According to Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft’s mid-market server is approaching the CTP stage.
Centro is bundle of
Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, System Center Essentials 2007, SQL Server 2005, ISA Server and other Forefront security technologies.
Sounds rather good.
Its a pity that I’m out of machines to beta ( err, CTP) test on.
The funny thing is that this is the first that I’ve heard of Centro.
The significant thing is that this is a 64-bit only product. Which is interesting when taken together with the rumor that Windows Home Server 2 is also to be a 64-bit only version.
Its a possibility that this [is part of] a push by Microsoft to get people to adopt the 64-bit architecture. A rather chicken-and-egg problem. Do you wait for a larger x64 install base? Or do you force people to move by releasing x64 only products?
It depends largely on a) the current size of the x64 install base in terms of the x86 install base and b) the barrier-to-entry in terms of architecture transition costs. The you have to factor in multi-core machines into this. Question: Is it even possible to get a multi-core x64 machine?
It’ll be interesting to see where Microsoft goes with this
Random Musings 