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Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is the self-hosted release of Microsoft's flagship server operating system. Windows Server 2019 includes all the updates to Microsoft Windows Server 2016 formerly available only via Microsoft's SAC program. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers important enhancements in scale, throughput, management, security and compliance, application compatibility, Linux support, container networking, and hybrid integration of on-premises and cloud assets.

Headline new features of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are Windows Admin Center for unifying the management of hybrid local/cloud deployments, System Insights for utilizing advance predictive analytics to control on-premises networks, Windows Defender ATP Exploit Guard for host-intrusion defense, container orchestration with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets for deploying and managing massive non-stop scale-out clusters, and Microsoft's Storage Migration Service for simplifying the upgrade process from legacy versions of Windows Server.

Progent can help your organization to configure Windows Server 2019 with the latest versions of Microsoft's popular applications by delivering services such as Exchange Server expertise, Microsoft SQL Server 2019 integration expertise, SQL Server 2017 migration services, Microsoft SharePoint 2019 planning and integration, and Office 365 integration expertise. Progent's consulting, troubleshooting and education support for Windows Server 2019 are available online and Progent also offers onsite services in major metropolitan areas throughout the United States and Canada.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions with Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 makes the Azure stack accessible to businesses of any size for creating on-premises data centers, private clouds, or hybrid architectures that integrate on-prem resources with resources provided via the cloud.

Most of today's businesses deploy a combination of on-premises and cloud-hosted IT assets to get the appropriate trade-off of flexibility, affordability, performance, availability, and security/compliance they need. In some industries, compliance regulations demand that certain classes of resources and data be retained locally. In other instances, company standards or legacy applications require mission-critical software to be hosted locally. Windows Server 2019 offers a cloud-aware solution that allows you to build and administer productive hybrid networks that transparently utilize resources distributed across local data centers and the cloud.

Designing, creating and administering optimized hybrid environments with Windows Server 2019 calls for a wide range of skills. This can be outside the comfort zone of most IT staffs maintained by smaller businesses. Progent's team of subject-matter experts (SBEs) gives you as-needed access to the knowledge you require for any aspect of hybrid network implementation and maintenance. Progent's Microsoft-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and cybersecurity professionals can help your business to assess the benefits of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 for your company and build a hybrid environment based on Microsoft Windows Server 2019 that delivers maximum return on investment.

The Right Time to Upgrade
The release of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 coincided with the notification of End-of-Support status for Microsoft's widely used Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 products. The result is that there will be no additional security updates onsite, no other enhancements, no free support programs, and no downloadable technical updates. Because of this, security and compliance issues will become increasingly challenging, support costs and effort may go up, and system robustness may drop.

If your business could use assistance moving up to Windows Server 2019 from WS 2008 or from any other older release of Microsoft Windows Server, Progent offers the knowledge and experience to make your upgrade process smooth, economical, and on-schedule. Progent's Windows experts can assist you to:

• Inventory your applications and server roles on your existing Windows Servers
• Move your virtual machines to the Private Progent Cloud or upgrade to the current version of self-hosted Windows Server or to Microsoft Azure
• Optimize your resources to minimize costs, manage resources, and strengthen security and compliance across hybrid workloads

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 has two deployment options: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. Server Core features a minimal attack surface and no local interface but handles all server roles. This "headless" mode is designed to be managed remotely, e.g. with Power Shell or RSAT. Server with Desktop Experience option is a complete installation and features a comprehensive GUI for local management. Progent's experts can assist you to select the versions and deployment alternatives best suited to your situation, understand Microsoft's licensing rules, and pick an optimal on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid deployment model.

Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 features improved expandability, performance, administration, Hyper-V virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid networking, availability, container management, Linux compatibility, and other key enhancements. Versions of Windows Server 2019 licensed under Microsoft's Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) release model are updated two times annually, and so make new features available more quickly than under the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) program.

Windows Server 2019 offers substantial improvements in scale vs. Microsoft Windows Server 2016:

Additional headline enhancements in Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are:

• Cluster Sets is a feature 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, uniformly managed fabric. Network managers can transparently move virtual machines across the Cluster Set fabric and manage all aspects of a Failover Cluster from onboarding to retirement. Clusters joined within a Cluster Set can benefit from extra disk storage and RAM in another cluster without requiring that you buy additional equipment. Compute and storage resources do not have to be the same, and resiliency matches or exceeds conventional Failover Clusters.
  
  Prior to Windows Server 2019, large numbers of Hyper-V clusters for virtual machines were a hassle to manage and expand
  
  Windows Server 2019 features Cluster Sets for unified management of failover clusters

• Storage Replica has been added to the Standard edition of Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica offers advanced disaster recovery support and is discussed in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica deployment. New features of Storage Replica in Windows Server 2019 include a test failover function that enables you to bring a target volume online momentarily for verification and backup. In addition, you can now control Storage Replica with the new Microsoft Windows Admin Center, which provides a GUI utility for controlling operations such as cluster-to-cluster and stretch cluster replication.
• Storage Spaces Direct improvements include duplicate elimination and compression for ReFS volumes, native support for persistent memory, the ability to use a commodity flash drive to act as a witness with dual-server clusters, greater expandability (as high as 4 PB per cluster), double the throughput for mirror-accelerated parity volumes and storage tiers, outlier detection for physical drive latency, and improved fault tolerance by selectively changing the limit of volume allocation. Storage Spaces Direct features are discussed in Microsoft Windows Storage Spaces Direct consultants.
• Storage Migration Service streamlines the process of moving the volume data from legacy servers to newer versions of Windows Server or Azure. You can use Storage Migration Service to migrate to new physical devices or to VMs. The tool automatically inventories Windows and Linux servers and their data; copies files, shares, and policy configurations to their new servers; and allows destination hosts to assume the identity of your legacy servers so users and applications can access existing data without changing anything. Windows Admin Center's user interface can manage multiple simultaneous migration processes.
• Broader Linux support allows you to run Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server within shielded VMs. Shielded VMs technology is discussed in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Shielded VMs consulting.
• Windows Admin Center is a new browser-based application installed locally for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) with Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 endpoints, and Azure-hosted VMs. Windows Admin Center can be utilized to manage Windows Server 2012 and newer. Windows Admin Center is an "in-box" utility and therefore can be used to manage servers on private networks not connected to the public Internet. By publishing the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can manage your servers safely from anywhere.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Admin Center enables you to manage on-premises and Azure-hosted virtual machines from a centralized console

• Container orchestration with Kubernetes, the open-source management system for Docker containers, offers enhanced capability such as being able to utilize integrated security tooling to guard both Windows and Linux services. For information about containers on Microsoft Windows Server, see Windows Server containers consultants.
• Deduplication and Compression for ReFS Volumes supports an order of magnitude more data on a given Resilient File System volume. Microsoft's ReFS file system, introduced in Windows Server 2012, integrates RAM-level high-performance tiers for hot data along with HDD/SDD high-capacity tiers to provide scale and resilience.
• Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection comes with Windows Server 2019 as a built-in capability requiring no special activation fee and no agent installation.
• Encrypted Networks is a feature that encrypts data traveling between VMs interacting inside subnets that are designated as Encryption Enabled. Datagram Transport Layer Security on the virtual subnet prevents entities accessing the physical network from looking at, modifying, or spoofing network data. Traffic between encrypted subnets is not encrypted.
• A USB Flash Drive plugged into your router can be assigned as a witness in two-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. Using this affordable, no-hassle technique, if a server fails and then recovers, the USB drive cluster can say which server has the more recent data.
  
  
  Windows Server 2019 allows a USB Flash drive to server as a witness in two-server clusters

• LEDBAT automatically reduces network traffic jams by consuming bandwidth only if the network is being sparingly used. LEDBAT allows an organization to publish massive, important updates throughout a corporate network without degrading the performance of business-critical services.
• System Insights uses advanced analytics to inform capacity planning. System Insights runs internally on every Microsoft Windows Server 2019 instance and looks at performance counters and system events to forecast capacity needs in important areas such as utilization for volumes, storage capacity, CPU, and networking.
• Windows Time Service supports the modern time synchronization technique called Precision Time Protocol and delivers accurate time during a leap second. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 also supports time traceability and clock source stability. These features deliver improved accuracy and precision, allow compliance with UTC and other standards like as Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and meet the requirements of special time-sensitive workloads. Since network setup requires care to support PTP, the older Network Time Protocol remains the default time synchronization method for Microsoft Windows Server 2019.

Progent's certified cybersecurity consultants can assist you to adhere to leading practices to build a modern information security environment that is seamless across on-premises and cloud-based assets as well as mobile devices. Progent can help you to configure 24x7 remote security monitoring using an effective mix of security solutions from Microsoft as well as other leading vendors. Progent also offers cybersecurity audits to make sure that your IT environment meets regulatory and industry data security requirements like SOX, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.

Progent's team of Cisco CCIE network consultants is one of the largest of any independent IT support company in the U.S. Progent can help your company to design, deploy and maintain a modern and affordable hybrid network infrastructure that delivers the modern HA and recovery technologies built into Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery planning experts can assist you create and test an end-to-end process for recovering rapidly from any anticipated disaster.

To help you to support your Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and Hyper-V environment, Progent can provide a range of services like Windows Admin Center deployment, PowerShell programming, SC Virtual Machine Manager hybrid cloud management consulting, and SCOM deployment. Progent also has assembled the ProSight line of remote monitoring and management outsourcing packages that provide small and middle-size businesses an economical and effective solution for server and endpoint management.

Progent's Online Consulting Support and Debugging Services
Progent has two decades of background providing rapid, top-tier online technical consulting and debugging support and has provided online support to businesses in every state in the US and throughout Canada. (See Progent's Client Testimonials.) Progent also offers onsite support in most U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent can provide on-demand expertise to help you to resolve occasional technical problems or comprehensive project management outsourcing and co-sourcing support.

If you are looking for immediate online assistance from a Microsoft-certified expert, visit Progent's Online Support Services.

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