Differences between Win7 IIS and Win2008 R2 IIS?

I am specing out new development workstations for my team and I am running into a conflict. I am a developer and I want Windows Server 2008 R2 because that is what our production servers are running. The IT guys want to give us Windows 7 because t开发者_高级运维hat is where they have tested all their infrastructure.

My question is this: is there enough of a difference between the two to push for 2008 R2? I know MSFT has crippled IIS in previous versions of Windows unless it was the server edition so I am skeptical about Win7 giving me what we need.

You can use Windows 7 for your development machines and have one Windows Server 2008 R2 for UAT deployments. This way you can have the best of both worlds. IT will be happy that you are all running Windows 7 and you will be happy that you're able to test your application in windows server 2008.

This question answer might be helpful.

Differences between Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Your IT guys are correct aside from licensing issues such cost as Office without workstation on OpenValue, OpenSelect etc.. (remember they are packaged together) etc.. there are hardware issues and compatibility with future software.

There is no way you need 2008 R2 Server, do you want to work in the data center too? or have a full copy of the live database? You should have a CI server though that represents the live environment , the IT guys should provide this for you - probably as a VM.