Hostway recently announced it is providing customers the opportunity to evaluate Windows Server 2012, the new Microsoft server operating system, as a hosted virtual machine. Customers can evaluate the Release Candidate version of Windows Server 2012 by purchasing a Hostway FlexCloud Server virtual machine and choosing Windows Server 2012 as the operating system. Hostway offers a high-availability, high-performance public cloud with costs at typically around one-half to one-third the price of competitors and is one of the first hosting companies to offer customers the evaluation version of Windows Server 2012.

“Enabling a seamless, integrated cloud management experience for our customers is critical to our cloud strategy,” said Aaron Hollobaugh, VP of Marketing for Hostway. “The new server operating system helps us deliver an easy-to-manage, high-performance, high-availability cloud environment that is cost-effective enough for SMBs and will also help them reduce storage and BCDR costs.”

IT pros and developers are invited to try the new cloud-optimized Windows Server 2012 for their non-production workloads in a hosted, cloud environment. IT pros and developers can evaluate the new features of Windows Server 2012, test their existing and new applications, develop new cloud-optimized web applications and connect private and public clouds. Hostway has tested Windows Server 2012 for over a year and is eager to allow customers to experience enhancements to their cloud hosting servers and infrastructure in key areas including:

• Applications and Websites – Windows Server 2012 has multiple features that enable mission-critical applications, increased web site density and efficiency, scalability and elasticity for multitenant-enabled applications and enhanced support for open-standards, open-source applications, and various development languages.
• Network Virtualization – The Hyper-V Replica functionality of Windows Server 2012 allows migration and placement of virtualized workloads, including from on-premise to a hoster in the cloud, without regard to underlying physical network topology.
• Manageability – Windows Server 2012 offers a multi-machine management experience, providing the customer with a cohesive view of their servers and roles.
• Storage – Windows Server 2012 offers continuous availability – if a cloud component fails, there is no blackout period, no service interruption and no lost data.

Hostway is continuing its testing and development around Windows Server 2012 and will bring a cloud-based disaster recovery solution to market later this year. The solution will be launched in beta to allow customers to test the seamless, low-cost, site-to-site replication enabled by Hyper-V Replica and Hostway’s geographically dispersed data center network. Companies can request further information about this summer beta program by emailing windowsbeta(at)hostway(dot)com.

More information on the Windows Server 2012 beta testing program is available by contacting Hostway at 1-866-HOSTWAY or visiting http://www.hostway.com/windows-server-2012.