Microsoft Gold-Certified Experts

Windows Server 2019 is the self-hosted version of Microsoft's server operating system. Windows Server 2019 incorporates all the enhancements to Windows Server 2016 previously available exclusively through Microsoft's Semi-Annual Channel (SAC). Windows Server 2019 features significant enhancements in capacity, throughput, management, security and compliance, application compatibility, Linux support, Kubernetes networking, and hybrid integration of local and cloud resources.

Headline enhancements of Windows Server 2019 include Windows Admin Center for centralizing the management and monitoring of hybrid on-premises/cloud-hosted resources, System Insights for taking advantage of advance predictive analytics to control local environments, Windows Defender ATP Exploit Guard for host-intrusion defense, container networking with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets technology for building and administering massive non-stop scale-out clusters, and Microsoft's Storage Migration Service for streamlining the migration from legacy editions of Windows Server.

Progent can help your organization to integrate Windows Server 2019 with current versions of Microsoft's key applications by providing services that include Microsoft Exchange Server consulting, SQL Server 2019 integration consulting, SQL Server 2017 migration support, Microsoft SharePoint 2019 design and deployment, and Microsoft 365 hybrid integration expertise. Progent's solution design, troubleshooting and education services for Windows Server 2019 are available online and Progent also provides on-premises 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 organizations of all sizes for creating on-premises data centers, private cloud solutions, or hybrid architectures that integrate on-prem IT assets with resources hosted on private and public clouds.

Many of today's businesses manage a mix of on-premises and cloud-hosted resources to get the appropriate trade-off of flexibility, affordability, performance, availability, and security they require. In some industries, regulations require that specific classes of resources and information be retained internally. In other cases, corporate standards or compatibility issues necessitate line-of-business applications to be hosted locally. Windows Server 2019 provides a cloud-friendly platform that allows you to implement and manage productive hybrid networks that seamlessly utilize resources distributed across on-premises data centers and the cloud.

Designing, configuring and managing optimized hybrid solutions with Windows Server 2019 calls for a wide range of knowledge and experience. This can be outside the expertise of most IT staffs maintained by smaller businesses. Progent's team of subject-matter experts (SMEs) offers on-demand access to the skills you need for any aspect of hybrid network implementation and maintenance. Progent's Microsoft-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and information security professionals can help you to determine the benefits of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 for your company and build a hybrid environment based on Windows Server 2019 that delivers top return on investment.

A Good Moment to Migrate
The release of Windows Server 2019 was accompanied by the notification of End-of-Support (EOS) status for Microsoft's widely used Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms. This means there will be no additional security patches on-premises, no other updates, no free support programs, and no online technical updates. Consequently, security and compliance will be more challenging, management costs and effort may go up, and network stability may suffer.

If your business wants help moving up to Windows Server 2019 from WS 2008 or from another older release of Microsoft Windows Server, Progent can provide the knowledge and experience to make your migration smooth, affordable, and fast. Progent can help you:

• Identify your apps and server roles running on your existing Windows Servers
• Move your VMs to the Private Progent Cloud or move to the latest version of self-hosted Windows Server or to 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 attack surface and has no local interface but handles all server roles. This so-called "headless" mode must be managed remotely, for example via Power Shell or Windows Admin Center. Server with Desktop Experience alternative is a complete installation and features a comprehensive GUI for local management. Progent's consultants can help your business to choose the versions and deployment alternatives best suited to your environment, understand Microsoft's licensing requirements, and pick an optimal on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid network model.

Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers improved scale, performance, manageability, virtualization, data security, hybrid deployment support, availability, container management, Linux co-existence, and other major enhancements. Editions of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 acquired under Microsoft's Semi-Annual Channel program are updated two times a year, making enhancements available much sooner than under Microsoft's LTSC model.

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers significant improvements in capacity compared to Windows Server 2016:

Other notable improvements in Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are:

• Cluster Sets is a technology that allows orders of magnitude expansion in cluster nodes in a Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) by combining multiple smaller Failover Clusters into one large, centrally controlled interconnected topology. You can transparently migrate virtual machines throughout the Cluster Set fabric and manage all aspects of a Failover Cluster from initial deployment to retirement. Clusters included in a Cluster Set can take advantage of additional storage and memory in a separate cluster without requiring you to buy more hardware. CPU and storage assets do not have to be identical, and resiliency matches or exceeds conventional Failover Clusters.
  
  Prior to Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for VMs were complicated to manage and scale
  
  Microsoft Windows Server 2019 introduces 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 next-generation disaster recovery capability and is described in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica configuration. New capabilities of Storage Replica in Windows Server 2019 include a test failover option that permits you to put a target volume online temporally for testing and backup. In addition, administrators can now manage Storage Replica with Microsoft Windows Admin Center, which provides a GUI utility for managing operations such as server-to-server and stretch cluster replication.
• Storage Spaces Direct improvements include duplicate elimination and compression for ReFS volumes, integrated support for persistent memory, support for using a commodity flash drive as a witness with two-server clusters, increased scale (as high as 4 PB per cluster), double the performance for mirror-accelerated parity, outlier detection for physical disk latency, and improved fault tolerance by manually delimiting volume allocation. Storage Spaces Direct technology is discussed in Windows Storage Spaces Direct consulting.
• Storage Migration Service simplifies the process of migrating storage from legacy servers to volumes in current releases of Windows Server or Azure. You can deploy Storage Migration Service to migrate to current physical devices or to VMs. The tool automatically inventories multiple servers and their data; copies files, shares, and security settings to their new hosts; and permits new hosts to take over the identity of your legacy servers so that users and apps can have access to existing data without changing anything. Windows Admin Center's user interface can manage many concurrent migration processes.
• Broader Linux support enables organizations to run Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise, and SUSE Enterprise Server on shielded VMs. Shielded Virtual Machines capability is described in Windows Server 2016 Shielded Virtual Machines consulting.
• Windows Admin Center is a browser-based application installed on-premises for controlling servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) with Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 endpoints, and Azure-based virtual machines. 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 posting the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can manage your servers safely from anywhere.
  
  
  Windows Admin Center allows you to manage on-premises and Azure-hosted virtual machines from a centralized console

• Container orchestration with Kubernetes, the open-source open-source management tool for Docker containers, includes improved features such as being able to use embedded security tooling to guard both Windows and Linux services. For a discussion of containers on Windows Server, visit Windows Server containers expertise.
• Deduplication and Data Compression for Resilient File System Volumes supports an order of magnitude more data on a given Resilient File System volume. Microsoft's ReFS file technology, first released in Microsoft Windows Server 2012, integrates RAM-level performance tiers for handling hot data along with HDD/SDD capacity tiers to provide volume and resilience.
• Windows Defender ATP is included with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 as a built-in capability that needs no additional activation fee and no agent software to install.
• Encrypted Networks is a new feature that encrypts traffic between VMs communicating within subnets set to be Encryption Enabled. Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) on the virtual subnet blocks entities with access to the physical network from looking at, altering, or faking 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 economical, easy-to-configure technique, if a server fails and then recovers, the USB drive cluster can let you know which server contains the more current data.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Server 2019 permits a USB Flash drive to act as a witness in two-server clusters

• Low Extra Delay Background Transport automatically avoids network traffic jams by taking up bandwidth only if the network is being sparsely used. LEDBAT allows an organization to distribute massive, important updates throughout an enterprise network without degrading the responsiveness of mission-critical services.
• System Insights uses advanced analytics and machine learning to inform capacity planning. System Insights runs internally on every Windows Server 2019 instance and looks at performance stats and events to forecast capacity needs in key areas such as usage for volumes, storage capacity, processing, and networking.
• Windows Time Service supports the new time synchronization method called Precision Time Protocol and provides accurate time during a leap second. Windows Server 2019 also supports time traceability and clock source stability. These capabilities provide improved accuracy and precision, comply with UTC and other standards such as Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and support various time-critical applications. Since network configuration requires care to implement the PTP protocol, the older Network Time Protocol is still the default synchronization technique for Microsoft Windows Server 2019.

Progent's data security consultants can help you to follow leading practices to build an up-to-date security solution that is seamless across on-premises and cloud assets as well as mobile devices. Progent can assist you to configure 24x7 remote data security monitoring and management using an effective mix of cybersecurity tools and services from Microsoft as well as third-party vendors. Progent also offers cybersecurity assessments to ensure that your network complies with government and industry data security requirements such as SOX, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS 3.2.

Progent's roster of Cisco CCIE infrastructure consultants is among the biggest of any independent IT services firm in the United States. Progent can assist your business to plan, deploy and maintain a resilient and affordable hybrid network infrastructure that delivers the state-of-the-art high-availability and disaster recovery technologies included with Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC) planning consultants can help your organization create and validate a comprehensive solution for rebounding rapidly from any anticipated disaster.

To help your organization to support your Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server Hyper-V environment, Progent offers a range of expertise like Windows Admin Center consulting, PowerShell programming, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud management consulting, and System Center Operations Manager consultants. Progent also has assembled the ProSight line of remote monitoring and management (RMM) outsourcing packages that give small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) an economical and efficient option for server and endpoint management.

Progent's Remote Consulting and Troubleshooting Services
Progent has 20 years of experience providing fast, advanced remote technical consulting and troubleshooting expertise and has delivered remote support to clients in every state in the US and across Canada. (View Progent's Customer Testimonials.) Progent also offers onsite support in most U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent offers as-needed expertise to assist your business with challenging IT issues or comprehensive project management outsourcing and co-sourcing services.

If you need urgent online assistance from a Microsoft-certified consultant, refer to Progent's Remote Support Services.

Contact Progent for Expertise with Windows Server 2019
To learn more about Progent's consulting support and troubleshooting services for Windows Server 2019, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.