[Windows Server 2012] Release of Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials

Microsoft just release Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials.

Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials (formerly Windows Small Business Server) is a flexible, affordable, and easy-to-use server solution designed and priced for small businesses with up to 25 uses and 50 devices that helps them reduce costs and be more productive. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials is an ideal first server, and it can also be used as the primary server in a multi-server environment for small businesses.

Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials enables small businesses to protect, centralize, organize and access their applications and information from almost anywhere using virtually any device. Additionally, Essentials has the ability to grow as your business grows, providing an elastic solution that allows you to purchase and then perform an in-place conversion to Windows Server 2012 Standard if your business needs change over time.


Server Operating System. Windows Server 2012 product technologies provide the core of Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials. For more detailed information, visit the Windows Server 2012 web site (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2012). Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials provides an end-to-end integrated setup that installs and configures many of the roles and features of Windows Server 2012 Beta according to best practices configuration for small business environments. This provides customers with immediate out-of-the-box value and productivity.

Data Protection. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials leverages several new features available in Windows Server 2012 to provide greatly improved data protection capabilities. The new Storage Spaces feature allows customers to aggregate the physical storage capacity of disparate hard drives, dynamically add hard drives, and to create volumes with specified levels of resilience.

Data Protection, continued. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials can perform complete system backups and bare-metal restores of the server itself as well as the client computers connected to the network—now with support for volumes larger than 2 terabytes. New with Windows Server 2012, the Microsoft Online Backup can be used to protect files and folders in a cloud-based storage service that is managed by Microsoft. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials also centrally manages and configures the new File History feature of Windows 8 clients, helping users to recover from accidently deleted or overwritten files without requiring administrator assistance.

Anywhere Access. Remote Web Access provides a stream-lined, touch-friendly browser experience for accessing applications and data from virtually anywhere they have an Internet connection using almost any device. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials also provides an updated Windows Phone app and a new Metro app for Windows 8 clients, allowing users to intuitively connect to, search across, and access files and folders on the server; files are also automatically cached for offline access and synchronized when a connection to the server becomes available.
Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials turns setting up virtual private networking (VPN) into a painless wizard-driven process of just a few clicks, and simplifies the management of VPN access for users. Client computers can leverage a VPN connection to remotely join the Essentials environment without the need to come into the office.

Health Monitoring. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials monitors its own health status and the status of client computers running Windows 7, Windows 8, and Mac OS X version 10.5 and above. Health status notifies you of issues or problems related to computer backups, server storage, low disk space, and more.

Workload Flexibility. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials has been designed to allow customers the flexibility to choose which applications and services run on-premise and which run in the cloud. In previous versions, Windows Small Business Server Standard included Exchange Server as a component product, which added expense and complexity for customers who wished to leverage cloud-based messaging and collaboration services.
With Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials, customers can take advantage of the same integrated management experience whether they choose to run an on-premise copy of Exchange Server, subscribe to a hosted Exchange service, or subscribe to Office 365.

Extensibility. Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials builds on the extensibility model of Windows SBS 2011 Essentials, which allows other software vendors to add capabilities and features to the core product, and adds a new set of Web Services APIs. It also maintains compatibility with the existing software development kit (SDK) and Add-Ins created for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials.


Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials prerelease is available here for download. :  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30327