Windows 2012 Server has been around for a while but like many IT professionals I haven’t had much exposure to it.  I’ve spent most of my time recently on 2008 and upgrades from 2003.  I don’t actually need 2012 Server myself, so how do I get experience with it?  Enter AWS!   I’ve signed up for the 12-month free trial and am running an instance of 2012 Server R2 to get a feel for the new features, and look and feel of it, but also a good opportunity to have a look at AWS.  Seems ok so far, and the vm runs fast enough for my needs.  RDP session is stable and quick even though I’m in the UK and it – according to Amazon – is in Oregan, USA.  Why?  No idea – I’d have thought Ireland was a more efficient location.  But it’s their system….

Windows 2012 Server R2 seems ok, but still not a fan of the flat tile interface and that you still seem to have to click in a lot of places to get the simplest of things done but there seem to be some good improvements under the hood.