Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials Available for Download

On Wednesday, the Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials made an appearance on Microsoft’s download website, providing the company’s customers with the possibility to download it and give it a try.

Windows Server 2012 Essentials is the new name for the Windows Small Business Server Essentials, and is designed to fit the needs of businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices.

Earlier this week, the Redmond-based software giant unveiled the new Windows Server 2012 offering, announcing four SKUs for it, for increased simplicity.

The Essentials flavor of Windows Server 2012 was meant for small businesses, and promises important cost reductions, as well as increased productivity.

According to Microsoft, “Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials is an ideal first server, and it can also be used as the primary server in a multi-server environment for small businesses.”

Through the use of Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials, small businesses will be able to improve protection of their applications and information.

At the same time, they will also benefit from better centralization, organization and accessibility to their applications from virtually any device.

Moreover, the product can grow as the business evolves, proving to be a flexible solution through which companies will have the possibility to purchase and perform an in-place conversion to Windows Server 2012 Standard if needed.

The hardware requirements for Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials include a 64-bit 1.4 GHz single-core or 1.3 GHz multi-core (minimum) to 3.1 GHz multi-core (recommended) or faster processor, along with 2 (minimum) to 8 (recommended) GB RAM or more.

Moreover, the platform requires 160 GB disk space, and can be used with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Mac OS X version 10.5 to 10.7 as client operating systems.

The Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials prerelease is available for download from Softpedia as well, via this link. On the download page, you will find both the installation ISO image, which weighs 4GB, as well as the restore image, of only 560.9 MB.