So Microsoft jumps in with another brand new server product. Overall, we find new versions of Microsoft’s server products to be better than their predecessors and certainly much better than their desktop OS counterparts, which has caused some ripples of enthusiasm but more nervousness and people seem to be waiting for the inevitable Service Pack 1 release.
After playing around with the Windows Server 2012 Preview, we’ve discovered some interesting things about the new server to share with you. Some people are skeptical about the new interface formerly known as Metro, but with more emphasis on Server Core and the minimal server interface, UI is unlikely to be the deciding factor when choosing to upgrade. More important are the big changes and new capabilities that make Server 2012 better able to handle the workloads and needs of your network.
Here are 11 reasons to seriously consider upgrading to Server 2012 sooner rather than later.
1: Freedom of interface choice
A Server Core installation brings security and performance benefits, but in the past, you had to make a choice: If you installed Server Core, you only had to use the command line interface. However, this changes with Windows Server 2012.
Microsoft realized that the command line is great for some tasks and the graphical interface is preferable for others. Server 2012 makes the GUI a “feature”, one that can be turned on and off at will, saving resources when the server is just a server. You do this through the Remove Roles or Features option in Server Manager.
2: server administrator
Regarding Server Manager, even many of those who don’t like the new tile-based (metro) interface have generally admitted that the design implementation in the new Server Manager is brilliant.
One of the best things about the new Server Manager is the multi-server capabilities, which makes it easy to remotely deploy roles and functions across physical and virtual servers. It’s easy to create a server group: a collection of servers that can be managed together. Remote administration enhancements allow you to provision servers without having to make an RDP connection.
3: Server Message Block 3.0
The SMB protocol has been significantly improved in Windows Server 2012 as well as Windows 8. The new version supports new file server features such as SMB Transparent Failover, SMB Scale Out, SMB Multi-Channel, SMB Direct, SMB Encryption, SMB File Sharing VSS, SMB Directory Leasing, and SMB PowerShell. It also works seamlessly with Hyper-V, so VHD files and virtual machine configuration files can be hosted on SMB 3.0 shares. An SQL system database can also be stored on an SMB share, with performance improvements.
4: Dynamic Access Control (DAC)
Microsoft has shifted its focus from separate security products to a more integrated approach of integrating security into every part of the operating system.
Dynamic access control is one such example, helping IT professionals create more centralized security models for accessing network resources by manually and automatically labeling sensitive data, based on factors such as file content or creator. After that, notification-based access controls can be applied.
5: Storage spaces
Storage is an interesting topic in the IT industry these days. We are still a long way from storing everything in the cloud, many organizations are still concerned about security and reliability. There are plenty of solutions to store data on your network in a way that provides better utilization of storage resources, centralized management, better scalability along with security and reliability, SAN and NAS do that, but they can be expensive.
Storage Spaces is a great new feature in Server 2012 that allows you to use inexpensive hard drives to create a storage pool, which can then be partitioned into spaces that are used like physical disks. They can include hot spare drives and use redundancy methods such as mirroring or 2-way or 3-way parity. The good thing is that you can add new disks at any time and a space can be larger than the physical capacity of the pool. When you add new drives, the space automatically uses the additional capacity.
6: Virtualization
Virtualization was top of mind before the cloud hit the IT industry and it’s still the thing to do when it comes to servers. Hyper-V is Microsoft’s answer to VMware/XenServer. Microsoft’s virtualization platform is loved by many IT professionals, and with each new release, the Windows hypervisor gets a little better, and Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 brings a number of new features to the table. One of the most interesting is Hyper-V Replica.
This is a replication mechanism that will be a disaster recovery boon for SMBs that may not be able to implement complex and expensive replication solutions. Records changes to a virtual machine’s disks and uses compression to save bandwidth by replicating from a primary server to a replica server.
You can store multiple snapshots of a virtual machine on the Replica and then select the one you want to use. It works with standalone hosts and clusters in any combination.
7: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Windows Terminal Services was renamed Remote Desktop Services and has since expanded to encompass much more than just RDP capability to a remote server’s desktop. Microsoft then released a centralized Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution in Windows Server 2008 R2, and now some significant improvements have been made in Server 2012.
You no longer need a dedicated GPU graphics card in the server to use RemoteFX, which greatly improves graphics quality over RDP. Instead, you can use a virtualized GPU on standard server hardware. USB over RDP is much better, and the Fair Share feature can manage how CPU, memory, disk space, and bandwidth are allocated among users to prevent certain users from stealing all your bandwidth.
8: Shortcut
DirectAccess was supposed to be Microsoft’s “VPN replacement”. It allowed you to create a secure connection from the client to the corporate network with no loss of performance and a more transparent user experience than a traditional VPN. Administrators get more control over machines and the ability to manage them even before users log in. Group policy is also used to control the machines and there are no issues with setting up a VPN connection.
So why hasn’t Direct Access taken off? Two main reasons, it can’t be virtualized and it depends on IPv6. However, in Windows Server 2012, DirectAccess now works over IPv4, and lo and behold, it can run in a Hyper-V virtual machine. It also comes with a new wizard to help make setup much easier.
9: Resilient File System
NTFS has been around since 1993 and has been a much-needed replacement for a long time. It was initially speculated that a new file system would be introduced with Windows 7, but it did not materialize.
Windows Server 2012 finally brings us our long-awaited new file system, the Resilient File System. While it supports many of the features of NTFS, some have been dropped, such as file compression, EFS, and disk quotas. Instead, though, we get data verification, auto-remediation, and it’s designed to work with Storage Spaces to create logical shrink/expand storage pools.
Maximum scalability is the key driver behind ReFS, which supports up to 16 exabytes in practice. ReFS supports a theoretical limit of 256 zetabytes (more than 270 billion terabytes) which allows for great scalability and plenty of cloud storage!
10: Easy licenses
Microsoft and simple licenses don’t really go in the same sentence. But Microsoft has really listened this time, and Windows Server 2012 is offered in just four editions: Datacenter, Standard, Essentials, and Foundation. The first two are licensed per processor plus CALs and the other two (for small businesses) are licensed per server with limits on the number of user accounts (15 for Foundation and 25 for Essentials).
11: The New Active Directory
In today’s business environments, data is not always stored on the customer’s server due to the use of cloud technology. Additionally, staff access data on a number of different devices, such as phones, laptops, desktop computers, and other removable devices.
To address these new challenges, organizations must change the way they approach identity and security. Windows Server 2012’s contribution to helping with this challenge is the introduction of Dynamic Access Control, bringing with it exciting new capabilities and deployment options for Direct Access. This means you’ll be able to better manage and secure access to data, simplify the deployment and management of your identity infrastructure, and provide more secure access to data from virtually anywhere.