Top 10 reasons to upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2

1. Powerful hardware and scaling features Windows Server 2008 R2 supports
up to 256 logical processors. R2 also supports SLAT, which enables R2 to take advantage of the Enhanced Page Tables feature found in the latest AMD CPUs as well as the similar Nested Page Tables feature found in Intel’s latest processors. The combination enables R2 servers to run with much improved memory management.

2. Improved Hyper-V Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 can now access up to 64 logical CPUs on host computers—twice Hyper-V’s initial number of supported CPUs.Live migration enables a highly fault-tolerant virtualization infrastructure, and dynamic addition and removal of disks simplifies backup scenarios and overall management of virtualized resources.

3. Reduced power consumption Windows Server 2008 R2 supports Core Parking, which dynamically turns off unused processor cores when they aren’t needed, reducing power consumption.

4. Reduced desktop costs Windows Server 2008 R2 enables VDI technology, which extends the functionality of RDS to provide full desktop virtualization or application virtualization of key applications.

5. Improved server management Windows Server 2008 R2 includes a new version
of Windows PowerShell, which is now available on Server Core as well. Server Manager can now also be used remotely.

6. Improved branch office performance and security Windows Server 2008 R2
includes BranchCache and read-only DFS-R, which extends the branch office scenarios introduced in Windows Server 2008.

7. Improved Web server Windows Server 2008 R2 includes IIS 7.5 as well as a new FTP server. IIS 7.5 includes a new Windows PowerShell provider for IIS management.

8. Windows PowerShell v2 Windows Server 2008 R2 includes an improved and
more powerful version of Windows PowerShell that has cmdlet support for remote management. Windows PowerShell is now available on Server Core in Windows Server 2008 R2.

9. Improved Remote Desktop Services The new RDS features provide an improved and more seamless user experience, especially when the client is running Windows 7.

10. Improved mobile user experience Mobile users running Windows 7 have seamless and continuous access to corporate resources through DirectAccess. And RD Web Access, provides users running at least Windows XP SP3 with full access to published applications or desktops.