Windows Server 2012 was launched this morning at Microsoft TechEd 2012, becoming the world's first cloud-optimised operating system (OS).

Microsoft says Windows Server 2012 expands the definition of a server OS, incorporating traditionally separate technologies, such as advanced storage, networking, virtualisation and automation capabilities.

"Windows Server 2012 is the world's first genuine Cloud OS, which has been built from the cloud up to provide one consistent platform across private, hosted and public cloud environments," says Bradley Borrows, Azure and Server business group lead for Microsoft NZ.

"Microsoft’s unique legacy in the most widely used operating systems, applications and cloud services positions us to deliver the Cloud OS, based on Windows Server and Windows Azure, to help customers achieve a datacenter without boundaries.”

New features in Windows Server 2012 include:

• Hyper-V: With the cloud scale of Hyper-V, no workload or application is off limits for virtualisation. It can support the largest virtual machines on the planet with 64 virtual processors and 1 TB of memory per virtual machine
• Network Virtualisation: For software-defined networking with built-in multi-tenancy, so customers can isolate different business units, customers and workloads on shared network infrastructure
• Storage Spaces: For highly available storage pools on industry standard hardware and Cluster-aware updating for continuously available server clusters, even during servicing
• PowerShell: For widespread automation, including more than 2,400 cmdlets ("commandlets”) to eliminate manual tasks for server management at cloud scale.

"The new features of Windows Sever 2012 will expand our capabilities, offering our clients more processing power, storage and flexibility to assist with their growth and reducing their costs," says Pablo Garcia, Director of Softsource – an infrastructure and software service provider.

"The new OS will give our customers the ability to access, manage and seamlessly migrate data between local, hybrid and Windows Azure environments through a single pane of glass."

Microsoft says a survey of 70 early adopter customers from across the globe revealed that they expect, on average, 52% reduction in downtime, 41% reduction in workload deployment time and 15 hours of productivity time saved per year, per employee.

A further 91% of the companies surveyed expect a reduction in server administration labor and 88% expect reduction in network administration labour.

More information about Windows Server 2012 and the Cloud OS click here.