Anyone as Excited as I am about windows server 2008?

The main reason why I am excited is the core os. Finally a dumbed down windows server os that I can use for file servers.  What do you guys think? Anyone start using exchange 2007 yet?

The article blurb on core: 

Server Core

Server Core is a minimal installation option for Windows Server 2008 that contains only a subset of executable files and server roles. Management is done through the command line (see Figure 1) or through an unattended configuration file.

According to Microsoft, "Server Core is designed for use in organizations that either have many servers, some of which need only to perform dedicated tasks but with outstanding stability, or in environments where high security requirements require a minimal attack surface on the server." Accordingly, there are limited roles that Core servers can perform. They are:

• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server
• Domain Name System (DNS) server
• File server, including the file replication service, the distributed file system (DFS), distributed file system replication (DFSR), the network file system and single instance storage (SIS)
• Print services
• Domain controller, including a read-only domain controller
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) server
• Windows server virtualization
• IIS, although only with a portion of its normal abilities -- namely, only static HTML hosting, and no dynamic Web application support
• Windows Media Services (WMS)

 The link where the article can be found:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=windows&articleId=9060778&taxonomyId=125&intsrc=kc_feat

Virtual Machines vs. Physical for starting a company or a remote office

1.        Say your company is building out an office of 20-30 people or starting a company of that size and you need all the proper technology tools 

2.       E-mail, 2 application servers with 2 databases and a few web servers. 2 file servers, 20-30 desktops. 2 misc servers. Phone, firewall, anything else? Beside the misc items that are always needed to be physical like switches.

3.       Get 2-3 Sun servers for the vmware esx server or a cheaper brand.

4.       1 san using iscsi for price.

5.       1 cheaper server for exchange like a 5k Dell since it likes to be physical.

6.       Using thin clients with vdi for desktops and laptops. Bigger wyse laptops for people who need office installed for the road but still using vdi. If anyone is using Photoshop remotely they will need an actual laptop.

7.       Using a software phone switch with voip phones

8.       Also an isa firewall with the software instead of buying any all in one hardware boxes.

9.       Plus all this stuff would be so much easier to manage it can all be done on one virtual infrastructure client including all desktop helpdesk, patches, and installs.

10.   Theoretically you could have this all outsource and the people could all do the maintenance remotely and save a ton of money in face time with techs.

11.   Last if your company grows quickly it would be 1000% times easier to upgrade by adding Virtual Machines and eventually an on staff It guy could do so much more.

12.   Not to mention the cost of backup of any of this would be a lot cheaper because you could use esxranger  and off load the data off site at night. This would also give you a dr plan for free.  You would not need something like backup exec or other software with tape until the company grows quite a bit more and the bandwidth can’t handle the data going offsite. 

Anyone have any Whitepapers they would like to discuss or add cliff notes to, please post