Windows Server 2012 R2

According to the Microsoft Corporate vice president Brad Anderson, "Windows Server 2012 R2 will be available for preview in June and will be officially released before the end of the year [2013].

Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage Improvements:

• Automated Storage tiering: Storage in windows server 2012 can be configured to allocate workloads to the most appropriate storage types. For example, you can configure SSD drives to be prioritized for applications and workloads were speed and latency are vitally important, and to rely on slower types of storage for less important workloads.
• "Generation 2" virtual machines: Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V introduces what Microsoft is calling "Generation 2" virtual machines. Gen 2 VMs only support the 64-bit versions of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 R2 as guest OSes. Gen 2 VMs remove all of the legacy, BIOS-based functionality of traditional VMs. These VMs are UEFI-based, have no emulated devices, can boot off virtual iSCSI and network adapters, and support secure boot. The benefits to using Gen 2 VMs could be numerous, including the potential of vastly reduced VM sizes by eliminating support for legacy, BIOS-based overhead. Traditional "generation 1" virtual machines will still be enabled by default.
• Hyper-V Recovery Manager: According to Woolsey, Hyper-V Replica has proven to be one of the most popular features of Windows Server 2012, so Windows Server 2012 R2 introduces the Hyper-V Recovery Manager, a new centralized management console that allows you to manage site replication.