Amazon Extends EC2 Windows Support Into Europe

Seattle-based Amazon Web Services LLC, the web services subsidiary of Amazon.com, announced this morning that it has extended support for Microsoft Windows server and Microsoft SQL Server into Europe. The firm said the Amazon EC2 Windows support--which was launched in October for users in the US--will be available to its EU Region customers today, including access to the new features in the AWS Management Console, Amazon's interface for managing EC2 instances.

Amazon has been rolling out its cloud computing services to Europe after ironing out the services in the US: the firm only rolled out local, EC2 support in Europe in December. Amazon's EC2 services running Windows includes support for ASP.NET, AJAX, Silverlight, and Internet Information Server (IIS), along with SQL Server Express and SQL Server Standard.

EC2 is Amazon's cloud computing service, which allows customers to create virtual server images in either Linux or Windows via an API; those servers can be used to scale out web applications or create cloud computing farms, billed by how much CPU and traffic is send to those servers.

Source: http://www.nwinnovation.com/amazon_extends_ec2_windows_support_into_europe/s-0020241.html

10 Important Reasons to Use Windows Small Business Server 2008

Windows Small Business Server 2008 is an integrated server solution that helps you protect your business data, increase productivity, and present a more professional image to customers. Windows Small Business Server 2008 delivers enterprise-class technologies for data backup and restore,e-mail, remote access, file and printer sharing, internal Web sites, and support for mobile devices--in one fully integrated solution.

1. Get a comprehensive, all-in-one solution.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 takes the guesswork out of selecting software for your network. It brings together the Microsoft product technologies that businesses need most into a single solution. These technologies are integrated into one product, making it easy for PSS Enterprises to install and manage.

2. Stay connected to your customers, vendors, and suppliers.

With access to contacts, appointments, and files from any Internet-connected PC or mobile device, you can be responsive to customers, vendors, and suppliers even when you're not in the office.

* Access the facts you need, in real time.
* Respond to customer inquiries more quickly and accurately.
* Stay connected while on the road with remote access capabilities from a Windows Mobile phone.

3. Protect your business and prevent data loss.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 helps protect your vital business information from loss by backing up the data on your network, and enabling you to recover accidentally deleted files. SBS 2008 also enables you to recover data on your network in the event of disaster. With easy-to-use interfaces, you or your IT consultant gain better control of your data, PCs, and network.

4. Access business information and resources

From virtually anywhere at any time. Be productive whether you're out of the office, at home, or on the road. Windows Small Business Server 2008 gives you secure access to business contacts, calendars, e-mail, files, your desktop, and even shared resources from any Internet connected PC, from virtually anywhere at any time.

5. Increase your business capacity.

Streamline business processes and improve day-to-day efficiency with Windows Small Business Server 2008. It helps automate daily processes by providing a central repository for storing and sharing information more easily--and helps simplify communications with familiar Microsoft technologies.

6. Stay safe with anti-spam and antivirus protection.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 offers anti-spam and antivirus technologies to help protect your business information and your intellectual property from malicious attacks, viruses, and spam.

7. Keep your network healthy and up-to-date.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 provides you with the latest updates to minimize downtime and help ensure network health by keeping your PCs and servers current. Easy-to-read "green check" reports give you a quick view of Microsoft software updates, PC and server status, antivirus status, and backup progress.

8. Take advantage of powerful technologies designed and priced for small business.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 includes multiple technologies optimized specifically for small businesses at an affordable price. It enables you to share resources and equipment, such as Internet access, printers, and fax machines, so you get the most value from your technology investment.

9. Get the flexibility and scalability you need.

As your business needs change, Windows Small Business Server 2008 enables you to grow. You can easily add users, servers, and applications. It supports your critical line of business applications and is designed to integrate with your existing Microsoft technology.Here you can easily use the windows server 2008 if found any problem then you can use online server support services. In market there are lots of good name who provide online server support services like Microsoft, geek squad, iYogi etc..

10. Create a bigger presence in the market.

Differentiate your business and present a more professional image to prospects and customers. Windows Small Business Server 2008 offers e-mail marketing capabilities, business Web sites, and tools for creating your own Web site.

Source & Inspiration: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1273789

Four Windows Server 2008 Storage Improvements

With the release of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft is making a number of improvements to the server's underlying storage mechanisms.

Here are four of these improvements and what they mean for the typical IT organisation.

SMB 2.0

First shipped with Windows Vista, SMB 2.0, alternatively known as the Common Internet File System (CIFS), is also included in Windows Server 2008 and sports a number of improvements over its predecessor.

To work with older systems, Windows Server 2008 supports both SMB 1.0 and SMB 2.0 and automatically uses the version most appropriate for communication. SMB 2.0 is used only between Windows Server 2008 systems and with Windows Vista systems. SMB communication with all other operating systems uses SMB 1.0.

BitLocker Drive Encryption

Included in Windows Server 2008 is Microsoft's BitLocker Drive Encryption software. BitLocker is also included in Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions but, for Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has made improvements to the technology (which are likely to be extended to Vista when Service Pack 1 is released).

Under Vista, BitLocker can be used to encrypt the contents of the operating system volume. If you have multiple volumes of data on your desktop computer, however, BitLocker — at present — cannot be used to protect anything except the operating system volume. In Windows Server 2008, this limitation has been removed and all server volumes can be protected via BitLocker.

Full-disk encryption is usually considered primarily for mobile computers that can be easily stolen, but this technology should also be considered for use in branch offices or areas in which physical security cannot be guaranteed.

Self-healing NTFS

It's a bad day when you have to reboot a file server just to run chkdsk.exe to correct a minor corruption in NTFS. You have to schedule downtime for a server, maybe come in after hours or, in a worst-case scenario, interrupt your users while you perform this task during the day. But no more: with Windows Server 2008 comes an online NTFS corruption repair tool. While it is not a silver bullet for volume repair, it does correct many problems without having to reboot the server to run chkdsk.exe. Self-healing NTFS is enabled by default in Windows Server 2008 installations.

Symbolic links

Earlier, I mentioned that SMB 2.0 supports symbolic links. The fact that SMB 2.0 has this feature is great but it would be utterly useless without the same feature being included in the operating system. As such, symbolic links have been added to Windows Server 2008 — a feature that is long overdue. A symbolic link is simply an object in the file system that points to another object in the file system. A symbolic link appears as a normal file or directory object and can be used by an application as if it were the actual object.

Unix and Linux users have been able to use symbolic links for a very, very long time, and this feature can make it much easier to administer a system and share data.

Source:resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/0,1000001991,39292799,00.htm

Dublin Technology Available to Windows Server

In conjunction with the rollout of its next-generation .Net Framework 4.0 release, Microsoft is readying a new distributed application server, code-named “Dublin.”

Dublin — a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) build of which Microsoft will release during its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) — ultimately will be built into an unspecified future release of Windows Server. Before that happens, Microsoft will make the Dublin technology available to Windows Server customers as a separate download.

Steven Martin, Senior Director of Product Management with Microsoft’s Connected Services Division, chatted with me yesterday about Dublin, as well a bit about some of the new related functionality Microsoft is prepping as part of its .Net 4.0 release, on October 1.

“The lines between Web servers and application servers are continuing to blur,” Martin told me. “Web applications are becoming more stateful, and we’re seeing developers build more composite apps.”

Microsoft developers who’ve been working with the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) technologies that are part of the current release of the .Net Framework have expressed a need to have a single, end-to-end view of all of their data, pulled from multiple back-ends,” Martin said. As a result of these trends, Microsoft decided to extend the application server capabilities currently built into Windows Server, he said.

“Developers using WF and WCF today have to build a separate host for their applications. Dublin will eliminate that requirement and give developers more scalabiity and support for long-running transactions,” among other features, Martin said.

Earlier this year, during a presentation at its TechEd conference, consultant David Chappell said he believed Microsoft was building a separate process server that would be a key part of its Oslo modeling strategy. My bet — although I couldn’t get Microsoft officials to say this — is Dublin is that mystery server.

Microsoft’s Dynamics team is going to be the first group at Microsoft to build appliations using Dublin, Martin said. One of the next versions of Dynamics CRM, as well as of Dynamics AX ERP, will run on top of Dublin and leverage the .Net 4.0 technologies, he said. (Martin wouldn’t specify which releases specifically or when they’d ship.) Several third-party software vendors have committed to using Dublin and .Net 4.0, too, including AmberPoint, Epicor and Telerik.

Microsoft officials still won’t provide a ship target for .Net 4.0, Visual Studio 2010 or any of the other elements that comprise its Oslo platform. Microsoft is slated to discuss Oslo in depth at the PDC in late October.

Source:blogs.zdnet.com

Server Support

Established 2004, Server support is dynamic team with a complete package of skilled engineers and consultants from all aspects of the IT industry. We are a leading UK Microsoft Certified Partner offering consultancy services, support and disaster recovery of Microsoft Server technologies. We understand that every business is different and our approach is in such a way that to understand your system first then we will deliver the most suitable package for your organization in all respects. We operate on-site across the UK & over the Internet using secure remote client. We pride ourselves on offering impartial, objective, independent, cost-effective advice. We can help you realise the maximum benefit of your investment in Information Technology.

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