Windows Server 2008 R2 has had a development path parallel to that of Windows 7. So much so, that Server 2008 R2 is often dubbed, "Windows 7 Server." Both operating systems share the distinction of breathing new life into Windows OSes with a bevy of amazing features and, after the much-maligned Windows Vista, some may say helped to salvage Microsoft's reputation. It isn't surprising that since the development of both OSes has been intertwined, Microsoft released the first Service Pack for each at the same time on February 22, 2011. While SP1 delivers under-the-hood enhancements to both operating systems, it's Server 2008 R2 that gets the addition of two cool new enhancements, improved RemoteFX and the new Dynamic Memory feature.

Of course, even when Server 2008 R2 debuted in October 2009, it was apparent that this server OS was going to be a game-changer. Vastly improved Hyper-V support, an integrated document-management system, the beginning of the end of the hated VPN, and much more granular and powerful backup support made Server 2008 R2 into far more than the expected collection of trivial updates from Server 2008. These new features signaled an aggressive move by Microsoft to entice companies of all sizes, and especially SMBs, to make the switch to Server 2008.

Still on the fence about whether your business network could benefit from Server 2008 R2? Let's take a look at the best features of Server 2008 R2 as well as the latest features courtesy of Service Pack 1.

Hyper-V
Since Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has been offering Hyper-V, one of the hottest virtualization products on the market. Virtualization is a method by which multiple operating systems can run on a computer simultaneously. You could, for example, run many virtual servers on just a few machines. One key advantage of virtualization is the reduction of power consumption: You can do more computing with fewer hardware resources.

Since Hyper-V's release, Microsoft has claimed that it holds over 22% of the virtualization market and has wrested share away from VMware, which dominates the market. While VMWare is a more mature, widely-deployed virtualization platform, Microsoft's in-road with Hyper-V has and will continue to be the SMB, many of which run Wintel networks. Hyper-V is cheaper than VMWare, is free with Server 2008 R2 and easy for Windows administrators to manage due to a familiar interface.

In R2, Hyper-V inches up ever closer to VMWare's market dominant Infrastructure 3. In fact, Hyper-V has closed the gap in live server migration. Just like VMWare's Sphere VMotion technology, R2's Hyper-V can do live migration of virtual servers, and it's free with your Server 2008 license, whereas VMotion costs an additional $6,958. With live migration, you can move virtual servers that are running in Hyper-V between multiple physical servers without dropping network connection or requiring any downtime. This capability is an expansion of R2's failover clustering feature. It competes directly with VMWare's VMotion, which is designed to move around virtual machines across VMware ESX servers. An additional bonus of Windows clustering is that you can offer high availability of other services and applications in your network.

Placing Hyper-V in a cluster is a feature in R2 and one Microsoft has made surprisingly easy. Even businesses with slight IT resources can accomplish the straightforward process in a couple of hours. Setting up two servers in a Hyper-V cluster requires a common storage location where the virtual machines can reside. Migrating virtual servers using two Intel-based servers requires either shared SAS, iSCSI, or Fibre Channel connections to the common storage array. Part of the reason this clustering is so easy in R2 is that Microsoft has done away with most hardware compatibility issues. R2 works behind the scenes to abstract and separate hardware components from the virtual machines. This is terrific, because now you can mix and match virtual machines from different server vendo