Windows Server 2016 — What To Expect From The New Features
Microsoft has always been considered as a leader in the computing world, dominating the personal computer operating system with it’s MS-DOS way in the mid-1980s. Since, then it has continued to maintain it’s position by offering revolutionary and latest technologies.
In the fast-paced world that we live in, technology changes in a heartbeat, becoming faster and better everyday. Companies are constantly on their toes, trying to perform their very best. In order to keep up with the latest trend of cloud and hybrid technology, Microsoft has introduced its latest server technology in early 2016, labeled right Microsoft Server 2016.
The Microsoft Server 2016 builds up on the older Server 2008 and Server 2012 technology, making the already amazing server technology even better. The latest server includes added layers of security, new deployment options, built-in containers, cost-efficient storage and even agile networking.
The latest server main focus on this update was better security. With the added cloud component, security was a major concern and for this Microsoft has added an extra layer of security on their Windows Defender that helps prevent and limit the damage related to stolen credentials and insider threats and detect intrusions and threats earlier.
Here is a list of added security features:
- A limit on the exposure of the admin access to the proper level on at the times needed
- New shielded virtual machine that encrypts disk and state
- Protect stored credentials with virtualization-based security Remote Credential Guard and Device Guard.
- A new Host Guardian Service that authenticates host permissions
- For Cloud — only approved software will be used on the operating system and only approved code will be permitted to run on the OS.
Microsoft has also offered a brilliant solution for storage, by replacing the traditional SAN storage with Storage Spaces Direct. It offers a tighter integration, is simple to manage and extremely cost friendly. It also aids in the process of procurement and deployment, and delivers unrivaled efficiency and performance.
The Server 2016 also optimizes the workload, reducing the time for processes that originally lasted 2–3 days to a few minutes. It also includes tighter integration with Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, adding a heavy emphasis on working with cloud technologies.
Another amazing offering includes rolling cluster updates, which means little to no downtime for updating and minimized migration risks. There is also an easier way for you to migrate your existing apps on to the cloud, as well as build brand new apps on the cloud server. All of this and so much more are so systematically packed in this update. If you want to learn more about these updates, you can check out this, Professional Guide To Windows Server 2016 course.
There are however, two main features that are worth pointing out and explaining in detail in this update: Hyper-V and Nano Server. These two have pushed Microsoft server technology to greater heights.
Microsoft combines the power of OS virtualization and machine virtualization into one compact Hyper-V container. The Hyper-V containers were introduced in Windows 2008 and made better in subsequent versions. However, in Server 2016, Microsoft adds a cluster update to their Hyper-Vs.
The update brings about some new changes to the Hyper-V on Server 2016, which we will cover in brief. If you want to read them in detail, you can do so here:
- Compatible with Connected Standby
A new Connected Standby mode that gives the users another option compared to the Always On/Always Connected (AOAC) power model.
- Discrete device assignment
Allows the user to give a virtual machine direct and exclusive access to some PCIe hardware devices, which results in faster access.
- Encryption support for the operating system disk in generation 1 virtual machines
Users can now use the BitLocker drive encryption on the operating system of generation 1 VMs.
- Host resource protection
Limits a virtual machine from using more than its share of system resources by looking for excessive levels of activity.
- Hot add and remove for network adapters and memory
Users can now add or remove a network adapter while the VM is running, without incurring downtime.
- Linux Secure Boot
Generation 2 virtual machines can boot using the Secure Boot option enabled.
- Nested virtualization
Users can now use a virtual machine as a Hyper-V host and create more virtual machines within that virtualized host.
- Rolling Hyper-V Cluster upgrade
Now add a node running Windows Server 2016 to a Hyper-V Cluster with nodes running Windows Server 2012 R2. It also allows you to upgrade without incurring downtime.
- Shielded virtual machines
This feature encrypts the data and the state and makes it harder for the Hyper-V administrators and malware on the host to inspect, tamper with, or steal data from the state of a shielded virtual machine.
- Virtualization-based security for generation 2 virtual machines
Device Guard and Credential Guard are powered with increased protection against malware for generation 2 VMs.
- Windows Containers
Users can now run multiple isolated applications on one computer system.
- Windows PowerShell Direct
The PowerShell Direct runs between the host and the VM, and allows users to run Windows PowerShell commands in a virtual machine from the host.
These are some of the brand new features that were offered in the latest Windows Server update.
The Nano Sever is another brilliant addition to the Server 2016, which is a stripped-down version of the Windows Server 2016. However, this mini server can run Hyper-V, File Server, Failover Clustering and even host containers. It contains no GUI and does not support console login, locally or via Remote Desktop Connection.
The best thing about this brilliant server is that it saves 93–95% of the disk footprint, reduces critical bulletins by 92% and reduces reboots by 80%. It is expected to be a deployment option rather than an edition of Windows.
It also includes container support for Operating systems to help users write the next version of Cloud Apps on the Nano Server using ASP.NET V5, making it also easier to deploy the apps.
These are some amazing new features and what you can expect from the latest Windows Server 2016 update. With this update, Windows is expected to give neck-to-neck competition to Amazon’s AWS. Please let us know if you are as excited about this latest technology as we are.
