Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Support and Service for

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is the self-hosted version of Microsoft's flagship server OS. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 includes all the updates to Windows Server 2016 previously offered only via the Semi-Annual Channel. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers significant enhancements in capacity, performance, management, cybersecurity, app compatibility, Linux support, Kubernetes networking, and hybrid combinations of on-premises and cloud resources.

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

Progent can help you to configure Microsoft Windows Server 2019 with current versions of Microsoft's key apps by delivering expert services that include Microsoft Exchange Server support, SQL Server 2019 integration and development consulting, SQL Server 2017 upgrade expertise, SharePoint 2019 planning and integration, and Office 365 hybrid integration expertise. Progent's consulting, debugging and training services for Windows Server 2019 are offered online and Progent also provides onsite consulting in major metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions with Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 makes the Azure stack available to businesses of any size for building on-premises networks, private clouds, or hybrid architectures that combine local IT assets with resources provided via private and public clouds.

Many of today's businesses deploy a mix of on-premises and cloud-hosted resources to get the right trade-off of flexibility, affordability, performance, reliability, and security/compliance they require. In some fields, regulatory compliance demand that certain types of network resources and data be kept internally. In other cases, corporate standards or legacy applications require mission-critical software to be hosted from a local data center. Windows Server 2019 offers a cloud-friendly solution that allows you to build and manage powerful hybrid ecosystems that seamlessly utilize resources spread across on-premises facilities and the cloud.

Designing, building and managing efficient hybrid solutions with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 demands a wide array of knowledge and experience. This is beyond the expertise of typical IT staffs maintained by smaller organization. Progent's team of subject-matter experts offers on-demand access to the skills you require for any aspect of hybrid network deployment and maintenance. Progent's Microsoft Gold-certified and Cisco-certified consulting experts, project managers, and information security professionals can assist you to assess the advantages of Windows Server 2019 for your company and create a hybrid ecosystem based on Windows Server 2019 that delivers maximum return on investment.

The Right Moment to Migrate
The release of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 was accompanied by 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 additional security patches on-premises, no non-security enhancements, no free support programs, and no downloadable technical content updates. Because of this, security and compliance will become increasingly difficult, management costs may increase, and network reliability may go down.

If your company could use expertise upgrading to Windows Server 2019 from Windows Server 2008 or any other legacy release of Windows Server, Progent offers the knowledge and experience to make your upgrade process smooth, affordable, and fast. Progent can assist you to:

• Identify and inventory your applications and server roles on your existing servers
• Migrate your VMs to the Progent Cloud or upgrade to the current version of on-prem Windows Server or to Microsoft Azure
• Fine-tune your resources to reduce costs, manage resources, and strengthen data security across hybrid applications

Windows Server 2019 has two installation alternatives: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. Server Core features a small attack surface and no local interface but handles all role-based workloads. This "headless" mode needs to be managed remotely, for example via Power Shell or Remote Server Administration Tools. Server with Desktop Experience alternative is a complete installation and features a rich GUI for local management. Progent's experts can assist your organization to select the versions and deployment alternatives best suited to your environment, comprehend Microsoft's licensing rules, and pick an optimal on-premises, cloud, or hybrid deployment architecture.

Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 offers enhancements in expandability, performance, administration, Hyper-V virtualization, data security, hybrid deployment support, disaster recovery, orchestration, Linux compatibility, and other key improvements. Editions of Windows Server 2019 acquired under the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) program are updated twice a year, making new features available more quickly than under the LTSC model.

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

Other notable enhancements in Microsoft Windows Server 2019 include:

• Cluster Sets is a technology that supports dramatic increases in cluster node count in a virtual data center by combining numerous Failover Clusters into a single large, centrally managed interconnected topology. Network managers can transparently move virtual machines throughout the Cluster Set fabric and manage all facets of a Failover Cluster from initial deployment to decommissioning. Clusters included in a Cluster Set can take advantage of additional disk storage and memory in another cluster without requiring you to buy additional equipment. Compute and storage assets do not have to be identical, and robustness matches or exceeds conventional Failover Clusters.
  
  Prior to Microsoft Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for VMs were difficult to manage and expand
  
  Windows Server 2019 introduces Cluster Sets for unified management of failover clusters

• Storage Replica has been added to the Standard edition of Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica offers advanced disaster recovery support and is described in Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica consulting. Novel capabilities of Storage Replica in Windows Server 2019 include a test failover function that permits managers to put a destination volume online momentarily for verification and backup. Also, you can now manage Storage Replica with Microsoft Windows Admin Center, which offers a GUI tool for controlling procedures like cluster-to-cluster and stretch cluster replication.
• Storage Spaces Direct enhancements include duplicate elimination and compression for ReFS volumes, integrated support for persistent memory, the ability to use a consumer flash drive as a witness with dual-server clusters, greater scale (up to 4 PB per cluster), twice the performance for mirror-accelerated parity, outlier detection for disk latency, and improved availability by selectively changing the limit of volume allocation. Storage Spaces Direct features are described in Microsoft Windows Storage Spaces Direct deployment experts.
• Storage Migration Service simplifies the process of moving the volume data from older servers to volumes in current versions of Windows Server. You can deploy Storage Migration Service to migrate to new physical devices or to virtual machines. The tool inventories servers and their data; relocates files, shares, and policy settings to their intended servers; and permits destination hosts to assume the identity of the legacy servers so your users and applications can have access to their data without changing anything. Windows Admin Center's GUI can manage multiple simultaneous migration processes.
• Expanded Linux support allows you to host Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server within shielded VMs. Shielded VMs capability is discussed in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Shielded VMs consulting.
• Windows Admin Center is a new browser-based app deployed on-premises for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) running Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 endpoints, and Azure-hosted VMs. Windows Admin Center can be used to manage Windows Server 2012 and later. Windows Admin Center is an "in-box" utility and so 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 securely from any location.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Admin Center enables you to manage on-prem and Azure-hosted VMs from a centralized console

• Container networking with Kubernetes, the open-source management system for Docker containers, offers improved features like being able to utilize embedded network security to guard Windows and Linux services. For a discussion of containers on Microsoft Windows Server, see Microsoft Windows Server containers consulting.
• Duplicate Elimination and Data Compression for Resilient File System (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 silicon performance tiers for handling hot data along with HDD/SDD high-capacity tiers to provide scale and fault tolerance.
• Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection comes with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 as a built-in capability that needs no special activation fee and no agent installation.
• Encrypted Networks is a new feature that encrypts data traveling between VMs communicating inside subnets you have designated as Encryption Enabled. Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) on the virtual subnet prevents entities with access to the physical network from reading, altering, or spoofing network data. Traffic between encrypted subnets is unencrypted.
• A USB Flash Drive connected to your router can be used as a witness in dual-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. With this low-cost, no-hassle technique, when a server fails and then returns to operation, the USB drive cluster can let you know which server holds the fresher data.
  
  
  Windows Server 2019 permits 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 utilized. This enables an organization to send large, critical updates across a corporate network without impacting the responsiveness of mission-critical services.
• System Insights uses predictive analytics and machine learning to simplify capacity planning. System Insights runs internally on every Windows Server 2019 instance and analyses performance stats and system events to predict capacity requirements in important areas including usage for volumes, storage capacity, CPU, and networking.
• Windows Time Service supports the new time synchronization method known as Precision Time Protocol and provides accurate time during a leap second. Windows Server 2019 also offers software time-stamping and clock source stability. These features provide greater accuracy and precision, comply with UTC and other standards like as FINRA, and support various time-critical applications. Because network configuration requires care to support PTP, NTP is still the default synchronization technique for Microsoft Windows Server 2019.

Progent's certified cybersecurity consultants can help your company to adhere to best practices to create a modern information security environment that is seamless across on-premises and cloud assets and mobile end points. Progent can help your company to set up centralized security monitoring using an optimal combination of security technologies from Microsoft and other leading providers. Progent also offers cybersecurity audits to ensure that your network complies with regulatory and industry cybersecurity mandates like SOX, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.

Progent's roster of Cisco CCIE network infrastructure consultants is among the largest of any independent IT services firm in the U.S. Progent can help your organization to plan, deploy and maintain a resilient and affordable hybrid network architecture that delivers the advanced high-availability and disaster recovery technologies included with Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity planning experts can help your organization plan and validate a comprehensive strategy for recovering rapidly from any anticipated catastrophy.

To assist your business to support your Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server Hyper-V virtualized environment, Progent offers a variety of expertise such as Windows Admin Center consulting, PowerShell scripting, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid on-prem/cloud management expertise, and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) experts. Progent also has assembled the ProSight line of remote monitoring and management outsourcing packages that provide small and middle-size businesses an economical and efficient solution for network management.

Progent's Online Consulting Support and Debugging Services
Progent has 20 years of background delivering rapid, top-tier online IT consulting and troubleshooting expertise and has delivered online expertise to businesses in every state in the US and across Canada. (Refer to Progent's Customer Testimonials.) Progent also provides on-premises assistance in major U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent offers as-needed expertise to assist your company with occasional IT issues or end-to-end project management outsourcing and co-sourcing support.

If you are in need of immediate online technical support from a Microsoft-certified expert, refer to Progent's Online Technical Support.

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