Layered Technologies, a provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, has announced that Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is now available for rapid server deployments via Astro, Layered Tech's proprietary automated Web hosting platform.  In addition to Windows Server 2008, Layered Tech offers the broadest range of high-performance, secure Linux and Unix operating systems in the industry, so customers leveraging the speed and flexibility of Astro can choose the OS that best meets their needs and provision the server almost instantaneously.

With Windows Server 2008, customers can develop, deliver and manage rich user experiences and applications, provide a highly secure network infrastructure, and increase technological efficiency and value within their organizations.  Astro displays server inventory in real-time and enables near instantaneous server provisioning so Layered Tech customers can easily configure their server, complete the purchase and have it available for use within 90 minutes.

"By adding Windows Server 2008 to our rapid deployment server offerings, customers can stay current with the latest offerings from Microsoft, explore new features with the .NET product offering and leverage a rich Web server environment that is more robust and feature-driven than previous versions of IIS," said Layered Tech COO and CIO Terrance Bush.  "We continue to evaluate the latest and greatest server technologies to determine what will best meet our customers' needs and support their business goals.  We're excited to make Windows Server 2008 available within our rapid deployment service offering, provide our customers a wide variety of robust operating system options, and deliver powerful servers in less than two hours after selection."

The Windows Server 2008 editions currently available via Astro include:

• Data Center Edition: an enterprise-class platform for deploying business-critical applications on medium and large servers;
• Standard Edition: the most robust Windows Server operating system to date due to its increased reliability, flexibility and control;
• Enterprise Edition: an enterprise-class platform for deploying business-critical applications.

Through Astro, customers can quickly customize their rapid deployment servers with a wide range of offerings, including the option to deploy IIS, Plesk Control Panel, Virtual Firewall Solutions and DEFCON bundled managed services.  And with Encompass, Layered Tech's centralized client management portal, customers can manage their account, request support, reboot servers and access other critical information such as bandwidth graphs, alerts and notifications.

Layered Tech launched Astro in January 2009 in its DataBank data center located in Dallas and continues to broaden the autonomous platform so customers can take advantage of additional services within minutes, not hours or even days.  It plans to expand Astro into its Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Chicago facilities in the near future.  Customers can access Astro and buy servers directly through Layered Tech's Web site at www.LayeredTech.com, and with an open API created by Layered Tech, partners can display inventory and coordinate sales in real-time from their own Web sites.