While the world wonders at the sheer slowness of Microsoft's Vista, it appears that Redmond might be set to release a Windows Server that is eight times faster than anything on the market. According to CRN, Microsoft's server 2008 is nearly 45 times faster than Server 2003.

It reports that Ward Ralston at the Windows Server Division Weblog reports that in a side-by-side between Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008, the group set out to transfer 10.8 GB of "VirtualEarth Stitch files" from one server to another, and back again.

On Windows Server 2003, the data took five hours, 40 minutes and 30 seconds to transfer once, and more than six hours to transfer back. On Windows Server 2008, the same data took seven minutes and 45 seconds to transfer one way, and eight minutes and 10 seconds to transfer back.

More here.