Microsoft Servers (previously called Windows Server System) is a brand that encompasses Microsoft's server products. This includes the Windows Server editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system itself, as well as products targeted at the wider business market. Unlike Microsoft Dynamics or Microsoft Office product lines, most of the products sold under this brand are not intended to be line-of-business services in and of themselves.
The Microsoft Servers line of software and technology includes:
Initially, Microsoft server operating systems were editions of Windows NT family. Starting in 2003, a Windows Server subfamily was formed that encompasses server operating system versions independent of the client versions of Windows.
Server operating systems of Microsoft include:
Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server edition
Windows NT 3.5 Server edition
Windows NT 3.51 Server edition
Windows NT 4.0 (Server, Server Enterprise, and Terminal Server editions)
Windows 2000 (Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server editions)
Windows Server 2003, including:
Windows Home Server
Windows Storage Server
Windows Compute Cluster Server
Windows Server 2003 R2
Windows Server 2008, including:
Windows Essential Business Server 2008
Windows HPC Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2, including:
Windows Home Server 2011
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2016
The following are special offerings consisting of one of the operating systems above:
Windows Server Essentials (initially Windows Small Business Server)
Windows MultiPoint Server
Some of the products included in the Windows Server System product branding are designed specifically for interaction with Microsoft Office. These include:
BizTalk Server – Business process design and integration tools
Commerce Server – E-Commerce portal
Internet Information Services (IIS) – Web server, FTP server and basic email server
Exchange Server – E-mail and collaboration server
Forms Server – Server-based electronic forms
Host Integration Server – Data and management connector between Windows environments and mainframe systems such as AS/400, formerly known as Microsoft SNA Server
Groove Server – Collaboration server; works in conjunction with Microsoft SharePoint Workspace
PerformancePoint Server – Business performance management server
Project Server – Project management and resource allocation services; works as the server component to Microsoft Project
Project Portfolio Server
Search Server
SharePoint Server – Produces sites intended for collaboration, file sharing, web databases, social networking and web publishing.
Skype for Business Server – Instant messaging and presence server, integration with telephone PBX systems. Integrates with Skype for Business.
Speech Server – Speech applications for automated telephone systems, including voice recognition
SQL Server – Relational Database Management and business intelligence server
Microsoft Hyper-V Server
Virtual Server – Platform virtualization of operating systems
Forefront – Comprehensive line of business security products
Threat Management Gateway – Firewall, routing, VPN and web caching server, formerly known as Microsoft ISA Server or Microsoft Proxy Server in its earlier iterations
Protection for Exchange Server
Protection for SharePoint Server
Exchange Online Protection
Unified Access Gateway
Identity Manager
Identity Integration Server – Identity management product
Microsoft System Center, a set of server products, aims specifically at helping corporate system administrators manage a network of Windows Server and client desktop systems.
System Center Advisor – Software-as-a-service offering that helps change or assess the configuration of Microsoft Servers software over the Internet
System Center App Controller - Unified management for public and private clouds, including cloud-based virtual machines and services
System Center Configuration Manager – Configuration management, hardware/software asset management, patch deployment tools for Windows desktops (previously Systems Management Server); includes Software Center.
System Center Data Protection Manager – Continuous data protection and data recovery
System Center Endpoint Protection - Anti-malware and security tools for Microsoft products
System Center Essentials – Combined features of Operations Manager and Windows Software Update Service (WSUS), aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses
System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis) - An automation platform for orchestrating and integrating administrative tools to decrease the cost of datacenter operations while improving the reliability of IT processes. It enables organizations to automate best practices, such as those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Orchestrator operates through workflow processes that coordinate System Center and other management tools to automate incident response, change and compliance, and service-lifecycle management processes.
System Center Operations Manager – Services and application monitoring
System Center Service Manager – Ties in with SCOM, SCCM for asset tracking as well as incident, problem, change and configuration management (code name: Service Desk)
System Center Virtual Machine Manager – Virtual-machine management and datacenter virtualization
Services for UNIX – SFU for Windows XP Pro and Windows Server 2003 only
Microsoft Application Center – Deployment of web applications across multiple servers. Some of its capabilities are now in System Center.
Microsoft BackOffice Server
Content Management Server – Web site content management and publishing. Merged into Microsoft SharePoint Server.
Microsoft SNA Server – replaced by Microsoft Host Integration Server
Microsoft Site Server – replaced by Microsoft Commerce Server
Microsoft Merchant Server - replaced by Microsoft Site Server
Microsoft Proxy Server – replaced by Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (also known as ISA Server)
System Center Capacity Planner – Provides purchasing and best-practice capacity planning guidance
