Windows Server 2008 R2, Enterprise Edition

With the Windows Server 2008 R2, Standard Edition taking on the bulk of network services, the Windows Server 2008 R2, Enterprise Edition is really focused on server systems that require extremely large-scale processing and memory capabilities as well as clustering or Active Directory Federation Services. From the basis of scalability of processing and memory capacity, applications like Windows virtualization or enterprise-class Exchange 2010 or SQL 2008 servers would benefit from the capabilities of the Enterprise Edition of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Any time an organization needs to add clustering to its environment, the Enterprise Edition (or the Datacenter Edition) is needed. The Enterprise Edition is the appropriate version of operating system for high availability and high-processing demands of core application servers such as SQL Servers or large e-commerce back-end transaction systems.

For organizations leveraging the capabilities of Windows Server 2008 R2 for Thin Client Remote Desktop Services that require access to large sets of RAM (up to 2TB) and multiple processors (up to eight sockets), the Enterprise Edition can handle hundreds of users on a single server. Remote Desktop Services are covered in more detail in Chapter 25.

The Enterprise Edition, with support for server clustering, can provide organizations with the nonstop networking demands of true 24/7, 99.999% uptime capabilities required in high-availability environments. Windows Server 2008 R2, Enterprise Edition supports a wide variety of regularly available server systems, thus allowing an organization its choice of hardware vendor systems to host its Windows Server 2008 R2 application needs.

Source of Information : Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed