UPDATED — Microsoft Releases Windows Server 2008 as SP1, but What Does That Mean for the CIO?

To CIOs and IT executives used to waiting for the first “bug fix” release before adopting new server operating systems, the announcement that Microsoft Windows Server 2008 will begin shipping in a few weeks as Service Pack 1 (SP1) may induce surprise and confusion.

A Different Kind of SP1

Releasing Windows Server 2008 as SP1 is completely different methodology than you would ordinarily anticipate, says John Enck, vice president at Gartner. “My feeling is that Microsoft will be confusing the market.”

Microsoft obviously expects CIOs will see things differently. “You don’t have to wait for [the traditional] SP1 for it to be right like people have before,” wrote Ian McDonald, Microsoft’s director of Windows Server program management, in his blog last Friday. (The first traditional service pack for Windows Server 2008 will be SP2.)

But both McDonald and Enck point out, the goal of an SP1 release isn’t to create confusion; it’s to converge the paths of Windows Server 2008 with Windows Vista. “This means the that the Service Packs are shared, that patches get released at the same time, etc etc.,” wrote McDonald.

Microsoft Server 2008 and Windows Vista share the same code base and were developed in tandem—at least initially. But due to a push to get Vista out to market faster, the two products’ development diverged. For McDonald, that was a repeat experience; he’d dealt with the continuing divergence with Windows XP and Windows 2003, an experience he’d like not to repeat. When Window XP and Windows Server 2003 diverged, he wrote, “[T]he matrix of releases became a nightmare.”

That’s why the company risked a move—releasing Windows Server 2008 as SP1—that will likely confuse customers. Microsoft decided “to take this onetime hit in confusion to get everything reintegrated,” says Enck.

One IT Exec’s Take

David Siles, CTO of Kane County, Ill., says he’s “fully aware” that Vista and Windows Server 2008 share a code base. However, he says “calling [the product] SP1 does nothing to speed up our adoption or review of the server system for use in production.”

Siles does think his switch to Windows Server 2008 will happen earlier than his switch from 2000 to 2003 “due to future Microsoft platform release such as Exchange and SQL calling for 64bit OS levels and driving for a host system running WS08,” but he doesn’t expect to have wide adoption in production use this year.

“My staff will be going through our internal lab testing process with the server platforms, as we have access to it under our enterprise agreements with Microsoft, and attending training courses as we see fit,” he says.

Should You Wait for SP2?

Not according to Gartner. For client computing, a main reason to wait for Vista’s SP1 is to allow time for the third-party application ecosystem to develop, according to Enck. That’s not the case for server operating systems, which have a smaller set of software and partners. “After Windows 2000, Microsoft did major work on their development practices,” he says. “They brought in very impressive testing and integration” that leads to a stable release, so Enck believes there’s no need to wait for SP2.

That said, “Windows Server 2008 is not so compelling to say ‘upgrade everything you have,'” says Enck. Instead, Gartner recommends replacing servers as they age. Look for selective improvements, he says, and adopt Windows Server 2008 for just those needs.

Windows Server 2008 Highlights

Here’s a few improvements that might be worth the fast track: