Windows Server 2008 pricing announced

IT admins: this is the moment you've all been waiting for. After years of waiting, Microsoft has gone ahead and announced the availability, pricing and version info for Windows Server 2008, the long-awaited follow-up to Windows Server 2003. Version 2K8 will land on February 27th, 2008 and in classic Microsoft fashion, there are going to be five different flavors to choose from:

• Windows Server 2008 Standard: $999 with five client access licenses
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise: $3,999 with 25 client access licenses
• Windows Server 2008 Datacenter: $2,999 per processor
• Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems: $2,999 per processor
• Windows Web Server 2008: $469

All versions of Windows Server 2008 will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, with the exception of Windows Server for Itanium-based Systems, which will be 64-bit only. Additionally, Microsoft's home-grown virtualization technology, Hyper-V, will ship with all 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 and vendors like Dell, IBM, HP, and Unisys are already lining up to create solutions that will take advantage of the Hyper-V platform.

For more on Windows Server 2008:
- see this Ars Technica article