Microsoft Gold-Certified Experts

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is the self-hosted release of Microsoft's flagship server operating system. Windows Server 2019 incorporates all the updates for Windows Server 2016 previously available exclusively via the SAC program. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 features important enhancements in capacity, performance, manageability, cybersecurity, app compatibility, Linux support, Kubernetes technology, and hybrid combinations of on-premises and cloud resources.

Top enhancements of Windows Server 2019 are Windows Admin Center for unifying the management and monitoring of hybrid on-premises/cloud-hosted resources, System Insights for taking advantage of advance predictive analytics to control on-premises networks, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Exploit Guard for host-intrusion defense, container networking with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets technology for building and administering large high-availability scale-out clusters, and Microsoft's Storage Migration Service for streamlining the upgrade process from legacy releases of Windows Server.

Progent can assist your organization to integrate Microsoft Windows Server 2019 with the latest versions of Microsoft's key applications by delivering services such as Exchange Server consulting, Microsoft SQL Server 2019 integration and development consulting, SQL Server 2017 upgrade support, SharePoint 2019 planning and deployment, and Office 365 hybrid integration consulting. Progent's solution design, debugging and education support for Windows Server 2019 are available remotely and Progent also offers onsite services in major metropolitan areas across the United States and Canada.

Hybrid Cloud Integration with Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 makes the Azure stack available to organizations of any size for building onsite networks, private cloud solutions, or hybrid systems that integrate on-prem resources with resources provided via the cloud.

The majority of modern businesses manage a combination of local and cloud-hosted IT assets to deliver the appropriate balance of flexibility, economy, performance, availability, and security they require. For some industries, regulatory compliance require that specific types of network resources and data be managed internally. In other instances, corporate policies or compatibility issues require mission-critical software to be run from a local data center. Windows Server 2019 provides a cloud-aware platform that permits you to build and manage powerful hybrid ecosystems that seamlessly access resources spread across on-premises facilities and the cloud.

Designing, creating and administering efficient hybrid environments with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 requires a wide array of knowledge and experience. This can be beyond the expertise of typical in-house IT groups maintained by smaller businesses. Progent's team of subject-matter experts offers on-demand access to the knowledge you require for any facet of hybrid network deployment and management. Progent's Microsoft Gold-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and cybersecurity specialists can help your business to determine the advantages of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 for your organization and build a hybrid environment powered by Windows Server 2019 that offers maximum business value.

The Right Moment to Upgrade
The release of Windows Server 2019 was accompanied by the notification of End-of-Support status for Microsoft's widely used Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 products. This means there will be no additional security fixes on-premises, no non-security enhancements, no free support programs, and no online technical content updates. Because of this, security and compliance issues will become increasingly challenging, support costs may go up, and system stability may drop.

If your organization wants expertise migrating to Microsoft Windows Server 2019 from Windows Server 2008 or from any other legacy release of Windows Server, Progent can provide the knowledge and experience to make your migration smooth, affordable, and on-schedule. Progent's Windows experts can help you:

• Document your apps and server roles running on your current servers
• Move your VMs to the Private Progent Cloud or move to the latest version of on-premises Windows Server or to Microsoft Azure
• Optimize your configuration to minimize spend, manage resources, and strengthen security and compliance across hybrid applications

Windows Server 2019 has two installation alternatives: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. Server Core has a small footprint and no traditional desktop interface but supports all server roles. This "headless" mode is designed to be managed remotely, e.g. via the command line or Remote Server Administration Tools. Server with Desktop Experience option is a complete installation and includes a comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) for local management. Progent's experts can help you to determine the versions and installation alternatives best suited to your environment, understand Microsoft's licensing rules, and choose an optimal on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid network architecture.

Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 offers enhancements in expandability, throughput, manageability, Hyper-V virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid networking, disaster recovery, orchestration, Linux support, and other key enhancements. Versions of Windows Server 2019 licensed under the Semi-Annual Channel release model are updated two times a year, making new features available more quickly than under the Long-Term Servicing Channel release model.

Windows Server 2019 offers significant increases in capacity compared to Windows Server 2016:

Other notable improvements in Microsoft Windows Server 2019 include:

• Cluster Sets is a technology that allows orders of magnitude expansion in cluster nodes in a virtual data center by combining numerous Failover Clusters into one massive, uniformly controlled interconnected topology. Network managers can transparently migrate virtual machines across the Cluster Set fabric and manage all facets of a Failover Cluster from onboarding to retirement. Clusters included in a Cluster Set can take advantage of extra disk storage and memory in another cluster without requiring you to purchase more equipment. CPU and storage resources do not have to be the same, and resiliency is as good or better than with traditional Failover Clusters.
  
  Before Windows Server 2019, large numbers of Hyper-V clusters for VMs were a hassle to manage and modify
  
  Windows Server 2019 features Cluster Sets for unified management of failover clusters

• Storage Replica has been included in the Standard edition of Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica offers next-generation disaster recovery support and is described in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica configuration. Novel features of Storage Replica in Windows Server 2019 include a test failover function that permits you to put a target volume online momentarily for testing and backup. Also, administrators can now manage Storage Replica with Microsoft Windows Admin Center, which offers a GUI utility for controlling procedures like server-to-server, cluster-to-cluster, and stretch cluster replication.
• Storage Spaces Direct enhancements include duplicate elimination and compression for Resilient File System volumes, native support for persistent memory (PMem), the ability to use a consumer flash drive to act as a witness with dual-server clusters, increased expandability (up to 4 PB per cluster), twice the performance for mirror-accelerated parity, outlier detection for abnormal drive latency, and improved availability by selectively changing the limit of volume allocation. Microsoft's Storage Spaces Direct technology is discussed in Windows Storage Spaces Direct consulting.
• Storage Migration Service simplifies the task of moving the volume data from legacy servers to newer versions of Windows Server. You can deploy Storage Migration Service to migrate to current hardware or to virtual machines. The utility automatically inventories multiple servers and their data; moves files, shares, and security settings to their intended hosts; and allows new servers to assume the identity of your legacy servers so that your users and applications can access existing data without changing anything. Windows Admin Center's user interface can manage multiple concurrent migration processes.
• Broader Linux support enables you to host Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Enterprise Server on shielded VMs. Microsoft's Shielded VMs capability is described in Windows Server 2016 Shielded Virtual Machines consulting.
• Windows Admin Center is a browser-based application deployed locally for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) running Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 endpoints, and Azure-based virtual machines. Windows Admin Center can be used to manage Windows Server 2012 and later. Windows Admin Center is an "in-box" tool and so can be utilized to manage servers on private networks disconnected from the public Internet. By publishing the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can administer your servers securely from anywhere.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Admin Center permits you to manage on-premises and Azure cloud VMs from a centralized console

• Container networking with Kubernetes, the popular open-source management system for Docker containers, includes improved features such as the ability to use integrated network security to guard both Windows and Linux services. For a discussion of containers on Windows Server, visit Microsoft Windows Server containers expertise.
• Deduplication and Compression for ReFS Volumes supports an order of magnitude more data on a specified Resilient File System (ReFS) volume. The ReFS file technology, introduced in Windows Server 2012, integrates RAM-level performance tiers for hot data along with HDD/SDD capacity tiers to provide scale and resilience.
• Windows Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) is included with Windows Server 2019 as an integrated feature that needs no special license and no agent installation.
• Encrypted Networks is a new function that encrypts traffic between VMs communicating within subnets that are designated as Encryption Enabled. Datagram Transport Layer Security on the virtual subnet prevents anyone with access to the physical network from looking at, modifying, or faking network data. Data traveling between encrypted subnets is not encrypted.
• A USB Flash Drive connected to your router can be assigned as a witness in two-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. With this low-cost, no-hassle solution, if a server fails and then returns to operation, the USB drive cluster can let you know which server contains the fresher data.
  
  
  Windows Server 2019 allows a USB Flash drive to act as a witness in dual-server clusters

• LEDBAT automatically reduces network congestion by taking up bandwidth only if the network is being sparsely used. This allows an organization to publish large, important updates across a corporate network without degrading the responsiveness of business-critical applications.
• System Insights uses predictive analytics to inform capacity planning. System Insights operates internally on every Windows Server 2019 instance and analyses performance counters and events to predict capacity needs in key areas such as usage for volumes, total storage capacity, CPU, and networking.
• Windows Time Service supports the modern time synchronization method known as Precision Time Protocol and provides correct time during a leap second. Windows Server 2019 also offers software time-stamping and clock source stability. These features deliver improved accuracy and precision, allow compliance with UTC and other standards like as FINRA, and meet the requirements of various time-critical applications. Because network configuration demands care to support PTP, Network Time Protocol (NTP) is still the default synchronization technique for Windows Server 2019.

Progent's certified cybersecurity experts can help your company to adhere to leading practices to create a modern security environment that is consistent across local and cloud-based assets as well as mobile end points. Progent can assist you to configure proactive data security monitoring using an optimal combination of security technologies from Microsoft and other leading vendors. Progent also can run security audits to ensure that your network meets government and industry information security requirements such as SOX, ISO 27001, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.

Progent's roster of Cisco CCIE network consultants is one of the largest of any independent IT services company in the U.S. Progent can assist you to plan, implement and manage a resilient and affordable hybrid network architecture that delivers the latest HA and disaster recovery technologies built into Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity planning consultants can help your organization plan and validate a comprehensive strategy for rebounding quickly from any foreseen catastrophy.

To assist your company to support your Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server Hyper-V virtualized environment, Progent offers a range of expertise like Windows Admin Center consulting, PowerShell scripting, SC Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud management consulting, and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) deployment. Progent also offers the ProSight line of remote monitoring and management (RMM) outsourcing services that give small and middle-size businesses an economical and effective option for network management.

Progent's Online Consulting Support and Debugging Services
Progent has 20 years of experience providing fast, high-level online IT consulting and troubleshooting expertise and has delivered online expertise to organizations in every state in the United States and across Canada. (View Progent's Client Testimonials.) Progent also offers onsite support in most U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent offers as-needed support to help your business to resolve challenging technical issues or end-to-end project management outsourcing services.

If you are in need of urgent remote help from a Microsoft-certified consultant, see Progent's Remote Technical Support.

Contact Progent for Assistance with Microsoft Windows Server 2019
To find out more about Progent's consulting and troubleshooting services for Microsoft Windows Server 2019, call 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.