Generally available worldwide in September
Once again, Windows Server 2012 has been overshadowed by its flashier little brother.
In the midst of big announcements at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) this week such as Windows 8 general availability and Windows Phone 8 capabilities, Jeffrey Snover dropped a few words in the Windows Server blog about their plans for releasing the most significant server OS version they've ever built:
"…at the conference we are announcing that Windows Server 2012 will be released to manufacturing in the first week of August. The code will be complete and we will begin delivering it to our hardware partners. Then, the product will be generally available to customers worldwide through multiple channels in September. "
Interestingly, the blog is the only place I've found anything written down from Microsoft about the final server release schedule – a very low key contrast to the herald trumpet blasts for Windows 8. As I've said before, this is a huge release that provides a raft of capabilities to IT departments that was either out of their budget or simply didn't exist. Every IT department that uses Windows Server should begin a serious evaluation of the release candidate version of this OS if they haven't started already. (Note: There is no upgrade path from Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate to the RTM version, so take that into account when you're planning your evaluation.)
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