Microsoft has released the latest version of the Windows server OS platform “Server 2019” and is set to build towards the push to bridge on-premises and the cloud. Windows Server usually gives a major update to its OS approximately every four years. Since the last major update was in 2016, many people are excited to see what Microsoft has in store for Windows Server users. There are many new features to Windows Server 2019 that are creating a buzz amongst I.T professionals. Windows Server 2019 aims to help you grow your business and extend operations to the cloud and these features will help I.T administrators out there to move these systems to the cloud and more importantly manage these systems. Windows Server 2019 will help maximise existing assets and investments and builds on important features such as Windows Server security, app innovation, and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) capabilities to help you manage your on-premises and cloud computing infrastructure.
Hybrid Cloud capabilities with Azure
With centralised, simplified management tools, Windows Server 2019 brings new functionality and features to help connect on-premises environments with Azure services. This provides customers with the flexibility to move their services to the cloud when it fits their needs and ensure business continuity with cloud backup and disaster recovery services. To achieve this Microsoft brings improvements to Windows Server 2019 like built-in Azure Active Directory integration, Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, Storage Migration Services and many more. Windows 2019 builds on existing platforms by adding scale, performance and reliability whilst also adding the ability to manage HCI deployments in Project Honolulu, to simplify the management and day to day activities on HCI environments. There are also more monitoring capabilities with Cluster-wide monitoring. This new fully supported feature monitors CPU usage, memory, storage capacity, IOPS, throughput, and latency in real-time. This new feature also alerts you when something is wrong.
With an all-new Windows Admin Center, Microsoft introduced a new web-based management UI which will be a perfect solution to manage your Windows Server 2019 servers. Microsoft is also investing in more hardware support like Storage Class Memory support and also, on adding scale, resilience and performance improvements to your Storage Spaces Direct deployments. This includes improvements like Cluster Sets, improved performance for Mirror-accelerated parity volumes and much more.
Security
Windows Server 2019 focuses on enhancing security features to help provide comprehensive protection to data and apps with the ability to detect and automatically respond to threats and help customers stay compliant with regulations, including GDPR and HIPAA. Microsoft adds new capabilities like Shield Virtual Machines for Linux, Exploit Guard, Encrypted Virtual Networks and a lot of others.
The new integration of Windows Defender Advanced Thread Protection or Windows Defender ATP is also a highlight and a great move forward. These new security measures help protect data centre operating systems. Windows defender advanced threat protection provides preventative protection, detects attacks and zero-day exploits into the operating system to allow for deeper access to kernel and memory sensors, improves performance and anti-tampering and enabling quick response to these actions.
Application Innovation
With the Semi-Annual Channel releases of Windows Server, Microsoft already released some great features to help developers and IT professionals to design and build cloud-native applications and modernise traditional applications using containers and micro-services. In Windows Server 2019, Microsoft goes one step further and releases the SAC Improvements like Linux Containers on Windows Server and the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server to the LTSC release. Microsoft also invests heavily to improve the container experience on Windows Server, by optimising the container images for Server Core and Nano Server, a new Windows Container Image and better integration into orchestrators like Kubernetes and Service Fabric.
App developers and administrators can now use tools in Linux ecosystems with Command Prompt and PowerShell with the new Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) feature. WSL also allows a way to run a Linux userspace, such as Ubuntu, on top of Windows. This feature will help those who are experienced with Linux hosting, both a Virtual Private Server or Windows dedicated servers.
Conclusion
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 brings a number of new capabilities plus updates and performance improvements to its server operating system. There are too many new features to Windows Server 2019 to mention, so in this article, I have just highlighted some of the most important new features. The question for most IT administrators now will be whether to upgrade existing systems now or wait. Windows Server 2019 a very substantial upgrade to the user experience, and the many improvements will make this by far the best Server OS in the market.
