So Microsoft bounces in with another brand new server solution. Normally, we uncover new versions of Microsoft server merchandise are far better than their predecessors and absolutely a lot greater than their desktop operating program counterparts which have brought on a few ripples of excitement but far more of nervousness and individuals look to be awaiting the inevitable service pack 1 release.
Possessing had a play with the release preview of Windows Server 2012, we have found some intriguing things about the new server to share with you. Some men and women are sceptical about the new interface formerly identified as Metro, but with additional emphasis on Server Core and the Minimal Server Interface, the UI is unlikely to be the deciding issue when selecting to upgrade. A lot more important are the big modifications and new capabilities that make Server 2012 superior in a position to deal with your network’s workloads and demands.
Here are 11 causes to give critical consideration to upgrading to Server 2012 sooner rather than later.
1: Freedom of interface choice
A Server Core installation provides security and efficiency advantages, but in the past, you had to make a selection: If you installed Server Core, you have been stuck with it with only the command line as your interface. On the other hand, this modifications with Windows Server 2012.
Microsoft realised that the command line is excellent for some tasks and the graphical interface is preferable for others. Server 2012 makes the GUI a “function” – one that can be turned on and off at will, as a result saving resources when the server is just being a server. You do it by way of the Get rid of Roles or Functions selection in Server Manager.
two: Server Manager
With regards to the Server Manager, even a lot of of these who dislike the new (metro) tile-primarily based interface overall have admitted that the design’s implementation in the new Server Manager is brilliant.
One particular of the ideal issues about the new Server Manager is the multi-server capabilities, which tends to make it straightforward to deploy roles and features remotely to physical and virtual servers. It is uncomplicated to produce a server group – a collection of servers that can be managed with each other. The remote administration improvements let you provision servers without having obtaining to make an RDP connection.
three: Server Message Block three.
The SMB protocol has been significantly enhanced in Windows Server 2012 as properly as Windows 8. The new version supports new file server functions, like SMB transparent failover, SMB Scale Out, SMB Multichannel, SMB Direct, SMB encryption, VSS for SMB file sharing, SMB directory leasing, and SMB PowerShell. It also operates beautifully with Hyper-V, so that VHD files and virtual machine configuration files can be hosted on SMB three. shares. A SQL technique database can be stored on an SMB share, as properly, with improvements to efficiency.
four: Dynamic Access Control (DAC)
Microsoft has shifted the concentrate from separate security solutions to a more “baked in” approach of integrating security into every aspect of the operating program.
Dynamic Access Control is one such example, helping IT Pros develop a lot more centralized security models for access to network resources by tagging sensitive data both manually and automatically, primarily based on elements such as the file content material or the creator. Right after that, claims primarily based access controls can be applied.
5: Storage Spaces
Storage is an intriguing topic in the IT sector these days. shared RDP are nevertheless a extended way off storing almost everything in the cloud quite a few organizations are still concerned about safety and reliability. There are a myriad of solutions for storing information on your network in a way that delivers superior utilisation of storage sources, centralized management, improved scalability along with safety and reliability, SANs and NAS do that, but they can be high priced.
Storage Spaces is a wonderful new function in Server 2012 that lets you use affordable hard drives to develop a storage pool, which can then be divided into spaces that are applied like physical disks. They can include things like hot standby drives and use redundancy procedures such as 2- or 3-way mirroring or parity. What’s excellent is that you can add new disks any time, and a space can be bigger than the physical capacity of the pool. When you add new drives, the space automatically utilizes the additional capacity.
6: Virtualisation
Virtualisation was the most significant thing just before the cloud hit the IT market and it is still the thing to do when it comes to servers. Hyper-V is Microsoft’s answer to VMware / XenServer. Microsoft’s virtualisation platform is liked by a lot of IT Pro’s and with each and every new version Windows hypervisor gets a small far better, and Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 brings a quantity of new options to the table. One of the most intriguing is Hyper-V Replica.
This is a replication mechanism that will be a disaster recovery Godsend to SMBs that could not be able to deploy complex and costly replication options. It logs changes to the disks in a VM and uses compression to save on bandwidth, replicating from a primary server to a replica server.
You are in a position to shop many snapshots of a VM on the replica server and then pick the 1 you want to use. It performs with both standalone hosts and clusters in any mixture.