At Microsoft TechEd North America 2009, Microsoft today announced that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will both be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season. Previously, Microsoft's official stance was that Windows 7 would be available no later than three years after the general availability of Windows Vista, meaning January 30, 2010. Based on the steady development of the OS though, many have predicted that Windows 7 would arrive earlier. Windows Server 2008 R2 was expected to arrive sometime after Windows 7, but now Microsoft has noted that the server OS will actually arrive in the same timeframe as its client counterpart. The Release Candidate builds for both operating systems went public last week.

Bill Veghte, senior vice president of the Windows Business at Microsoft, broke the news at the event, and also took the opportunity to tell the audience that when together, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 help deliver significant cost savings and productivity gains with features such as DirectAccess and BranchCache. Microsoft is making sure to tell businesses—now more than ever—about how the new versions of its software can help save them money in the long run.

Microsoft representatives told me that the Windows Server 2008 R2 RC has a few new features worth trying out. Hyper-v now supports 64 logical processor support (previously it was 32). The RC also includes a built-in solution for file classification and management called File Classifications Infrastructure (FCI), which allows applying a classification to data and then taking action upon the classified data. For example, once data is classified by high, medium, or low business impact, it is possible to intelligently back it up: say back up high business impact data more often, or on more expensive storage. More detailed information on R2 is available on Microsoft.com.