Filed under: Business, OS Updates, News, Windows, Office, Microsoft
Microsoft Windows Server "Centro" set for Beta
Microsoft is readying a beta preview of Windows Server "Centro", a version of Windows Server 2008 targeted at organizations with less than 250 users. The invitation only beta will be open to between 300 and 400 customers, with no word on the selection criteria involved -- we'd guess you're a likely candidate if you currently have close to the 250 user mark, a solid IT staff and a good relationship with Microsoft Support staff -- a later Community Technology Preview will be released sometime this year and will see wider availability among the beta testing elite.
Small business is the backbone of the industry but, we can't help wonder; Do we really need all the specialization? Are Mid-sized IT departments screaming for a specialized version of Windows Server or could the Redmond kids focus their efforts in a more efficient way to make the whole product line better. How confusing can the Microsoft product chart get before businesses give up en mass?
After spending the better part of an hour on 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Todd said 3:25PM on 6-22-2007
"Do we really need all the specialization?"
No. We don't! Obviously this is their ( futile ) attempt at strengthening their vendor lock on small/medium IT departments.
It is also proof that Microsoft is really starting to feel the pinch of people switching to LAMP stacks on off-the-self hardware.
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Peter said 3:52PM on 6-22-2007
Todd - Some small businesses do need a product like this. A room of separate servers is great if you have the IT staff to support it. Smaller companies don't have a dedicated IT staff so a product like this or SBS really makes life easier for everyone.
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equazcion said 5:56PM on 6-22-2007
Peter - Why would you need a room of separate servers if you're a small company? All the server software components can reside on one or two machines, no matter what software you're using. The number of clients determines how much you need to divide the workload between different machines -- not what kind of server OS you're using. A separate OS aimed at smaller businesses would only be beneficial if there were some cost benefit, like a lower price for the license or integration of other components that normally need to be purchased separately. Maybe that's what they did here, but who knows.
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