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Since I am way out of the loop on IT/Server OS things and tired of reading all the marketing crap on Microsofts website, can someone just please tell me if I should upgrade our current Windows Server 2008 Standard edition to R2 when it becomes available. I can't figure out all the licensing either, is this considered a PAID upgrade?

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Yes, R2 is considered a paid upgrade, its effectively a new product.

The main new features of R2 that may be of interest are:

  • Improved Hyper V, with Live Migration, support for 32 logical processors, Hot add storage, Dynamic memory.
  • Server Core install now features .net
  • IIS 7.5, including new FTP features
  • Powershell 2
  • Significant performance improvements
  • More Remote Desktop Features including Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

So whether or not you should upgrade really depends on whether these features will be of benefit to you, and the cost justifies the upgrade. If they do, go for it, if you have no need for them then stick with what you have if its working well.

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  • So all those features do matter to me, so I presume that we will. I just assumed that if it was "Paid" it would have been called "Windows Server 2010" like they do with SQL, Visual Studio, XP >> Vista >> Windows 7
    – Breadtruck
    Aug 8, 2009 at 16:23
  • Basically MS have decided its not enough features to warrant a new name, its still the same underlying OS, but with alot of new features, enough to warrant paying. MS have done it before Server 2003 R2, Windows 98SE etc
    – Sam Cogan
    Aug 8, 2009 at 17:36
  • Could you also take a look at this question serverfault.com/questions/51762/…
    – Breadtruck
    Aug 8, 2009 at 19:28
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    Just to add to that, if you purchased software assurance on your current systems when you purchased them, you can upgrade for free provided that you are still within the software assurance window (what ever multi-year term you signed up for).
    – mrdenny
    Aug 8, 2009 at 20:33
  • So we have a volume license with assurance for server 2008 standard version. So I guess that is good news for me.
    – Breadtruck
    Aug 9, 2009 at 1:18
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Whether you should upgrade or not will depend on whether you need any of the new features. This is pretty much the answer to any "should I upgrade my X to version Y?" type question... nobody can answer that except you as it very much depends on your needs.

As for licensing, R2 editions of Windows Server are separate SKUs, i.e. a different product with its own license. So yes, it is a paid upgrade.

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