After a long wait, and 5 technical previews, Windows Server 2016 is now generally available!
Windows Server 2016 includes a lot of enhancements over the last version of Windows Server and its main new features are meant to bring cloud capabilities to your datacenter. As Microsoft calls it, Windows Server 2016 is a Cloud-Ready OS and has Microsoft Azure inspired innovations.
Whether you are a small business or a cloud service provider, Windows Server 2016 brings a lot of new features to simplify your datacenter management and business operations.
Windows Server 2016 is available in 3 editions: Essentials, Standard and Datacenter, each with its own capabilities. The Essentials version is for small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices. The Standard and Datacenter editions are meant for small-medium businesses to large enterprises and cloud service providers. We’ll focus more on the Standard/Datacenter editions in this post.
The table below show the main differences between the 2 editions –
To read more about features comparison in Windows Server 2016 against older versions, check here. This comparison describes the available features in Windows Servers 2016 compared to 2008 R2 and 2012 R2 in different categories, including: Performance and Scalability, Security, Software-defined Datacenter (compute, networking and storage) and Cloud Ready Application Platform features.
When installing Windows Server 2016, you will have 3 installations options –
- Server Core: reduces the space required on disk, the potential attack surface, and especially the servicing requirements. This is the recommended option unless you have a particular need for additional user interface elements and graphical management tools.
- Server with Desktop Experience: installs the standard user interface and all tools, including client experience features that required a separate installation in Windows Server 2012 R2. Server roles and features are installed with Server Manager or by other methods.
- Nano Server: is a remotely administered server operating system optimized for private clouds and datacenters. It is similar to Windows Server in Server Core mode, but significantly smaller, has no local logon capability, and only supports 64-bit applications, tools, and agents. It takes up far less disk space, sets up significantly faster, and requires far fewer updates and restarts than the other options.
To read more about all the new and changed features in Windows Server 2016, check here and here.
Additional resources can be found here and you can also download an evaluation of Windows Server from the Evaluation Center and try it today!
We’ve been testing Windows Server 2016 since its first technical preview build and already started deploying and testing it with our clients.
Contact us today to find out how we (and Windows Server 2016) can help your business maximize its IT infrastructure capabilities and business operations!
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