Archives 2017

Quickbooks by Intuit is a powerful accounting management services creating platform of growth and development for an organization. This program is basically dedicated to small sized firm operating its business in any industry. The new versions with little more features added to this application are suitable for medium sized firms too. SMEs are going to get productive results with the implementation of quickbooks hosting services. Intuit offers various version of the most successful accounting software called quickbooks. It’s very reputed services in the industry offering brilliant means of business development. The main version called desktop version is hosted on local setup in the office. The software license is purchased from Intuit and installed on the desktop. A single license can be used to operate for the number of users allowed. When there is need for more professional accountant to work the license can be renewed. During the peak tax season, companies needs more professionals to manage accounting task hence more professional contractors are hired. Each hired accountants are provided with authentic user access information to operate the company’s business account.

A small company may have large business horizon which can be managed with help of some outsourced professionals. Quickbook remote hosting offers mobility to all its users to access the product from anywhere. One does not have to be in office to conduct meeting and team work for accounting task. From a remote location these activities can be performed. All the users can share the same accounting project to work simultaneously thus eliminating the complexity of business.  The professionals can be on travel and can work anytime according to their convenience. An owner can view his business transactions from anywhere. Thus the need for establishing IT setup is impractical and infrastructure maintenance is reduced. It’s a package of online and on premise business solution. It saves money to the firm which adds to the revenue of the business. Quickbook remote hosting services are affordable to the companies. The cost is reasonable with respect to the services offered and the monthly rental is paid to continue using the cloud hosting services.

Quickbook remote hosting services are core accounting, inventory, billing and payment, VAT, fixed asset, profit and loss reporting, cash flow, budgeting, balance sheet and tax functionality for SMEs.  Intuit offers free trial of quickbooks for potential customers. The free trial period is for one month which provides enough time to review the flow of accounting program online. It’s a real time system showing efficiently a business can be managed with the need of professional accountants. Choosing the right business accounting software is reliable to the company. A reliable, robust and secure software program improves the means of business. Getting a great service that is hosted on cloud server, one gets reliability and assurance that data are safe. Every day back up is done on designated schedules. Cloud server hosting offers robust platform to the companies seeking accounting services. This product is customized to meet the requirements of an organization.

Source by Aida

The type of web hosting you choose is dependent upon exactly what you are wanting for your site. Both hosting options have their benefits and their downfalls and you must decide what is most important for you.

If you are planning on having a small website, whether business or personal, shared hosting might be a good choice, particularly if you are looking to save money. Shared hosting costs less because you are sharing a server with other websites and the cost for running the site is divided between the website owners. The prices for shared hosting can vary from just a few dollars a month or more. This is usually dependent upon how many others are sharing the site. There are some downsides however to using shared hosting. Most shared hosting sites offer you a limited amount of disk space and bandwidth for your website. Some will even charge more if you use more bandwidth than you are alloted. Additionally, you may have to deal with other websites on the server using too much bandwidth, which can cause your website to run slowly and even freeze up.

Dedicated servers on the other hand, mean that your website has it’s own dedicated server that is not shared with any other websites. This is the best choice of hosting service, particularly if you are planning on having a large website or will have a website that will have a high level of traffic. A dedicated host offers a higher level of service to it’s website owners. They generally have more features available to users and make the sites easier to build. Many people feel the downside to a dedicated server is that they are generally very expensive. They can range anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars a year. But, if you have a large website, whether business or personal, it is definitely worth the money. Dedicated hosting offers a much more reliable service to you and ensures that you will have a higher amount of uptime on your website.

Choosing the right web hosting services is one of the most important thing you can do when building your website. If you feel that you can’t afford a dedicated host right now, you can either attempt to use shared hosting or save up the money until you can afford dedicated hosting. If your website is small and you think you will not have any problems using a shared host, than you should start looking into companies that offer quality shared hosting. However, if you know you are going to have a large website, and fear shared hosting may not work for you, then you would be better off choosing a dedicated host. It’s best to with a host that can provide for your needs from the start, rather than having to switch hosts at a later date.

Source by Chris Narfundle

If you have been online for an extended amount of time, then you probably know a thing or two about blogs and websites. You might also know that blogs are hosted on a web server, which is simply a computer that holds your sites files and is connected to the internet. When someone wants to access your site, they simply type the url into the browser address bar.

Lets say you want to start your own blog about stamp collecting but am unsure what you need to get that blog live. Well there are a couple of routes that you can go with depending on what your needs are.

We need to ask a few questions first.

* Is my site going to use a lot of media?
* How many visitors do you think will visit your site in a month?

Its pretty tough to judge site visitors at the get go because this depends a lot on your marketing efforts and the quality of your content on the site. Its important to know how much media your planning on using because if your site uses lots of video and pictures you’ll have to get hosting that has a lot of memory and bandwidth per month. The next consideration is whether you need dedicated managed server hosting or non-managed dedicated server hosting. Basically, the only difference is whether you take care of the servers or if the hosting company takes care of the servers.

If you elect to go the non-managed route, then you will need to be a little more tech savvy then your newbie computer person. For those of us that don’t have much experience running servers it is best to choose the managed dedicated server hosting. This way if anything goes wrong with the server or there are technical difficulties, they will get taken care of quickly.

Alright, so you know what kind of hosting you need. Now its time to find the best managed dedicated server hosting for the best price. This is not really one of the easiest things to do because there are a lot of choices out there for hosting. A lot of hosting companies give similar packages and comparable rates. However, I have come down to really three hosting companies that have a good reputation for delivering a quality service.

* Bluehost
* Hostgator
* Lunarpages

I personally am using Bluehost right now and have for almost two years now. What I like about Bluehost is that when I have a problem I can call up their customer service department and get support at anytime of the day. Finding a company with excellent customer service is definitely a major selling point especially considering how it is being out sourced to other countries more and more these days. This is not the case with Bluehost or the other two companies.

I highly recommend these three companies if you are looking for the best managed dedicated server hosting on the net right now. For more information on these hosts visit Managed Dedicated Server Hosting

Source by Joe Kirin

Wherever you look today, you see the CLOUD. Well! It’s the CLOUD COMPUTING that I’m talking about!

Some call it Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), some Software as a Service (SaaS) and others as a Platform as a Service (PaaS). Players like IBM and Google have already positioned themselves strongly in this arena whereas others like Yahoo, Microsoft, eBay and Salesforce.com are not far behind. Everyone is not only talking about cloud but also seriously considering the option of switching to cloud-based environment. Unlimited computing power and collaboration at a massive scale makes cloud a perfect solution for enterprises of all sizes.

Since Cloud Computing is still evolving, enterprises need to understand their needs and decide whether their business can tap the benefits of cloud or not. So let’s begin with the five most important questions they need to ask about cloud when evaluating the cloud environment vs. their business goals.

Key questions before you embark on cloud computing services:

1. Are you looking for on-demand dynamic capacity? Do you need high scalability in the way you run and manage your applications? If yes, then cloud computing is right for you. By leveraging hosted private clouds, you will get more flexibility and unprecedented control in allocating resources dynamically. You can quickly respond if there is an application request for more storage in a more flexible, highly dynamic, highly virtualized environment.

2. Is your business or industry demands stringent compliance needs? Regulatory compliance is a critical issue in today’s time. Non-compliance can damage your business and harm the image of the organization. The vendor you choose to provide cloud computing services may not have appropriate support for required compliance needs. Your data, which is stored in cloud, may be compliant in one location but not in another location. This may harm your data and impact your business goals negatively.

3. What is the preferred technology and platform for your organization? Your current technology, application framework or platform used in business will decide how easier or tougher it will be for you to migrate to cloud environment. The same application framework can be utilized to access the cloud-based service of a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) provider. Migration from your existing platform or technology to cloud environment is going to be much more difficult than you can imagine. The issue of lock-in becomes more challenging when you think about changing your cloud computing service provider. So try to see the level of interoperability your existing IT infrastructure would require to adapt to cloud environment. With hosted clouds, the IT providers can make elementary changes internally in how their IT infrastructure is deployed and run to get the benefits of cloud computing.

4. Do you have limited budget? Have you got a very tight budget and can’t spend much on building expensive IT infrastructure? Then cloud is a tailor-made choice for you. The cost of entry to hosted private cloud is low. Hosted private cloud services are priced modestly. Not just that, Cloud computing minimizes or eliminates the ongoing costs of traditional on-premises applications such as software maintenance, patching and upgrades etc.

5. Where are your end-users located? If your end-users are located in a definite location, then they can be served with a nearby data center. But if they are spread across the globe then internet would be used as a platform to deliver your applications to the end-users. And this scenario provides you more hosting options and greater advantage through cloud-based solutions. With hosted cloud, applications are always current and the end-users can get an enhanced experience.

When you are choosing an implementation path for Cloud, make sure you are considering these questions and other key aspects (like cost, time to market, performance etc.) that you will need to tackle in a cloud environment. Choose wisely! If you have decided that your business could also benefit from the promise of cloud computing, the next step is to select a service provider you can trust.

NaviSite, an established leader in cloud-enabled services, offers NaviCloud, a unique cloud-based platform that meets your enterprise-wide hosting and application management needs. NaviSite’s inexpensive cloud computing infrastructure helps start ups and established enterprises manage their IT infrastructure, leaving more funds available for a number of attractive opportunities. You can leverage NaviSite’s recognized experience and expertise in cloud-based enterprise solutions.

Source by Saumya Aggarwal

Any bathroom, large or small, can be short on storage space and with the need to store towels, toiletries, cosmetics, and beauty supplies, there are few other spaces in the house that are so demanding of adequate storage. Any old storage just won’t do; bathroom storage must be practical and user-friendly. Believe it or not, it is possible to add additional storage space to the bathroom without knocking down walls or building an addition, and it’s possible to do it with style.

Bathrooms typically have sink vanities with storage below that may consist of one open section of cabinetry under the sink and three drawers to the side and a medicine cabinet on the wall over the sink for pharmacy items, toothbrushes and small toiletries. Obviously, this is not enough storage space for the average family or even average couple. If the bathroom or adjacent hallway does not have a built-in or freestanding linen closet, towels and linens typically end up in a bedroom closet, making that space even more cluttered than necessary.

1. If the bathroom is large enough to accommodate some type of linen cabinetry or tall freestanding unit, that is a purchase well worth the investment. Look beyond typical bathroom cabinetry and consider an antique hutch with a glass front. The interior shelves will provide lots of space for folded towels and necessities that can be discreetly tucked away in baskets. Even an antique server or buffet offers quite of bit of storagespace; hang a vintage mirror and wall sconces above for a stylish look that will provide vanity space as well.

2. Options for smaller spaces include units that fit around and above the toilet and narrow free standing shelves that can be tucked in wherever space allows. To make open shelves more visually appealing, purchase wrought iron wall decor that will span the width and height of a freestanding shelf unit (or use two pieces of wrought iron mounted one above the other). The open scrollwork behind the unit will add style and practicality, since items set on the shelf won’t be continually falling off the back side. Let this practical solution inspire you; decorate bare wall space with complimentary wrought iron wall decor or metal wall art.

3. If floor space is at a premium, install wall shelves on any open expanse of wall going as high as the ceiling and practicality allows. Seldom used items can be tucked on the upper shelves and items that you wish to keep under wraps can be discreetly tucked into lidded wicker baskets or bargain storage boxes wrapped in fabric. Choose a colorful patterned fabric or coordinate several to give the boxes a custom look. Wrought iron or carved wooden brackets will make simple shelving more stylish and in keeping with whatever decorative scheme you wish to create. Scatter a few decorative accessories – such as candles, crystal perfume bottles, glass vases, a ceramic ring dish or figurines – to make the wall shelve arrangement as pretty as it is practical.

4. Hanging baskets that are typically used for kitchen produce can be used in the bathroom for wash clothes, face towels and other small items. Line the baskets with fabric to protect delicate contents or provide a little privacy.

Source by Jeanelle Deppner

Here is a list of the Top 5 Cloud Computing providers. The key parameters used for comparing these cloud platforms include when the platforms were introduced, support for various operating systems/languages, current adoption levels of the platforms and the overall potential of the platform. A good understanding of the key cloud computing platforms is critical to understand the current state of cloud computing and the overall direction of the industry. This in turn is very useful while making a choice for an appropriate cloud computing platform. Please read the following article Comparing SaaS, PaaS and IaaS to understand some of the terminology used in this article.

Amazon
Clearly the market leader in Cloud Computing and primarily a IaaS vendor.EC2 and S3 are the two most popular services available as part of Amazon Web Services. They also have the most wide variety of services available as part of their cloud platform.

• There are indications that Amazon may have a total of 1.8 million deployed instances and showing 10% overall growth in deployments
• Indications are they had a total revenue of 220 million USD revenue from their Cloud business
• There are around 100,000 customers using Amazon Web Services

Rackspace
Rackspace which has long been one of the largest players in the managed hosting market quickly transformed itself into a highly successful Cloud Computing provider primarily as an IaaS provider. They have two key services Cloud Servers and Cloud Files which are the equivalent of EC2 and S3 from Amazon.

• Indicating 100% growth in Cloud Revenues from 2008 to 2009
• Added around 40,000 new customers in the last 4 quarters
• Cloud Revenue has been 56 million USD in 2009

Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com was one of the earliest Cloud Computing companies to get setup with a specific focus on CRM and functioned as a SaaS company.Salesforce.com first started in 1999 and has grown significantly from its initial launch with a continuous focus on CRM. Force.com was launched in 2007 as a custom application development platform as an entry into the PaaS market but has not been able to garner a significant market due its proprietary platform. Given the specific nature of the platform Amazon and Rackspace have been ranked higher in this list even though Salesforce has a higher revenue.

• Total of 55,000 corporate customers and 1.5 million individual subscribers.
• Total revenue of $1.3 billion for 2009

Google
Google made a late entry into the Cloud Computing business with two services, Google Apps which primarily targets the SaaS space and the Google App Engine which provides a PaaS model for businesses and individuals to deploy their Web Apps. They have quickly made a mark with both the platforms and have made significant growth in the overall cloud computing market.

• Google Apps has 1 million customers and an approximate revenue of $50 million
• Google App Engine does not have any numbers publicly available, since the paid version launched a year back they may need some more time before we get a sense of the adoption.

Microsoft
Microsoft was the last major player to enter into the market and as expected launched a platform Azure based on their Windows/Azure stack. While they have continued to claim that Azure is not tied to .NET, the expectation is the platform will see most adoption from Microsoft shops with a focus on .NET and Windows based technologies and platforms.

• Indications are that around 10,000 customers have moved to Azure
• Since the launch has been less than 6 months back its a little early to track adoption.
• We rank it high due to the high potential of the platform and tight integration with Microsoft based development platforms.

Conclusion
Amazon and Rackspace continue to be the key players in Cloud Computing with a key focus on IaaS as the core service they offer. Given the core expertise of these companies it is unlikely that they will venture into other aspects of the Cloud and they are unlikely to offer SaaS or PaaS services anytime soon. It is highly likely that all growth in the IaaS segment of Cloud Computing will be distributed between these two companies. Microsoft and Google are likely to be key players in the PaaS space clearly segmented between .NET and Java applications. Salesforce on the other hand is likely to remain a player focused purely on the CRM market and primarily as a SaaS provider.

Check our Blog Technology Trendz for more details.

Source by Kaushik

If you have been online for an extended amount of time, then you probably know a thing or two about blogs and websites. You might also know that blogs are hosted on a web server, which is simply a computer that holds your sites files and is connected to the internet. When someone wants to access your site, they simply type the url into the browser address bar.

Lets say you want to start your own blog about stamp collecting but am unsure what you need to get that blog live. Well there are a couple of routes that you can go with depending on what your needs are.

We need to ask a few questions first.

* Is my site going to use a lot of media?
* How many visitors do you think will visit your site in a month?

Its pretty tough to judge site visitors at the get go because this depends a lot on your marketing efforts and the quality of your content on the site. Its important to know how much media your planning on using because if your site uses lots of video and pictures you’ll have to get hosting that has a lot of memory and bandwidth per month. The next consideration is whether you need dedicated managed server hosting or non-managed dedicated server hosting. Basically, the only difference is whether you take care of the servers or if the hosting company takes care of the servers.

If you elect to go the non-managed route, then you will need to be a little more tech savvy then your newbie computer person. For those of us that don’t have much experience running servers it is best to choose the managed dedicated server hosting. This way if anything goes wrong with the server or there are technical difficulties, they will get taken care of quickly.

Alright, so you know what kind of hosting you need. Now its time to find the best managed dedicated server hosting for the best price. This is not really one of the easiest things to do because there are a lot of choices out there for hosting. A lot of hosting companies give similar packages and comparable rates. However, I have come down to really three hosting companies that have a good reputation for delivering a quality service.

* Bluehost
* Hostgator
* Lunarpages

I personally am using Bluehost right now and have for almost two years now. What I like about Bluehost is that when I have a problem I can call up their customer service department and get support at anytime of the day. Finding a company with excellent customer service is definitely a major selling point especially considering how it is being out sourced to other countries more and more these days. This is not the case with Bluehost or the other two companies.

I highly recommend these three companies if you are looking for the best managed dedicated server hosting on the net right now. For more information on these hosts visit Managed Dedicated Server Hosting

Source by Joe Kirin

The pros

1-      Expenses/capital expenditures

If cloud computing is accurate for your business, then main expenditure funds can be seen in purchasing and preserving the required infrastructure, carry tools, and communication outlay. The vendors and/or service supplier, who accuse the users a effectiveness or user sort fee, possess these expenses.

2-      Scalability

One of IT’s major crisis is the steady want to put in additional tools to keep up with the rising command of right to use, storing and analyzing data by equally internal and external customers. One illustration is in the information hub where adding servers is a main outlay concerns (really power for the information hub is the number one concern, but it is connected to the rising want for stuffs like servers). Since cloud computing is practical, one can get bigger or contract tools/infrastructure as demands transform.

3-      Start – up

Since the cloud (notionally) holds the infrastructure and functions, all one just requirements to do is “dial” in to the cloud. One can initiate by means of functions instantly in resistance to a usual fitting, testing and then providing access to the suitable user community. (Training is unspecified to a steady.)

4-      Business functions

Again, the cloud (really the vendors and/or service suppliers) during agreements (Service Level Agreements -SLAs) supplies frequent business functions for any customer who is their client. Yet again like scale, venture only require to be familiar with which functions they require to scamper their company and appreciate what is in fact supplied to have right to use to different company functions.

5-      Flexibility

Since cloud computing is a practical contribution, a user has the litheness to select, on a usual bases, the functions, quantity of bandwidth or the figure of users by essentially adjusting his user agreement and rising or declining expenses at a recognized tempo or feature.

The Cons

1-SLA contracts

This is the difficult and mainly significant one. SLAs can be extremely concerned and it in fact leaves the responsibility on the customer to recognize and classify all necessities in precise points, and more prominently recognize what one is receiving in the conditions of sustain, performance, precautions, etc. A fine illustration is superiority of service; one should know what is accessible and what the recourses are if the particular superiority is not preserved.

2-Performance

Performance assurance are generally part of the SLA file, but I have singled this one out as it is significant to preserve the act (uptime) one desires both for internal and external consumers. Know if the performance assurance is distinct as a normal or just throughout peak periods against a “consistent” act. If performance is cooperation, it can bang a lot of stuff including proceeds and your business goodwill.

3-IT enrollment

If one does make use of the cloud, then make confident one knows the vendor enrollment that is accessible to sustain your wants and hundreds of others using their cloud. A figure of vendors subcontract enrollment and some of the employees may not be as superior as your own internal business. Ask the possible service supplier if they have skilled employees to sustain the functions you demand.

Source by sandhuamer

Windows Server 2008 Review

Windows Server 2008 is the most substantial upgrade to the Windows Server product line since Windows 2000, with a sweeping set of capabilities and a reengineered core that will usher in a new era of 64-bit server computing. Like its Windows Vista stable mate, Windows Server 2008 was in development an achingly long time, and some of its many features were originally slated for its predecessors, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2. Unlike Vista, however, this lengthy schedule hasn’t proven problematic. In fact, it’s arguably worked to the product’s advantage: This is a refined, mature, and stable operating system that will no doubt power server systems of all kinds for years to come.

Though Windows Server 2008 utilizes an evolved version of the Active Directory (AD) infrastructure that first debuted in Windows 2000, many of the features of this new OS are radical and revolutionary. Key among these major advances are Server Core, which provides a lightweight version of the server aimed at specific workloads, and Hyper-V, Microsoft’s hypervisor-based virtualization technology. (This latter technology is currently available only in beta form; see below for details.) As befits a major Windows Server upgrade, however, Windows Server 2008 also includes a slew of smaller functional advances as well as key gains in scalability, reliability, manageability, performance, and security

Charting the changes: A look at new Windows Server 2008 functionality

Windows Server 2008 is feature-rich upgrade with numerous functional advantages over its predecessors. Here are some the changes in this release that I feel will have the biggest customer impact.

Componentization with a purpose
Microsoft has completely rearchitected Windows Server to be functionally componentized, a major change that has wide-reaching ramifications. At a high level, componentization allows for a more easily serviceable system, both for Microsoft and its customers. It also provides for a more secure and reliable system, because communication and dependencies between individual components is kept to a minimum.

More specifically, componentization enables some of Windows Server 2008?s most exciting new functionality, such as its image-based deployment facilities, roles-based management, and Server Core.

Server Manager
While previous versions of Windows Server featured separate management consoles for all of the various roles and features in the OS and, in Windows Server 2003, a simple Manage Your Server dashboard, Windows Server 2008 provides the new Server Manager. This is a true one-stop shop for daily management needs and is the only tool that many Windows administrators will need to use on a regular basis.

The MMC-based Server Manager provides a user interface for managing each installed role and feature on the system, including Active Directory Domain Services, Application Server, DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Services, Terminal Services, Web Server, and many others. It also includes numerous valuable troubleshooting tools like Event Viewer, Services, and Reliability and Performance utilities, configuration tools like Task Scheduler, Windows Firewall, WMI Control, and Device Manager, and the new Windows Server Backup.

What makes Server Manager even more useful is that each section of the console’s UI gets its own dedicated home page, each of which includes information pertinent to the role or feature at hand, along with links to fix problems, get more information, and access other tools. It’s a thoughtful, well-designed application, both logical and useful.

Server Core
Unlike previous Windows Server versions, most Windows Server 2008 product editions can be installed in two modes, the traditional GUI-based server we’ve had since Windows NT 3.1 and a lightweight new command line-based environment called Server Core. In this new installation mode, Microsoft has stripped out virtually all the GUI, so there’s no shell (Start Menu, taskbar, Explorer windows, etc.), and little in the way of end user applications; such things as Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and Windows Mail are all missing, though a few GUI-based applications, like Notepad and Task Manager, are still available. For the most part, the only user interface you’ll see in Server Core is a single command line window floating over an empty blue backdrop. It’s the ultimate anti-demo.

So what’s the point? Server Core is designed to reduce the attack surface of the server to be as small as possible. As such, a Server Core install is also more limited than that of a standard Windows Server 2008 installation. It supports just nine roles, including AD, AD LDS, DHCP, DNS, File, Print, Virtualization (Hyper-V), Web Server, and WMS, compared to 18 roles in the full server.

Because Server Core is still Windows Server 2008, all of the familiar GUI-based management tools will work just fine remotely against this server. What won’t work, in addition to the missing roles, is anything that requires a true GUI or the .NET Framework. This cancels out some key Windows Server 2008 functionality, unfortunately, including ASP .NET: Server Core’s Web Server role is pretty much static only, supporting only older, non-.NET technologies like ASP.

My expectation is that Server Core will prove hugely popular as an infrastructure (AD, DNS, DHCP, file, print) server and as a low-cost, low-end Web server. It’s a product that should compete well with Linux-based solutions.

BitLocker Full-Drive Encryption
BitLocker is a full-drive encryption solution that first debuted in Windows Vista as a way to protect data stored on easily lost and stolen executive notebook computers. It requires TPM 1.2-based hardware to store encryption keys and can be configured via Group Policy.

On the server, BitLocker is particularly valuable for machines stored in branch offices, because those servers are often less well physically protected than the machines back in the home office. If a thief walks off with a BitLocker-protected server, they won’t be able to access any of the data stored on the system’s hard drives. BitLocker also works really well with some of the other technologies discussed here to create a truly secure and useful branch office solution. (See the RODC section below for an example.)

Read-Only Domain Controller
Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) is new functionality that allows administrators to optionally configure the AD database as read-only, where only locally cached user passwords are stored on the machine and AD replication is unidirectional, rather than bidirectional.

For more stuff pls visit http://www.systechblog.com/

So why would you want to do this? Today, many organizations are installing servers in branch offices and other remote locations, and these servers often connect back to the home office using slow or unreliable WAN links. That makes AD replication–and even authentication–an arduous and lengthy process. With RODC, the server is typically set up and configured in the home office, shipped to the remote location, and then switched on. From then on, only the user names and passwords of users who hit the server locally–and not the administrator account–are cached locally on the server.

Like BitLocker, RODC is an excellent solution for physically insecure remote servers. Indeed, if you combine RODC with other new Windows Server 2008 technologies like BitLocker and Server Core, you can configure the most secure remote server possible. That way, even hackers who gain physical control of the server can’t take over your network. And removing the stolen RODC from your AD is as simple as checking a switch: Only those users who logged on to that machine will need to change their passwords. You won’t have to institute an organization-wide emergency, because most users’ accounts will not have been cached on that machine.

RODC is somewhat limited in that it can only support a subset of the roles and functionality normally supported on Windows Server 2008. For example, RODC-based servers can support technologies such as ADFS, DHCP, DNS, Group Policy (GP), DFS, MOM (Microsoft Operations Manager), and SMS (System Management Server).

Internet Information Services 7
The new Web server in Windows Server 2008 is driven by a major new update to Internet Information Services (IIS). Like the server itself, IIS 7 is completely componentized so that only those components needed for the desired configuration are installed and, thus, need to be serviced. It sports a drastically improved management console, supports xcopy Web application deployment and delegated administration, and is backed by a new .NET-based configuration store, which replaces the previous, monolithic, configuration store.

Terminal Services
Terminal Services (TS) sees some major changes in Windows Server 2008. The new TS RemoteApp functionality allows admins to remotely deploy individual applications to desktops, instead of entire PC environments, which can be confusing to users. These applications download and run on user desktops and, aside from the initial logon dialog box, function and look almost exactly as they would were they installed locally. This functionality requires the new Remote Desktop client, which shipped in Windows Vista and can be downloaded for Windows XP with SP2 and above.

TS Gateway lets you tunnel TS sessions over HTTPS outside the corporate firewall, so that users can access their remote applications on the road without having to configure a VPN client. This is particularly useful because VPN connections are often blocked at wireless access points, whereas HTTPS rarely is.

TS gets a few small but useful changes as well. These include TS Easy Print, which makes it easy to print to local printers from remote sessions, 32-bit color support in TS sessions; and seamless copy and paste operations between the host OS and remote sessions.

Network Access Protection
Microsoft first planned to ship simple and easily configurable network quarantining functionality in Windows Server 2003, but it’s here at last with Network Access Protection (NAP). This feature allows you to setup security policies for your network: When a client system connects, NAP examines the device to make sure it meets the requirements of your security policies. Those that do are allowed online. Those that do not–typically machines that only connect infrequently to the network, such as those used by travelling employees–are pushed aside into a quarantined part of the network, where they can be updated. How these updates happen depends on the configuration of your environment, but once that’s complete, the system is given full access again and allowed back on the network. NAP includes remediation failback to Windows Update or Microsoft Update if the local Windows Server Update Services server is unavailable, and compatibility with Cisco’s Network Admission Control (NAC) quarantining technologies.

Windows Firewall
For the first time, Windows Server ships with a firewall that is enabled by default. The new Windows Firewall is bidirectional and works seamlessly with all of the roles and features you can configure in Windows Server 2008. In fact, the Firewall is part of the new roles-based management model: As you enable and disable various roles and features, Windows Firewall is automatically configured in the background so that only the required ports are opened. This is a major change, and one that could hamper compatibility with third party products, so testing will be crucial.

Command line and scripting goodness
Those who prefer to automate their servers will rejoice at the new command line and scripting enhancements in Windows Server 2008, though I’m a bit concerned by the haphazard and temporary nature of some of these changes. In this version of Windows Server, we’re seeing the beginning of the transition from the old DOS-like command line to the new .NET-based PowerShell environment. For now, however, you’ll need to have a toe in both environments to best take advantage of the new capabilities. Server Core, for example, does not support PowerShell.

One the command line side, we get two major additions: A Server Core management utility called oclist.exe and a command line version of Server Manager called servermanagercmd.exe. Both are designed with the same premise, providing ways to configure and manage the roles that are possible under each environment.

PowerShell is a complex but technically impressive environment, with support for discoverable .NET-based objects, properties, and methods. It provides all of the power of UNIX command line environments with none of the inconsistencies. The issue, of course, is whether Windows-based administers will quickly move to this new command line interface. Sadly, Windows Server 2008 doesn’t help matters much: It doesn’t ship with any PowerShell commandlets–fully contained scripts that can be executed from the command line–that can handle common management tasks. Microsoft tells me it will ship Windows Server 2008 commandlets on its Web site over time, however, and it expects a healthy community to quickly evolve as well.

Hyper-V
One of the most important and future-looking technologies in Windows Server 2008 isn’t even available in the initial shipping version of the product. Instead, Microsoft is shipping a beta version of its Hyper-V virtualization platform with Windows Server 2008 and will update it automatically when the technology is finalized sometime after mid-2008. Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization platform that brings various performance advantages when compared to application-level virtualization platforms like Virtual Server. Compared to market leader VMWare, Microsoft’s offering is immature and unproven, but its inclusion in Windows Server 2008 is sure to garner Microsoft some attention and market share. And there are advantages to this bundling: From a management perspective, Hyper-V is installed and managed as a role under Windows 2008, just like DHCP, file and print services, and other standard roles. That means it’s easy to configure, manage, and service.

Hyper-V ships only with x64-based versions of the product and relies on hardware virtualization features that are only available in the latest AMD and Intel chipsets. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems, up to 32 GB of RAM in each guest OS, and up to 4 CPU cores for each guest OS. Hyper-V is compatible with virtual machines created for Microsoft’s earlier virtualization products, like Virtual PC and Virtual Server.

Availability and licensing
As with Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 is available in several different product editions. These editions support different hardware platforms (32-bit x86, 64-bit x64, and Itanium), some of which include support for the Hyper-V virtualization technologies and some that do not. (Note that Hyper-V is only enabled on x64 versions of Windows Server 2008; Microsoft sells versions with and without Hyper-V included.)

Windows Web Server 2008
Availability: Separate 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions
Pricing: $469
Supported processors: 4
Supported RAM: 4 GB (x86) or 32 GB (x64)
Notes: Windows Web Server is designed specifically around the Web Server role and cannot be used as an AD domain controller. (It can, however, be configured as a domain member.) This version does not include Hyper-V, but does support Server Core installs.

Windows Server 2008 Standard, Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V
Availability: Separate 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (x64), and 64-bit (x64) without Hyper-V versions
Pricing: $999 (with five Client Access Licenses, or CALs); $971 without Hyper-V
Supported processors: 4
Supported RAM: 4 GB (x86) or 32 GB (x64)
Notes: Includes one virtual instance per license.

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V
Availability: Separate 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (x64), and 64-bit (x64) without Hyper-V versions
Pricing: $3,999 (with 25 CALs); $3,971 without Hyper-V
Supported processors: 8
Supported RAM: 64 GB (x86) or 2 TB (x64)
Notes: Includes four virtual instances per license. Builds on Standard edition and adds Windows Clustering.

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter, Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V
Availability: Separate 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (x64), and 64-bit (x64) without Hyper-V versions
Pricing: $2,999 per processor; $2,971 per processor without Hyper-V
Supported processors: 32 (x86) or 64 (x64)
Supported RAM: 64 GB (x86) or 2 TB (x64)
Notes: Includes unlimited virtual instances per license. Builds on Enterprise Edition.

Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems
Availability: A single 64-bit version designed for Intel Itanium-based servers
Pricing: $2,999 per processor
Supported processors: 64
Supported RAM: 64 GB
Notes: This version of Windows Server 2008 does not support Hyper-V or Server Core and is designed for three discrete usage scenarios: Large databases, line-of-business (LOB) applications, and custom applications.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server
Availability: A single 64-bit (x64) version
Pricing: $28 (no, that’s not a typo)
Notes: The new Hyper-V Server is a special version of Windows Server 2008 that only supports the Hyper-V role, providing a near “bare metal” install option for those who wish to run extensively virtualized environments. This version of the product won’t ship until Microsoft finalized Hyper-V later in 2008.

In addition to these products, Microsoft recently announced that two new Windows Server 2008-based products will debut in the second half of 2008, Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008.

Windows Small Business Server 2008, codenamed Cougar, is aimed at businesses with up to 50 PCs. It will ship in two versions, one of which includes Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, SharePoint Services 3.0, and one-year trial subscriptions to Forefront Security for Exchange Server Small Business Edition and the new Windows Live OneCare for Server. A Premium version of the product adds a second copy of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition and can be installed on two servers.

Windows Essential Business Server 2008, previously codenamed Centro, is a new product aimed at medium sized businesses with up to 250 desktops. This product is installed on three separate servers and includes Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Forefront Security for Exchange Server, System Center Essentials 2007, and the next version of Internet Security and Acceleration Server. A Premium edition of the product will also include SQL Server 2008. Windows Essential Business Server requires at least three physical servers.

Both products will be sold only in 64-bit (x64) versions

Source by anuj