In mid-October, Microsoft announced the launch of Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry based largely on the improvements that were made to Windows 8.1. Now, the company said that it has made Windows Server 2012 R2 for Embedded Systems available for general use, which again is using much of the code base behind the new Windows Server 2012 R2, Neowin reports.

In a blog post, Partha Srinivasan, the product manager for Microsoft's Windows Embedded Server and SQL Products, said that their new server software offers enterprise and OEM customers better virtualization capabilities as well as other improvements.

He stated: “The time it takes to complete a live migration has been cut in half. We’ve increased data transfer rates to 10 gigabits per second, greatly enhancing speed. We’ve also added support for USB access in guest VMs, making it easier to perform software deployment and file management.”

These changes and improvements, as well as others, will allow for businesses to run small servers in locations that don't have a lot of space. Srinivasan stated that an example of this kind of situation is Lufthansa Systems, which used Windows Server 2012 R2 for Embedded Systems to create an application that can handle in-flight entertainment on their airplanes.