This image of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 is preconfigured by CIS to the recommendations in the associated CIS Benchmark. CIS Benchmarks are vendor agnostic, consensus-based security configuration guides both developed and accepted by government, business, industry, and academia. CIS Benchmarks also provide a foundation to comply with numerous cybersecurity frameworks.

Cloud environments and operating systems are not secure by default. Launching an image hardened according to the trusted security configuration baselines prescribed by a CIS Benchmark will reduce cost, time, and risk to an organization. This image has been hardened by CIS and is configured with the majority of the recommendations included in the free PDF version of the corresponding CIS Benchmark. The Level 1 Profile settings within the CIS Benchmark have been applied with the intent to provide a clear security benefit without inhibiting the utility of the technology beyond acceptable means. The hardening of this instance was configured through the utilization of local group policy.

To learn more or access the corresponding CIS Benchmark, please visit the Center for Internet Security website or visit our community platform, CIS WorkBench.

If the intention is to use this instance in a domain environment where policies are managed globally, the majority of the security settings will be changed and managed by domain policies. CIS Benchmarks are developed in a unique consensus-based process.

Amazon EC2 running Microsoft Windows Server is a fast and dependable environment for deploying applications using the Microsoft Web Platform. Amazon EC2 enables you to run any compatible Windows-based solution on AWS' high-performance, reliable, cost-effective, cloud computing platform. Common Windows use cases include Enterprise Windows-based application hosting, website and web-service hosting, data processing, media transcoding, distributed testing, ASP.NET application hosting, and any other application requiring Windows software.

Note: Microsoft ended support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008R2 on January 14th 2020. These images are no longer available from AWS Marketplace. Please review the end of support FAQ here: https://aws.amazon.com/windows/faq/#eos-microsoft-products