Microsoft Gold-Certified Consultants
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Consulting Services:
Planning, Deployment, Management and Troubleshooting
Windows Server 2019 is the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) perpetual-license release of Microsoft's flagship server operating system. Windows Server 2019 includes all the updates to Windows Server 2016 previously available only through the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC). Windows Server 2019 incorporates significant enhancements in scale, performance, manageability, cybersecurity, application support, Linux compatibility, container technology, and hybrid integration of on-premises and cloud resources.
Headline new features of Windows Server 2019 include Windows Admin Center for centralizing the management and monitoring of hybrid local/cloud deployments, System Insights for utilizing modern predictive analytics to manage local environments, Windows Defender ATP Exploit Guard for host-intrusion prevention, container networking with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets for creating and managing large, high-availability scale-out clusters, and Storage Migration Service for streamlining the migration from legacy Windows servers.
Progent can help you integrate Windows Server 2019 with the latest releases of Microsoft's popular applications by providing services that include Exchange Server consulting, SQL Server 2019 integration expertise, SQL Server 2017 configuration consulting, SharePoint 2016 development, and Microsoft 365 expertise. Progent's consulting, troubleshooting, and training services for Windows Server 2019 are available online and Progent also offers onsite consulting in major metropolitan areas across the United States.
Hybrid Cloud Solutions with Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 makes Microsoft's Azure stack available to organizations of all sizes for building on-premises networks, private clouds, or hybrid systems that combine local resources with infrastructure and services provided by private and public clouds.
Most of today's businesses deploy a mix of on-premises and cloud-based resources to get the appropriate balance of control, economy, performance, availability, and security they require. In some industries, compliance regulations require that certain resources and information be retained locally. In other cases, corporate policies or compatibility issues require line-of-business applications to be hosted locally. Windows Server 2019 offers a cloud-friendly solution that allows you to build and manage powerful hybrid networks that distribute resources transparently across local facilities and the cloud.
Planning, building and managing efficient hybrid solutions with Windows Server 2019 demands a wide range of knowledge and experience that is outside the comfort zone of most IT staffs maintained by smaller organizations. Progent's team of subject-matter experts give you on-demand access to the knowledge you need for any facet of hybrid networking design and management. Progent's Microsoft-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and cybersecurity professionals can help you assess the advantages of Windows Server 2019 for your organization and create a hybrid ecosystem based on Windows Server 2019 that delivers maximum business value.
A Good Time to Migrate
The release of Windows Server 2019 coincides with the announcement of End-of-Support status for Microsoft's popular Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 products. This means there will be no more security updates on-premises, no non-security updates, no free support options, and no online technical content updates. Consequently, security and compliance issues will become increasingly challenging, maintenance costs may go up, and system stability may go down.
If you want help moving up to Windows Server 2019 from Windows Server 2008 or from any other out-of-date release of Windows Server, Progent can provide the knowledge and experience to make your migration efficient, affordable, and on-schedule. Progent can help you:
- Identify and inventory your applications and server roles running on your current Windows Servers
- Move your virtual machines to the Private Progent Cloud or upgrade to the latest version of Windows Server or to Azure
- Fine-tune your resources to optimize costs, manage resources, and strengthen security and compliance across hybrid workloads
Windows Server 2019 is available in the value-priced Standard edition and the high-end Datacenter edition. The Datacenter edition supports unlimited server virtualization while the Standard edition allows two VMs. The Datacenter edition also includes advanced features like Shielded Virtual Machines, Network Controller, Host Guardian Hyper-V Service (HGS), Storage Replica, Software-defined Networking (SDN), and Storage Spaces Direct. Most of these technologies are discussed in Windows Server 2016 consulting services.
Windows Server 2019 has two installation options. Installation options are Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. Server Core has a minimal footprint and no local interface but supports all server roles. This so-called "headless" version must be managed remotely. The Server with Desktop Experience option is a complete installation and includes a rich graphical user interface (GUI) for local management. Progent's consultants can help you to select the editions and installation options most appropriate for your situation, understand Microsoft's licensing rules, and choose an efficient onsite, cloud-based, or hybrid deployment model.
Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 offers significant improvements in scale, performance, manageability, Hyper-V virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid deployments, storage, availability, containers, Linux support, and other important areas. Editions of Windows Server 2019 licensed under the SAC model are updated twice a year, and so make new features available much sooner than under the LTSC model.
In terms of sheer scale, Windows Server 2019 offers major improvements over its predecessor Windows Server 2016:
| Feature | Windows Server 2016 | Windows Server 2019 |
| Max raw capacity per cluster | 1 PB | 4 PB |
| Max raw capacity per server | 100 TB | 400 TB |
| Max number of volumes | 32 | 64 |
| Max size per volume | 32 TB | 64 TB |
Other headline enhancements in Windows Server 2019 include:
- Cluster Sets is a technology that supports orders of magnitude increases in cluster node count in a Software Defined Data Center by grouping numerous smaller Failover Clusters into a single large, centrally managed fabric. You can transparently migrate VMs throughout the Cluster Set fabric and manage every aspect of a Failover Cluster from onboarding to retirement. Clusters joined in a Cluster Set can take advantage of extra storage and memory in another cluster without requiring that you buy additional hardware. Compute and storage resources do not have to be identical, and resiliency is as good or better than with conventional Failover Clusters.
Prior to Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for VMs were cumbersome to manage and scale 
Windows Server 2019 introduces Cluster Sets for centralized management of failover clusters - Storage Replica is now included in the Standard edition of Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica provides advanced disaster recovery capability and is described in Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica consulting. New features of Storage Replica include a test failover option that allows you to bring a destination volume online temporally for testing and backup. In addition, you can now manage Storage Replica with the new Windows Admin Center, which provides a graphical tool for managing operations like server-to-server, cluster-to-cluster, and stretch cluster replication.
- Storage Spaces Direct improvements include deduplication and compression for ReFS volumes, native support for persistent memory, the ability to use a commodity flash drive as a witness with two-server clusters, increased scale (up to 4 PB per cluster), doubled performance for mirror-accelerated parity, outlier detection for drive latency, and the ability to increase fault tolerance by manually delimiting volume allocation. The Storage Spaces Direct feature is discussed in Windows Server 2016 Storage Spaces Direct consulting.
- Storage Migration Service vastly simplifies the process of migrating legacy servers to newer versions of Windows Server. You can use Storage Migration Service to migrate to newer hardware or to VMs. The tool automatically inventories multiple servers and their data; copies files, shares, and security configurations to their new servers; and allows you to assume the identity of the legacy servers so users and applications can access existing data without making any changes. Windows Admin Center's user interface can manage multiple simultaneous migrations.
- Expanded Linux support allows you to run Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server within shielded VMs. The Shielded Virtual Machines feature is described in Windows Server 2016 Shielded Virtual Machines consulting.
- Windows Admin Center is a new web-based application deployed locally for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) with Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 computers, and Azure hosted VMs. Windows Admin Center can also be used to manage Windows Server 2012 and later. Windows Admin Center is an "in-box" management tool and so can be used to manage servers on private networks not connected to the Internet. By publishing the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can manage your servers securely from anywhere.
Windows Admin Center lets you manage local and Azure cloud virtual machines from a single pane of glass - Container networking with Kubernetes, the popular open-source management tool for Docker containers, has improved support including the ability to use network security to protect Linux and Windows services using embedded tooling. For a discussion of containers on Windows Server, see Windows Server 2016 containers consulting.
- Deduplication and compression for ReFS volumes can deliver an order of magnitude more data on a given Resilient File System volume. Microsoft's ReFS file system, introduced in Windows Server 2012, combines solid-state performance tiers for handling hot data along with HDD/SDD capacity tiers for scale and fault tolerance.
- Windows Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) is included with Windows Server 2019 as a built-in feature requiring no special license and no agent installation.
- Encrypted Networks encrypts traffic between VMs communicating within subnets designated as Encryption Enabled. Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) on the virtual subnet prevents anyone with access to the physical network from reading, modifying, or spoofing network data. Traffic between encrypted subnets is not encrypted.
- A USB Flash Drive connected to your router can be used as a witness in two-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. With this low-cost, no-hassle solution, if a server fails and then recovers, the USB drive cluster can tell you which server has the most current data.
Windows Server 2019 allows a USB Flash drive to act as a witness in two-server clusters - Low Extra Delay Background Transport (LEDBAT) automatically controls network congestion by consuming bandwidth only when the network is not being utilized by users and applications. This allows an organization to send large, important updates throughout an enterprise network without degrading the performance of business-critical services.
- System Insights uses predictive analytics and machine learning to simplify capacity planning. System Insights runs locally on each Windows Server 2019 instance and analyses performance counters and system events to forecast capacity requirements in key areas including usage for volumes, total storage capacity, CPU, and networking.
- Windows Time Service supports the new time synchronization method called Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and provides accurate time during a leap second. Windows Server 2019 also offers time traceability, software timestamping, and clock source stability. These features deliver greater accuracy and precision, allow compliance with UTC and other regulations such as FINRA, and meet the requirements of special time-sensitive workloads. Because network configuration requires care to support PTP, Network Time Protocol (NTP) remains the default synchronization method.
Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help your organization to design and implement a cost-effective migration to Windows Server 2019 using your current deployment architecture or a new cloud-based or hybrid model. Progent can help you use the new Storage Migration Service to cut time and cost off the process of moving from legacy Windows Server platforms as old as Windows Server 2003, and Progent can show you how to benefit from new features of Windows Server 2019 to improve performance, scale, availability, and manageability. Progent's Exchange Server 2019 consultants can help you configure Exchange Server 2019 Mailbox and Edge Transport server roles and management tools, which require Windows Server 2019. Progent's SQL Server 2019 consultants can help integrate Microsoft's database platform with Windows Server 2019 to run your critical workloads in a leading-edge environment.
Progent's certified cybersecurity consultants can help you follow leading practices to create a modern security solution that is consistent across local and cloud resources as well as mobile end points. Progent can help you set up centralized and proactive security monitoring and management using an optimal combination of Microsoft and third-party cybersecurity tools and services. Progent also offers cybersecurity audits to make sure your network complies with regulatory and industry data security requirements such as SOX, ISO 27001, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.
Progent's roster of Cisco CCIE-certified network infrastructure consultants is one of the largest of any independent IT services firm in the United States. Progent can help you deploy and manage a resilient hybrid network infrastructure that incorporates the high-availability and disaster recovery technologies included with Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery consultants and business continuity experts can help you plan and test a comprehensive strategy for recovering quickly from catastrophic events.
To help you manage your Windows Server 2019 and Hyper-V environment, Progent can provide a range of services like Windows Admin Center consulting, PowerShell scripting, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud management consulting, and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) integration. Progent also offers the ProSight family of remote monitoring and management (RMM) outsourcing packages that give small and mid-size businesses an affordable and effective option for server and infrastructure management.
Progent's Online Consulting and Troubleshooting Services
Progent has two decades of experience delivering advanced online consulting and troubleshooting expertise and has provided online technical support to organizations in every state in the United States. (See Progent's Customer Testimonials.) Progent also offers onsite support in most metropolitan areas across the U.S. Progent can provide on-demand support to help you with challenging technical issues or end-to-end project management outsourcing and co-sourcing services.
If you need immediate online help from a Microsoft-certified consultant, see Progent's Online Support Services.
Contact Progent for Help with Windows Server 2019
To find out more about Progent's consulting and troubleshooting services for Windows Server 2019, call
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CCIE Certified Wi-Fi VoIP phone integration Network Consulting
Meraki Outdoor APs Support and Help
Progent's Cisco-certified Wi-Fi integration experts can help you to deploy, administer, and debug Cisco wireless products including Cisco's Aironet and Meraki 802.11ac wireless access points as well as Cisco's Wireless Network Controllers.
Windows Server 2012R2 Configuration Manager Remote Support Services
24x7 Windows Server 2012R2 Hyper-V Virtual Switch Remote Troubleshooting
Progent's certified consultants can assist you to evaluate the benefits of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 for your company, create pilot systems and migration strategies, optimize your network for local, multi-site, cloud-based, and partial-cloud datacenters, train your IT management staff, develop an enterprise-wide security plan, automate IT management, help with application development, and build and test a disaster recovery/business continuity plan.
Microsoft Experts Online Consulting SCVMM 2012 and VMware
After Hours Support Outsourcing SCVMM 2012 VHDX Resizing
Progent can help organizations of all sizes to adhere to best practices to configure System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager hosts and host groups, networking, storage, and library resources; design, integrate, and manage private clouds, virtual machines, and services in SCVMM 2012; and integrate SCVMM with SCOM 2012 for comprehensive monitoring. Progent can help you to upgrade from an earlier version of SCVMM or from another virtualization management system, and Progent can show you how you to enhance and repair your current SCVMM 2012 ecosystem so you realize maximum business value.
Professionals Network Performance Optimization
ProSight Remote Network Infrastructure Troubleshooting Technology Consulting
ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it easy and affordable for smaller businesses to diagram, track, enhance and debug their connectivity hardware such as routers, firewalls, and wireless controllers as well as servers, client computers and other networked devices. Incorporating state-of-the-art RMM technology, WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology diagrams are kept updated, copies and manages the configuration information of virtually all devices connected to your network, tracks performance, and sends notices when problems are discovered. By automating time-consuming management and troubleshooting processes, WAN Watch can cut hours off common tasks like network mapping, reconfiguring your network, locating devices that require critical software patches, or isolating performance bottlenecks.
IT Services RIM Blackberry
24/7 RIM Blackberry Integration Services
Progent offers the services of RIM BlackBerry-certified professionals who can help small organizations to plan, manage, and repair BlackBerry technology affordably and successfully, doing away with the need for an internal BlackBerry expert and minimizing the cost and distraction of maintaining a mobile wireless workforce. Progent's BlackBerry specialists have extensive backgrounds working with Progent's Microsoft-premier consultants, Cisco CCIE-certified network engineers, and CISSP and CISM-certified security engineers. This wide range of expertise, in conjunction with Progent's proven online service delivery model, provides small businesses an efficient option for integrating BlackBerry devices and software productively into their IT network.
ProSight Behavior-based Ransomware Defense Professionals
ProSight ASM Endpoint Ransomware Monitoring Consultant Services
Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes next generation behavior-based machine learning tools to defend endpoints and physical and virtual servers against new malware attacks such as ransomware and email phishing, which routinely get by traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools. ProSight ASM protects local and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to manage the complete malware attack progression including filtering, identification, mitigation, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Top capabilities include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time system-wide immunization against new threats.
ProSight Email Encryption Consultant
ProSight Email Spoofing Protection Specialist
Progent's ProSight Email Guard solution uses the services and infrastructure of top data security vendors to deliver web-based control and comprehensive protection for your inbound and outbound email. The hybrid architecture of ProSight Email Guard integrates cloud-based filtering with an on-premises gateway appliance to offer advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, DHAs, and other email-borne malware. The cloud filter serves as a preliminary barricade and blocks the vast majority of unwanted email from making it to your security perimeter. This decreases your exposure to external attacks and conserves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises gateway device provides a deeper layer of analysis for inbound email. For outgoing email, the local gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The on-premises security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email that originates and ends inside your security perimeter.
Aironet 2700 Access Point IT Services
wireless VoIP phone and Aironet APs Support
Progent's Cisco-certified Wi-Fi integration consultants can assist organizations to configure, administer, and troubleshoot Cisco Wi-Fi devices including Cisco's Aironet and Meraki Wave 2 Wi-Fi access points plus Cisco's Wireless Network Controllers.
Professionals Dynamics GP VBA
24x7 Dynamics GP ODBC Specialist
Progent's expertise delivering Microsoft .NET support and Microsoft SQL Server help, and Progent's programming experience with VBasic, XML, and additional developer tools enable Progent to design specialized line-of-business applications and eCommerce solutions that operate seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics GP/Great Plains Software. Progent's Dynamics GP management reporting services can show you how to create reports that let you track your business more thoroughly, transforming raw data into valuable insights into your business.
SCVMM 2012 and SharePoint Specialists
SCVMM IT Consultant
Progent can help businesses of all sizes to adhere to leading practices to configure System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager hosts and host groups, networking, storage systems, and libraries; design, implement, and administer private clouds, virtual machines, and VMM services in SCVMM 2012; and combine SCVMM with SCOM 2012 for enterprise-class reporting. Progent can assist your business to upgrade from an older version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager or from another virtualization management platform, and Progent can assist you to enhance and repair your current SCVMM environment so you get the highest possible return on investment.
Support Services Cisco wireless
Wi-Fi site survey Professionals
Progent’s Wireless Consulting Services offer a convenient, economical way for businesses of all sizes to deploy, manage and troubleshoot the latest wireless network technology. For 802.11n and the latest 802.11ac wireless environments, Progent can show you how to design and install appliances such as Cisco's Aironet and Meraki access points and wireless network controllers. For wireless email and web-based applications, Progent can help with Apple IOS iPhones, Apple iPads, Google Android smartphones, and Windows phones and tablets.
Offsite Managed Data Backup/Recovery Services Online Technical Support
Consultants Remote Data Backup and Restore Services
ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO from Progent provide small and medium-sized organizations a low cost end-to-end solution for reliable backup/disaster recovery. Available at a low monthly price, ProSight Data Protection Services automates your backup activities and allows rapid recovery of critical data, apps and VMs that have become unavailable or damaged due to component breakdowns, software glitches, natural disasters, human mistakes, or malware attacks like ransomware. ProSight Data Protection Services can help you protect, retrieve and restore files, folders, applications, system images, plus Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware virtual machine images. Critical data can be backed up on the cloud, to a local storage device, or mirrored to both. Progent's disaster recovery consultants can provide world-class expertise to configure ProSight Data Protection Services to to comply with regulatory standards such as HIPAA, FIRPA, and PCI and, whenever needed, can assist you to restore your business-critical information.
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