Why installing Dynamics CRM 4 on top of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008?
I have been working recently with a customer who already had all of their environments on top of Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005 and hence, setting up a couple of '2008' servers [Windows Server 2008/2008R2 and SQL Server 2008/2008R2] to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 was a little bit more challenging / complex to accept.
In addition, their IT Staff was pretty clear on the benefits of Windows 2008 and SQL Server 2008 but for some reasons they have decided not to migrate up to now. So, the key question was: Which exactly are the main advantages of installing Dynamics CRM 4 on top of Windows Server 2008/2008R2 and SQL Server 2008/2008R2 instead of Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005?
I took it as homework and started to make some research but mainly found benefits of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 as standalone products but nothing strictly related to Dynamics CRM 4.
So, I posted the question to CRM forum here and also compiled some other info which I sum it up in the following bullets that could be helpful for you if you happen to face a similar scenario. So, the main reasons of choosing a '2008' platform are:
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The default (and obvious) advantages of using a new platform: scalability, performance, security. There are many documents that talks about these topics (and makes nonsense to cover on this blog) but these ones relate specifically to Dynamics CRM 4:
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If you think to migrate to CRM 2011 in the near future, SQL Server 2005 is not supported as officially announced.
- In addition to previous, Windows 2003 is not going to be supported on CRM 2011. Additionally, I could see that on July 2010 the mainstream support was retired for this OS.
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Windows Server 2008 makes it possible to set up Hyper-V with 64 bits, which means a lot in terms of performance and virtualization optimization.
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Sometimes the most important reason (because in general it involves business decision makers), the Reporting capabilities, from Report Builder to BI features. In these aspects, SQL 2008 is an important shift from 2005, meaning a complete superior experience.
Besides the above, there are naturally a lot of benefits that come with each product and again, are out of scope of this post and my blog and what I tried was pointing out some aspects strictly related to Dynamics CRM 4.
In any case, just remember (and strongly recommend) after installing Dynamics CRM, apply rollup 7 and rollup 13 immediately (latest rollup released up to date).
Hope it helps,
PP