I have been sharing some updates about Microsoft 2019 Server on previous posts , and finally in MS Ignite event Microsoft announced General Availability of Windows Server 2019 for download starting in October. Windows Server 2019 has the new and enhanced features and functionality of the Windows Server operating system.
Windows Server 2019 Released General Availability
Windows Server 2019 is designed and engineered to help modernize your datacenter with below mentioned major areas . And 2019 Server is release focused on next generation datacenter infrastructure and all of the current and future technology concerns .
- Hybrid
- Security
- Application Platform
- Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)
Microsoft is rapidly growing and developing , releasing new tools to support the Windows Server 2019 . Also they adding new features and functionality with each new preview.
Hybrid
As we all know now every organization would like to move to cloud with their current infrastructure . With 2019 server hybrid approach, one that combines on-premises and cloud environments working together, is a core element of our customers’ modernization strategy. This is why hybrid is built in to Windows Server 2019 and Windows Admin Center. To make it easier to connect existing Windows Server deployments to Azure services and Microsoft built interfaces for hybrid capabilities into the Windows Admin Center. With Windows Admin Center and Windows Server 2019, customers can use hybrid features like Azure Backup, Azure File Sync, disaster recovery to extend their datacenters to Azure. Also added the Storage Migration Service to help migrate file servers and their data to Azure without the need to reconfigure applications or users.
Security
Always Security continues to be a top priority for every organization and 2019 is available with new features . With the security threats growing in number and becoming more and more sophisticated, Microsoft continue to keep a persistent focus on security. The approach to security is three-fold: Protect, Detect, and Respond. Microsoft bring security features in all three areas to Windows Server 2019. On the Protect front, it had previously introduced Shielded VMs to protect sensitive virtualized workloads such as Domain Controllers, PCI data, sensitive healthcare, and financial data among others. In Windows Server 2019, we extended support of Shielded VMs to Linux VMs. On the Detect and Respond front, and enabled Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), that detects attacks and zero-day exploits among other capabilities. Windows Server 2019 also includes Defender Exploit Guard to help you elevate the security posture of your IT environment and combat ransomware attacks.
Application Platform
From many aspects Microsoft understand that in new modern infrastructure smaller container image size will significantly improve experience of developers and IT Pros who are modernizing their existing applications using containers. In Windows Server 2019 much reduced the Server Core base container image to a third of its size. Microsoft also provide improved app compatibility, support for Service Fabric and Kubernetes, and support for Linux containers on Windows to help modernize your apps. Microsoft is always value to the feedback constantly hear from developers is the complexity in navigating environments with Linux and Windows deployments. To address that they previously extended Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) into insider builds for Windows Server, so that customers can run Linux containers side-by-side with Windows containers on a Windows Server. In Windows Server 2019, we are continuing on this journey to improve WSL, helping Linux users bring their scripts to Windows while using industry standards like OpenSSH, Curl & Tar.
Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI)
HCI is one of the latest trends in the server industry today and most organizations today is Hyper Converged Infrastructure . Organizations understand the value of using HCI , Servers with high performant local disks to run their compute and storage needs at the same time. In Windows Server 2019 Microsoft provides HCI with cost-effective high-performance software-defined storage and networking that allows deployments to scale from small 2-node, all the way up to 100s of servers with Cluster Sets technology, making it affordable regardless of the deployment scale. With Windows Server Software Defined program, Microsoft doing partnership with industry leading hardware vendors to provide an affordable and yet extremely robust HCI solution with validated design.
Windows Server 2019 only strengthens these capabilities by democratizing HCI with even more cost-effective, high-performance software-defined storage and networking. Microsoft has created a brilliant approach to an extremely low cost two-node cluster using “True two-node” technology, allowing customers to make use of a USB key attached to a commodity router that allows the “witness” functionality needed for quorum with a two-node cluster. This provides an extremely cost-effective solution for organizations utilizing HCI in “edge” environments that may have limited infrastructure or connectivity to the Internet.
Windows Server 2019 is available for Download?
Microsoft has now announced the availability of the Windows Server 2019 operating system and October 2018 on-wards you can download the versions and explore more .
Download Windows Server 2019 Now
In addition to downloading the Windows Server 2019 ISO, you can also try the new features through the following ways:
- Try it in Azure: Azure provides a great way to test Windows Server 2019 with pre-built images.
- Microsoft Hands-on Labs: Skip the setup work and log into our free Hands-on Labs for a real-world environment along with step-by-step guidance to help you try the new features.
