Maximize productivity with security on the chip for business PCs with Intel® Centrino® with vPro™ Technology
Remote manageability providing IT with remote PC monitoring and the ability to diagnose and repair the PC even when the OS is off or unresponsive.
Industry-standard management support for protocols such as WS-MAN and DASH² that are more capable and secure than ASF and enables secure communication between the console and the PC.
Broad industry support from leading manageability and security independent software vendors (ISVs) like Symantec, LANDesk, HP, Microsoft, and Cisco that take advantage of the Intel Centrino with vPro technology features.
Breakthrough battery life enabled by next-generation hafnium-infused 45nm Intel® Core™ microarchitecture
2x greater wireless range and up to 5x faster wireless with the optional integrated 802.11n wireless technology
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Discover the ultimate multimedia and gaming notebook with Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology
With new hafnium-based circuitry and up to 6MB L2 cache, you can multitask compute-intensive applications up to 2x as fast, while the new Intel® HD Boost gives you up to 50 percent more speed for hi-def multimedia applications.¹ Plus, you'll enjoy a 3x performance improvement for a super-enhanced hi-def video experience and smoother playback with VC-1 hardware acceleration and optional Intel® Graphics Technology.
With mobile-optimized 800 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) providing increased bandwidth and up to 20 percent faster data transfer rates, you'll have the performance you need for everything from high-end gaming to hi-def multimedia applications and everything in between.
Intel® Intelligent Power Capability gives you breakthrough enabled battery life so you can stay unplugged longer. The low-leakage, hafnium-based 45nm processor delivers unrivaled energy efficiency while Deep Power Down Technology lets you save power by using it only when you need it. No matter where you're at, you'll have the battery power you need to enjoy DVDs, hours of music, the coolest games, and much more. Plus, with built-in wireless connectivity, you can connect to public Wi-Fi networks around the globe, no wires attached.
With new 3D graphics features like Vertex Shader Model 3.0* and Hardware Transform and Lightening*, and the performance-packed next-gen Intel® dual-core technology, you'll experience hi-def multimedia like you're in it.
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Get the best desktop for business
Remote manageability providing IT with remote PC monitoring and the ability to diagnose and repair the PC even when the OS is off or unresponsive plus convenient remote configuration for over-the-wire set-up. Broad industry support from leading manageability and security independent software vendors (ISVs) like Symantec, LANDesk, HP, Microsoft, and Cisco that take advantage of the Intel Core 2 processor with vPro technology features.
Industry-standard management support for protocols such as WS-MAN and DASH± that are more capable and secure than ASF and enables secure communication between the console and the PC.
Reduce power bills enabled by next-generation hafnium-infused 45nm Intel® Core™ microarchitecture offering reduced electrical current leakage and increased performance while the new efficient design helps PCs meet ENERGY STAR* requirements.
Get breakthrough performance with full 64-bit Windows Vista* and Windows Aero* graphics support without the expense of an external graphics card enabled by powerful Intel® Graphics and full support for next-generation multi-threaded software.
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Monitoring and managing IT services consumes a large proportion of most corporate IT departments' resources, and in the last few years this workload has been increased by the need to comply with new regulatory requirements. As a result, many organizations have few resources left over to devote to the introduction of new, business-enhancing technologies and services.
Microsoft’s System Center, a family of IT management applications, was designed to address this problem by providing a way to capture and aggregate knowledge about business applications and the IT infrastructure to more effectively manage and control the entire corporate IT environment.
Much of the knowledge and best practices for managing Windows systems and applications built in to System Center comes directly from the Microsoft developers responsible for writing the code for these applications and servers. As a result, organizations that implement System Center have the opportunity to optimize the way they manage their existing IT systems, carry out complex tasks extremely efficiently, and introduce new services according to established best practices.
Operations Manager 2007
Operations Manager 2007 is one of the key members of the System Center family. It offers a practical way to monitor hundreds or thousands of servers, end-user machines and applications, equipping IT staff with a comprehensive, real-time view of the health of the organisation’s IT systems and providing alerts whenever problems occur or intervention is necessary.
Configuration Manager 2007
Another key component of the System Center Family is Configuration Manager 2007 – an upgraded version of the product formerly known as System Management Server. Configuration Manager has been designed to enable secure and scalable deployment of operating systems and applications and detailed configuration management, and to provide comprehensive asset management of servers, desktops, and mobile devices.
Essentials
Essentials brings the breadth of knowledge of the System Center family to medium-sized organizations in a simple, unified solution. It has been designed for organizations with up to 500 PCs and limited in-house IT staff – typically a single person in charge of all IT responsibilities. Essentials is easy to install, and once running it simplifies and carries out specific tasks that medium-sized businesses frequently need to perform—including software distribution, operating system and application updating, and group policy configuration.
Virtual Machine Manager
Virtual Machine Manager, an application that enables centralized management of virtual machine infrastructure and rapid provisioning of new virtual machines by system administrators and qualified end users, making it easy to increase physical server utilization and provide safe application test environments using virtual Windows servers and desktops.
The ability to create and manage virtual machines and move them to appropriate servers efficiently is becoming increasingly important as the benefits of virtual machine technology for cost reduction become more widely understood. Recognizing this, the entire System Center product range can be used to manage both physical and virtual servers, and the same tools – such as Configuration Manager or Operations Manager – work equally well in physical or virtual environments.
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The current state of play is that Internet Explorer dominates the Web, commanding some 74 per cent. Following at a distant second is Firefox, with some 18 per cent market share. Safari holds some 6 per cent (hardly snapping at Firefox’s heels, despite Apple’s posturing), while Opera trails far behind with a 0.7 per cent market share.
Now Microsoft has dominated the browser market share for too many years, and the negative effects of this are obvious. Internet Explorer 7 is one of the worst browsers currently available.
Testings show that Firefox 3.0 is the fastest browser currently available. SunSpider JavaScript benchmark tests shows that Firefox 3.0 processes JavaScript ten times faster than Internet Explorer 7, while Opera offers the best CSS standards compliance (scoring 83 out of 100 in the ACID 3 test – a test in which Safari 3.1 scores 75, and Firefox 3.0 scores 71)
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Enhanced Security Features of Windows Server 2008As Microsoft says that Windows Server 2008 is the “most secure” server OS they have every created, I want to take a minute to touch on the security features of Server 2008. Here is my list:
Active Directory Federation Service – allows administrators to easily set up trust relationships with federation partners.
Read-Only Domain Controllers - these domain controllers will be used in environments where you need a domain controller but you cannot guarantee the physical security of the server.
Server Core Installation - a new type of install of Windows Server 2008 that will allow you to only install the typical Windows network infrastructure services – DHCP, DNS, file sharing, and domain controller functions. What is a big change for most admins is that if you choose to use the “server core” installation, there will be no local GUI interface to the OS.
Password and account lockout policy improvements – offers the ability to have multiple password and account policies in a single domain.
Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption - allows you to encrypt all of the hard drives on a server. This will prevent the data from being viewed if a hard drive or the server is stolen.
The New & Improved Server 2008 Web Server - IIS 7.0
We have to keep in mind that there are so many other applications included in the Windows Server 2008 OS. One of those is Internet Information Server. With Windows Server 2008, IIS has been upgraded to version 7.0. With this upgrade, IIS 7.0 is easier to manage due to its improved interface. The interface offers the ability to perform common tasks faster, security enhancements, web server health information, delegation of administration, and more.
Speed Client Operating System Deployment with WDS
Windows Deployment Service (WDS) is a new Server 2008 feature that allows you to deploy Windows client machines over the network. The new WDS is faster because it uses TFTP. WDS offers client installs performed with either ScheduleCast or AutoCast.
ScheduleCast is a scheduled deployment whereas AutoCast is an “always available” deployment using Multicast. Because AutoCast uses Multicast, you can save on bandwidth by all clients sharing the same streaming data over the network.
Secure your network from unsafe PC clients with Network Access Protection
Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP) is a new policy that can be put into place, requiring clients to meet certain requirements before they can connect to a Windows 2008 server.
If they do not meet the requirements that are set, the client can be quarantined or can be denied access. Even better, if the computer does not meet the requirements, the Windows 2008 Server can deploy the necessary updates that are needed.
By using NAP, you can secure not only local PCs but also home computers or roaming computers that attempt to connect to your network from your LAN or via the Internet with a VPN
Windows Terminal Services Improvements
Windows Terminal Services has been greatly improved in Windows Server 2008. Here are some of the new key features:
RemoteApp - similar to published applications in Citrix, RemoteApp will allow you to share an application with a workstation instead of the entire Windows desktop. It is supposed to have seamless integration with the client PCs so that clients will just see an icon in their start menu or desktop and click on it to run the application.
Terminal Services Gateway - allows remote users who are working away from the office to connect to terminal services. This will help remove the need for remote VPN access for some users.
Terminal Services Web Access – offers the ability for remote users to connect to terminal services with just a web browser. By using this, remote PCs attempting to connect to terminal services do not need to have the remote desktop client or VPN.
One Stop Server Management with Server Manager
Windows Server 2008 Server Manager is a new console that will put all the snap-ins you need to manage your server in a single place, making it easier and faster to for administrators to manage Windows 2008 Servers.
New Windows Server Virtualization Features
Windows Server Virtualization is a new feature that allows you to virtualize any operating system onto one server. This feature will also allow you consolidate many servers into one server. This will allow you to easily create test and development environments without having to use too many resources.
With this feature, Microsoft is hoping to take away a great deal of the virtualization marketplace from VMware. While Microsoft certainly lags far behind VMware in the maturing of their virtualization offerings, by Microsoft offering virtualization already built into the Windows OS, they are going a long way to getting their version of virtualization in the hands of the end user.
As we are just now getting a look at Microsoft’s version of Hypervisor virtualization in the recently released Windows Server 2008 RC0, it is too soon to say how good of a virtualization feature set Microsoft will offer. I encourage you to take a look at it for yourself.
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Windows Server 2008 delivers valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system to help organizations of all sizes increase control, availability, and flexibility for their changing business needs. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.
Solid Foundation
Virtualization
Web
Security
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