In parallel with the Windows 7 client, the successor of Windows Vista, Microsoft is also building the next iteration of the Windows server operating system. Windows 7 Server will follow Windows Server 2008 R2, but Microsoft has failed to deliver a timetable for the release so far. Still, while revealing close to no information at all about Windows 7 Server, Microsoft is planning to put together what it referred to as highly available/scalable services for the operating system. The role for the project has been attributed to the Windows Clustering team, a group acting as an integral part of the Storage Solutions Division.

"The cluster team is responsible for providing and evangelizing a distributed platform for building fault-tolerant, disaster-tolerant, highly available, and scalable applications with integrated support for monitoring the health of hardware components and software services. Windows Server clustering is a product targeted to enterprise customers needing highly available scalable server application infrastructure," a Windows Clustering team member stated.

The Windows 7 Server clustering features will be perfected via tests and tools developed in C/C++, Microsoft indicated. Of course, any other additional details are scarce at this point in time, but one thing is for sure, and that is that the software giant has not advanced much into the development of Windows 7 Server compared with Windows 7.

However, this is understandable considering that the deadline for Windows 7 is the end of 2009, or early 2010, while Windows 7 Server will be preceded by Windows Server 2008 R2 which, in fact, could be synchronized with the successor of Windows Vista. With a potential availability date for Windows Server 2008 R2 also in 2009/2010, Windows 7 Server could get pushed as far back as 2011, or 2012. All is speculation at this point, Microsoft having said nothing on the matter.