Microsoft to Preview Server 2008 Successor Next Month

Microsoft has sent out invitations to a select group of guests, including industry journalists, to a preview event for the next version of Windows Server. The event will take place September 8-10 at Microsoft’s Redmond campus, one week before the BUILD developer conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Microsoft, naturally, is keeping things pretty close to the vest. The event will be hosted the Server and Tools Division’s Corporate Vice President Steven Laing and will be the first demonstration of the new server. Microsoft is hoping for feedback from attendees of the event as well.

Details are sketchy. The invite only describes it as a “Windows Server 8 Technical Workshop” that will highlight how “Windows Server 8 is the most cloud optimized OS available today.” The workshop will offer “hands-on learning and deep product discussion” before code or technical information is made publically available.

Given that BUILD is only a week later, it won’t have to remain a secret for long. With BUILD replacing both PDC and WinHEC, that’s the event to spill the beans on the new server software. Microsoft just announced that BUILD is sold-out.

It will be interesting to get the details on this version of the software. After many years, Microsoft has finally gotten its client and server software development in sync. Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 share a whole lot of core code, including their kernels.

The thing is, Windows 8 for PCs thus far is looking primarily like a cosmetic improvement, none of which matters to a server OS. We haven’t heard about anything different under the hood. And Server has a longer timeline between releases than does the desktop OS.

Still, given that they talked about being a cloud-optimized OS, expect a whole lot of virtualization talk, lessons learned from Azure and perhaps some of the fruits of the SUSE Linux deal. Let the speculating begin.