Server Management Technology and Service

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is the on-premises release of Microsoft's server OS. Windows Server 2019 includes all the enhancements to Windows Server 2016 formerly available only through the SAC program. Windows Server 2019 features significant enhancements in scale, performance, management, security and compliance, app compatibility, Linux support, Kubernetes technology, and hybrid integration of local and cloud-hosted assets.

Headline enhancements of Windows Server 2019 are Windows Admin Center for centralizing the management and monitoring of hybrid local/cloud-hosted deployments, System Insights for taking advantage of modern predictive intelligence to manage local networks, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Exploit Guard for host-intrusion prevention, container orchestration with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets technology for creating and administering large high-availability scale-out clusters, and Storage Migration Service for streamlining the upgrade process from legacy releases of Windows Server.

Progent can assist you to configure Windows Server 2019 with the latest versions of Microsoft's key applications by providing services such as Exchange Server expertise, SQL Server 2019 integration expertise, SQL Server 2017 upgrade services, SharePoint 2019 planning and integration, and Office 365 integration consulting. Progent's consulting, debugging and training support for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are available online and Progent also offers onsite services in metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions with Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 makes Microsoft's Azure stack available to organizations of all sizes for creating onsite data centers, private clouds, or hybrid systems that combine on-prem IT assets with infrastructure and services provided via private and public clouds.

Many of modern businesses manage a combination of on-premises and cloud-hosted resources to get the appropriate trade-off of flexibility, affordability, performance, availability, and security they need. For some industries, compliance regulations demand that specific types of resources and information be retained locally. In other cases, company standards or legacy applications require line-of-business applications to be run locally. Windows Server 2019 offers a cloud-aware platform that permits you to build and administer powerful hybrid networks that seamlessly utilize resources spread across local facilities and the cloud.

Planning, creating and managing efficient hybrid solutions with Windows Server 2019 demands a broad array of skills. This is beyond the expertise of most in-house IT staffs maintained by smaller organization. Progent's roster of experts offers as-needed access to the skills you need for any aspect of hybrid network deployment and maintenance. Progent's Microsoft Gold-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and information security specialists can assist your business to assess the benefits of Windows Server 2019 for your organization and create a hybrid ecosystem based on Windows Server 2019 that delivers top business value.

A Good Time to Migrate
The introduction of Windows Server 2019 coincided with the announcement of End-of-Support status for Microsoft's popular Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 products. The result is that there will be no additional security fixes onsite, no other enhancements, no free support programs, and no online technical updates. Consequently, security and compliance issues will be increasingly difficult, maintenance costs and effort may go up, and network stability may go down.

If your company could use expertise upgrading to Windows Server 2019 from WS 2008 or any other out-of-date version of Windows Server, Progent can provide the skills to make your upgrade process smooth, affordable, and fast. Progent can help you:

• Inventory your applications and server roles running on your existing Windows Servers
• Migrate your VMs to the Private Progent Cloud or upgrade to the current release of on-premises Windows Server or to Azure
• Optimize your configuration to reduce spend, manage assets, and enhance data security across hybrid applications

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 has two installation alternatives: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. The Server Core option has a minimal attack surface and no local interface but handles all role-based workloads. This "headless" version must be managed remotely, e.g. with Power Shell or Windows Admin Center. Server with Desktop Experience alternative is a complete installation and features a comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) for local management. Progent's consultants can help you to select the versions and deployment alternatives best suited to your environment, understand Microsoft's licensing requirements, and pick an efficient on-premises, cloud, or hybrid network architecture.

Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 offers improved scale, performance, manageability, virtualization, data security, hybrid networking, disaster recovery, container management, Linux compatibility, and other important enhancements. Editions of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 licensed under the SAC model are updated two times a year, and so make enhancements available more quickly than under the Long-Term Servicing Channel model.

Windows Server 2019 offers substantial increases in capacity compared to Microsoft Windows Server 2016:

Other headline enhancements in Windows Server 2019 include:

• Cluster Sets is a feature that supports dramatic increases in cluster node count in a Software Defined Data Center by combining numerous Failover Clusters into a single massive, uniformly controlled interconnected topology. You can seamlessly move VMs throughout the Cluster Set fabric and manage all facets of a Failover Cluster from onboarding to retirement. Clusters included within a Cluster Set can take advantage of additional storage and memory in a separate cluster without requiring that you purchase more equipment. CPU and storage assets do not have to be the same, and robustness matches or exceeds conventional Failover Clusters.
  
  Prior to Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for virtual machines were a hassle to manage and modify
  
  Windows Server 2019 introduces Cluster Sets for unified control of failover clusters

• Storage Replica has been included in the Standard edition of Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica provides next-generation disaster recovery capability and is described in Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica consulting. New capabilities of Storage Replica include a test failover function that allows you to put a destination volume online temporally for verification and backup. Also, you can now manage Storage Replica with the new Microsoft Windows Admin Center, which provides a GUI tool for managing procedures such as server-to-server and cluster-to-cluster replication.
• Storage Spaces Direct enhancements include duplicate elimination and compression for Resilient File System (ReFS) volumes, native support for persistent memory, support for using a low-cost flash drive to act as a witness with dual-server clusters, greater expandability (up to 4 PB for each cluster), double the performance for mirror-accelerated parity, outlier detection for physical disk latency, and the ability to increase fault tolerance by manually changing the limit of volume allocation. Windows Server's Storage Spaces Direct technology is described in Microsoft Windows Storage Spaces Direct consulting.
• Storage Migration Service simplifies the task of migrating storage from legacy servers to volumes in current releases of Windows Server or Azure. You can utilize Storage Migration Service to move to new physical devices or to VMs. The tool inventories multiple servers and their data; copies files, shares, and security configurations to their new servers; and allows destination servers to assume the identity of the source servers so that your users and applications can access existing data without changing anything. Windows Admin Center's graphical interface can manage many concurrent migration processes.
• Expanded Linux support enables you to host Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise, and SUSE Enterprise Server within shielded VMs. Microsoft's Shielded Virtual Machines capability is described in Windows Server 2016 Shielded Virtual Machines consulting.
• Windows Admin Center is a new web-based application installed on-premises for managing servers, clusters, HCI infrastructure with Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 computers, and Azure-hosted virtual machines. Windows Admin Center can be utilized 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 posting the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can administer your servers securely from any location.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Admin Center permits you to manage on-premises and Azure-hosted virtual machines from a single pane of glass

• Container networking with Kubernetes, the open-source management automation system for Docker containers, offers improved capability such as the ability to utilize integrated security tooling to protect both 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 allows 10 times more data on a given Resilient File System volume. Microsoft's ReFS file system, introduced in Microsoft Windows Server 2012, combines RAM-level high-performance tiers for handling hot data along with HDD/SDD capacity tiers for scale and resilience.
• Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection is included with Windows Server 2019 as an integrated capability requiring no special activation fee and no agent installation.
• Encrypted Networks is a new function that encrypts traffic between VMs communicating within subnets you have set to be Encryption Enabled. DTLS on the virtual subnet prevents anyone 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 dual-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. Using this economical, easy-to-configure solution, when a server fails and then returns to operation, the USB drive cluster can say which server holds the fresher data.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Server 2019 permits a USB Flash drive to act as a witness in dual-server clusters

• LEDBAT automatically reduces network traffic jams by taking up bandwidth only during periods when the network is being only moderately utilized. LEDBAT allows you to publish massive, important updates across an enterprise network without degrading the performance of mission-critical services.
• System Insights uses advanced analytics to improve capacity planning. System Insights runs locally on each Windows Server 2019 instance and analyses performance stats and events to forecast capacity requirements in important areas including utilization for volumes, storage capacity, processing, and network traffic volume.
• Windows Time Service supports the new time synchronization method called Precision Time Protocol and provides correct time during a leap second. Windows Server 2019 also supports time traceability and software time-stamping. These features deliver improved accuracy and precision, allow compliance with UTC and other regulations like as FINRA, and support special time-critical applications. Because network setup demands care to implement PTP, Network Time Protocol (NTP) is still the default time synchronization technique for Windows Server 2019.

Progent's certified data security experts can assist you to follow best practices to create a modern security solution that is consistent across on-premises and cloud-based assets as well as mobile devices. Progent can help you to set up centralized and proactive cybersecurity monitoring using an effective combination of cybersecurity technologies from Microsoft and other leading providers. Progent also can run security assessments to verify that your IT environment meets government and industry data security mandates such as SOX, ISO 27001, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.

Progent's roster of Cisco CCIE infrastructure consultants is among the biggest of any independent IT services company in the U.S. Progent can help your business to plan, configure and maintain a resilient and cost-effective hybrid network infrastructure that delivers the latest high-availability and recovery technologies included with Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC) planning experts can assist you plan and validate an end-to-end solution for rebounding rapidly from any anticipated disaster.

To help your business to support your Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server Hyper-V virtualized environment, Progent can provide a range of expertise like Windows Admin Center consulting, PowerShell programming, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid on-prem/cloud management expertise, and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) consultants. Progent also has assembled the ProSight family of remote monitoring and management outsourcing packages that provide small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) an affordable and effective solution for network management.

Progent's Remote Consulting and Troubleshooting Services
Progent has 20 years of experience providing fast, high-level remote IT consulting and debugging expertise and has delivered online expertise to organizations 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 support to help your organization to resolve challenging technical issues or end-to-end project management outsourcing support.

If you are in need of immediate online assistance from a Microsoft-certified expert, visit Progent's Online Technical Support.

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