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Windows Server 2008 Pricing

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=> Windows Server 2008 Standard: Windows Server 2008 Standard edition will cost $999 and comes with five client access licenses, and will cost $971 without Hyper-V. It will enable one physical version and one virtual version to run concurrently.

=> Windows Server 2008 Enterprise: The next level up from Standard, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise edition will cost $3,999, comes with 25 client access licenses instead of five, and can run four concurrent virtual instances. It will cost $3,971 without Hyper-V.

=> Windows Server 2008 Data Center: Just read the label, Windows Server 2008 Data Center is good for wherever there's a high-end data center. Read: install it wherever there are client-server apps. It will cost $2,999 per processor, or $2,971 without Hyper-V. Microsoft says it'll be for deploying "business-critical apps." Customers can run unlimited virtual instances with this license.

=> Microsoft Hyper-V Server: Hyper-V server will be a tiny version of the server, enabled only to support the creation and management of virtual machines running on a server. It's basically the hypervisor, which enables guest systems to run. There are already a bunch of hardware partners lined up to sell boxes with this included.

=> Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems: This version is designed specifically for systems that have Intel Itanium line of 64-bit processors in their chipsets. That means no 32-bit systems for this version. It will scale to as many as 64 processors, and is meant for high-availability, high-volume, high-scalability systems. Microsoft says it's optimized for large databases and enterprise apps. Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems will cost $2,999 per processor.

=> Windows Web Server 2008: The successor to Windows Server 2003 Web Edition is Windows Web Server 2008. It's going to be stripped a bit and re-configured from the standard model in order to become a "single-purpose Web server." Microsoft will pack it with Web-oriented technologies like Internet Information Services 7.0, ASP.NET and the .NET Framework. It will cost $469 per instance, although companies running large farms of Web servers will be able to purchase it at a volume discount. No virtualization here, though.