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Four Things Microsoft Got Right in 2008

Four Things Microsoft Got Right in 2008

Microsoft generated plenty of negative headlines in 2008. Think its attempts to acquire Yahoo and the badly received Seinfeld-Gates commercials. Such debacles received the lion's share of press. But in reality the software giant had several successes.

Windows Server 2008 Gets Raves

While Windows Vista languished in 2008, its server-side brethren Windows Server 2008 quietly flourished.

Microsoft's server operating system, released in February, received accolades for performance, reliability and new features. (It shares the same code base as Vista SP1, which did much to improve Vista.)

The reviews for Windows Server 2008 were positive across the board. In addition to having praised features such as unified scripting tool PowerShell, a Windows Firewall that enables by default and a new security technology called NAP (Network Access Protection), Microsoft followed through on its promise with Windows Server 2008 to go greener with the release in June of its virtualization hypervisor, Hyper-V.

Hyper-V sets the stage for a server virtualization slugfest with VMware and Citrix in the coming year as more IT managers try to save money in a weak economy by consolidating data on fewer physical servers through virtualization.

At PDC in October, there was a pre-beta developer release of Windows Server 2008 release 2, which will enhance the use of virtual machines, along with other features. And for the first time since Windows 2000, Microsoft is co-developing its Windows Server and Windows client products together. So Windows Server 2008 R2 will be in lock step with Windows 7.

Yep, Microsoft is getting organized, and it needs to because 2009 will be a pivotal year on all fronts for the software giant.

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