Windows Server & System Center Technical Preview

Hot on the heels of the Windows 10 Technical Preview release, Microsoft have now added the Windows Server and accompanying System Center Technical Preview for the masses.

Microsoft is touting a couple of new features for new newest irrition of their Cloud OS vision stating the following additions to the product family;

Infrastructure upgrades: Rolling upgrades for Hyper-V clusters to the next version of Windows Server without downtime for your applications and workloads. This includes support for mixed versions as you transition your infrastructure.

Networking:  New components for our software-defined networking stack that enable greater flexibility and control, including a network controller role to manage virtual and physical networks.

Storage: New synchronous storage replication that enhances availability for key applications and workloads plus storage Quality of Service to deliver minimum and maximum IOPS in environments with workloads with diverse storage requirements.

Remote Desktop: Enhanced application compatibility with OpenGL and OpenCL support.

Identity and Access Management: New scenarios to reduce the risk profile of administrators with elevated rights, including time-based access with fine-grained privileges, and new application publishing capabilities.

Microsoft are making the Windows Server & System Center technical preview available via Technet, MSDN and even on Microsoft Azure!

Time to fire up the labs and head on over to http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2014/10/01/announcing-availability-of-windows-server-technical-preview-and-system-center-technical-preview.aspx and pick your method of deployment.