you to install, view, and manage all of the printers in your organization from any computer running Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. The printer subsystem includes a new printer architecture that provides users with better printer and print server performance and provides a new foundation for future applications.

To learn more, please visit the Windows Server 2008 R2 File and Print Solutions page.

Group Policy is an infrastructure used to deliver and apply one or more desired configurations or policy settings to a set of targeted users and computers within an Active Directory environment. This infrastructure consists of a Group Policy engine and multiple client-side extensions (CSEs) responsible for writing specific policy settings on target client computers.

For more information, please see the Group Policy Technology Center.