Longhorn server is going to present many opportunities for hosters not only to improve their platform, but also offer additional services to market. Therefore not only reducing TCO but also allow new opportunities for hosters to create new revenue generating opportunities.

Check out www.microsoft.com/longhorn and the BETA 3 release.

Obviously there are a lot of great new innovations in the platform, but the area that is going to really be of interest to hosters is the new version of IIS. – IIS 7

It's definitely worth checking out www.iis.net and the virtual labs at http://virtuallabs.iis.net/

It's also definitely worth reading this article:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/longhorn/iis/default.mspx Internet Information Services 7.0 in Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 3

I will be particularly interested in seeing hosters utilising server core installs for certain components of their infrastructure.

I do have one question though... Would you be interested in seeing the server core install have a server role that allowed IIS 7 as a server role?

Let me know your thoughts!

Gavin