3, 2, 1, Blast off! : Windows Server 2012 Beta Servers Launched!
Today we officially announced Windows Server 2012 Beta Cloud Servers, but I wanted to provide a little more information around that offering. For several years now Applied Innovations has worked closely with Microsoft around the Windows Server platform. As a cloud services / hosting provider that delivers solutions solely on the Windows Server platform, it only makes sense. What’s interesting though is that all of that collaboration and work pales in comparison to what’s been happening for the past three years!
You see, for the past three years Microsoft has been more focused on the cloud and the needs of cloud services providers and customers moving to the cloud than any other company I’ve ever worked with. Of course, we’re not the only provider they’re working with but if the collaboration with the other providers is even remotely comparable to the work we’ve been doing then it’s safe to say Windows Server 2012 will be the OS to power the cloud for the foreseeable future.
What does that collaboration look like?
Of course, we’ve made a number of trips to Seattle over the past few years, including being among a handful of hosting providers to sit on the Windows Server Futures Council and help drive the direction of Windows Server 2012. We’ve hosted a number of meetings at our offices in Boca Raton with product groups, planning groups, developers, architects, you name it from it seems every single group that touches anything remotely cloud related: System Center, Hyper-V, File Server, Windows Server, Azure, you name it, we’ve had discussions with them. There’s been countless conference calls and webinars and we’re intimately involved in a number of early access programs / beta programs. The reason I mention is this all isn’t to brag but rather to point out that I feel for the past few years Microsoft has come to truly understand the role service providers, like Applied Innovations, will play in their ecosystem and isn’t 100% focused on just the needs of the Enterprise any longer.
What’s that Windows Server history look like?
Applied Innovations is a 13 year old company based in Boca Raton, FL that has offered solutions on top of the Windows Server platform exclusively since our inception. The past 5 years have been sort of our coming out party and we’ve been bringing some pretty cutting edge solutions to the market pretty early.
#3, In 2007 we were among the first three hosting companies in the world to launch Windows Server 2008 Beta hosting .
#2, In 2009 we were among the first two hosting companies in the world to launch an offering on top of Hyper-V using the Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit that would become the catalyst for Hyper-V Cloud.
#1, and today, we’re the first host to officially announce support not only for Windows Server 2012 Beta hosting but also for:
- A Hosting Offering around Windows Server 2012 Beta
- Cloud Servers available running Windows Server 2012 Beta
- and a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cloud, that’s running as a high availability cluster of multiple servers all running Windows Server 2012 beta and hosting cloud servers running Windows Servers 2012 beta
And this is but only the first of a number of new innovations we’re working around Windows Cloud Hosting that we’ll be announcing this year.
What’s the Windows Server 2012 Beta Offer?
As I mentioned our offering is pretty unique in that we’re not only offering Cloud Servers running Windows Server 2012 beta but we’ve built this out on top of a cluster of servers all running Windows Server 2012 in a highly available fashion (like our Windows Cloud Servers) so that if one node fails the workload fails over to one of the other nodes. We believe this is an ideal opportunity to expose as much of the Windows Server 2012 improvements as possible. In fact, we’re so confident in the new operating system that we’re running www.appliedi.net on Windows Server 2012 in this environment!
Today you’re able to get a new Windows Cloud Server starting at just $39.95/month and it will include the Windows Server 2012 Beta Operating System at no additional cost!
I believe offering Cloud Server with Windows Server 2012 Beta in this manner is a great example of the cloud and the flexibility it affords companies today! You see for just $39.95 you’re able to deploy your own server running Windows Server 2012 Beta without purchasing hardware, installing software or dealing with any of the headaches deploying a new server on-premise comes with! You’ll get your own server just as you want it and you’ll be able to beat it and do whatever you want with it. Then when you’re done, delete it and start again! It’s a great way to test out Windows Server 2012 Beta today!
How can I get it?
If you’re ready to take Windows Server 2012 Beta for a test drive with your own Cloud Server, you just need to sign up for one by following this link and we’ll have your new server online and running within an hour or so depending on demand. I’d encourage you try it earlier than later though as we expect the first cluster to fill up fairly quickly.
