Windows in business: Lots of jewels in an otherwise dismal year

2009 would not be described as the year of the open wallet, but that didn’t hold back the new releases, new technology developments, new controversy, and new beginnings.

Windows 7 puts the Vista debacle to rest Starting the year off with hope that Windows 7 would be accepted (putting the nail in the Vista coffin in the process), I wrote the column “Vista trumped by its sequel, Windows 7.” My take all along on Windows 7 is that it is more of an advanced service pack to Vista (much in the way SP2 for XP brought with it some great features like the Security Center) than a major OS revision.

[ Read J. Peter Bruzzese’s “Top 10 reasons I like Windows 7.” | Go deep into Windows 7 with InfoWorld’s Windows 7 Deep Dive PDF report. ]

However, when paired up with Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 truly stands on its own two feet, with features like DirectAccess, BranchCache, and AppLocker leading the pack (check out “Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: Joined at the hip”). As for Windows Vista? It will be remembered fondly as the OS that took one for the team in terms of coming forward with a new security model — albeit one that people described as “annoying” as they contended with many, many unnecessary User Account Control prompts.

Exchange Server brings exciting technology One of the key focal points in 2009 in the Enterprise Windows blog was Exchange Server 2010 (read “Can you find the enhancements in Exchange 2010?“). As a member of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program, I had the privilege of seeing the product through the build process and witnessed how diligently the product development team resolved issues that came up. All in all, I’m most excited by the new storage architecture (which I explain in “Exchange 2010: Where are my storage groups!?“) and the new unified messaging improvements (which I cover in “Deploying unified messaging without going insane“).

But the advances didn’t stop there. Midyear, we saw the release of Exchange 2007 SP2, which included support for VSS Backup on Windows Server 2008 (something that was oddly missing prior to this service pack). It was a milestone service pack, as I explained in “What Exchange 2007 SP2 brings to the table.”

Windows Server 2008 R2 proves to be less than compelling In between a host of other items, I reviewed Windows Server 2008 R2, focusing on the new Active Directory features that at times impressed and at other times didn’t quite do it for me (read “Thumbs-up, thumbs-down Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory“). I also found the reason to upgrade domains to be less than compelling (read “Don’t upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 until you read this“).

That said, I’m in the middle of a major upgrade of servers going to Windows Server 2008 R2. Obviously, if you are moving from Windows Server 2000, 2003, or 2003 R2, I see no reason not to go to Windows Server 2008 R2. One minor note: if you are looking to migrate and plan on using the Active Directory Migration Tool 3.1, you should read up on the limitations to doing so. For example, you cannot do it without at least one server running Windows Server 2008 because 2008 R2 is not supported by ADMT 3.1. I’m still waiting for 3.2, which is due soon.

Navigating through the “hypervisor wars” Another big area for server admins this year was the “hypervisor wars,” which I covered in a four-part series:

• “The hypervisor war rages on: A look at the new Hyper-V R2“
• “The hypervisor wars: Is vSphere compelling for Microsoft admins?“
• “A new wrinkle — and possible conclusion — for the hypervisor wars“
• “Client-side virtualization goes bare metal“

By the end of the year, the “hypervisor wars” settled down, and I don’t believe we will see such a fuss over the hypervisor in years to come — unless it is over the client hypervisor, still be tweaked by all the major vendors.

Looking forward to SharePoint 2010 I also had a chance to review some of the great new features coming up in SharePoint 2010. As a treat, the Microsoft folks let me play with a VM they sent my way, and I love the new look of SharePoint 2010 and the new revamp of Groove as SharePoint Workspace (read “SharePoint Workspace: The renamed Groove has gotten even groovier“). These are exciting things to look forward to in 2010, no doubt.

A good year for Peter, too On a personal note, 2009 proved to be a year of changes and accomplishments I’m personally pleased about:

• The company I co-founded, ClipTraining, saw some great milestones, with the release of version 5.0 of our learning management system, hundreds of new training clips, and a host of new clients enjoying their new training portals.
• I began working with Train Signal to develop what I modestly believe is a great Exchange 2010 training course, using more than 10 Exchange Servers so that students can visualize a multisite deployment with high availability that includes site resiliency and a fully functional unified messaging infrastructure.
• This year I began to Twitter — mostly tech items and typically Exchange tweets. Check them out at www.twitter.com/jpbruzzese.
• I finally got a mobile device. An iPhone? Nope — a Droid.

And that finishes up 2009 for me both personally and professionally. See you all next year with a whole new range of controversy, new releases, and — hopefully — new budgets!

This article, “Windows in business: Lots of jewels in an otherwise dismal year,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments on Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, and virtualization at InfoWorld.com.