Amid the fanfare of the Windows 10 preview this week, Microsoft also announced the next version of Windows Server and made the OS available for technical preview.
In a blog post the cloud and enterprise team revealed five features that are anticipated in the next edition of Windows Server and System Centre.
Non-disruptive Windows Server upgrades for Hyper-V clusters, new components for SDN and new synchronous storage replication have been implemented to enhance infrastructure management.
Remote Desktop has had OpenGL and OpenCL support added for expanded application compatibility. Identity and Access Management has received additional risk-reduction features like time-based access and "new application publishing capabilities".
More features are to be revealed in the coming months.
The team also announced that a technical preview of Windows Server and Systems Centre started on Wednesday to a broader audience than usual.
"We typically provide this release only to a small number of customers, but this time we are providing broad access for those that want to start the journey early," said the blog post.
The cloud and enterprise team wrote that the preview can be downloaded or tried on Azure. The technical preview phase comes with the usual warning that the software is still under development and is not safe for "production environments, labs or full evaluations".
The cloud and enterprise team claimed that Microsoft is unique in the way it runs more than 200 cloud services itself – like Office 365, Xbox Live and Bing – and passes on that know-how and technology to customers via Windows Server and System Centre.
The data centre product announcement accompanied this week's much-publicised preview event for Windows 10 and the emphasis the US vendor has put on winning back the enterprise market.
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