Server Management Technology and Service

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is the self-hosted release of Microsoft's server OS. Windows Server 2019 includes the enhancements for Windows Server 2016 previously offered only via Microsoft's SAC program. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers significant improvements in scale, throughput, management, security and compliance, app compatibility, Linux support, Kubernetes networking, and hybrid integration of local and cloud-hosted resources.

Top enhancements of Windows Server 2019 include Windows Admin Center for unifying the management of hybrid local/cloud-hosted deployments, System Insights for utilizing advance predictive analytics to control on-premises networks, Windows Defender ATP Exploit Guard for host-intrusion defense, container networking with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets for creating and administering massive non-stop scale-out clusters, and Microsoft's Storage Migration Service for simplifying the migration from outdated releases of Windows Server.

Progent can help you to configure Windows Server 2019 with the latest releases of Microsoft's key applications by providing expert services such as Microsoft Exchange Server consulting, SQL Server 2019 integration and development expertise, SQL Server 2017 upgrade consulting, Microsoft SharePoint 2019 design and deployment, and Microsoft 365 integration expertise. Progent's solution design, troubleshooting and education support for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are offered online and Progent also offers on-premises consulting in major metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions with Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 makes Microsoft's Azure stack available to organizations of any size for building on-premises networks, private cloud solutions, or hybrid systems that integrate on-prem resources with resources hosted on private and public clouds.

The majority of today's businesses deploy a combination of local and cloud-based resources to deliver the appropriate trade-off of control, economy, throughput, reliability, and security/compliance they need. In some industries, compliance regulations demand that certain classes of resources and information be managed locally. In other instances, company policies or compatibility issues necessitate mission-critical software to be hosted locally. Windows Server 2019 provides a cloud-friendly solution that allows you to implement and manage productive hybrid ecosystems that transparently access resources distributed across on-premises data centers and the cloud.

Planning, creating and managing efficient hybrid solutions with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 demands a broad range of skills. This can be beyond the expertise of typical IT groups maintained by smaller organizations. Progent's roster of experts gives you as-needed access to the knowledge you need for any aspect of hybrid network implementation and management. Progent's Microsoft-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and cybersecurity professionals can assist you to assess the advantages of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 for your company and create a hybrid ecosystem based on Windows Server 2019 that offers maximum business value.

The Right Time to Migrate
The introduction of Windows Server 2019 coincided with the announcement of End-of-Support (EOS) status for Microsoft's popular Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms. This means there will be no additional security patches on-premises, no non-security updates, no free support options, and no downloadable technical updates. Consequently, security and compliance will be increasingly challenging, maintenance costs may go up, and network stability may drop.

If your business wants help upgrading to Microsoft Windows Server 2019 from WS 2008 or any other legacy version of Microsoft Windows Server, Progent offers the skills to make your migration efficient, economical, and fast. Progent's Windows experts can help you:

• Identify your apps and server roles on your current Windows Servers
• Move your VMs to the Progent Cloud or upgrade to the latest release of self-hosted Windows Server or to Microsoft Azure
• Optimize your configuration to reduce spend, manage resources, and strengthen data security across hybrid workloads

Windows Server 2019 has two installation alternatives: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. Server Core has a small footprint and has no local interface but supports all server roles. This "headless" version is designed to be managed remotely, for example with the command line or Remote Server Administration Tools. Server with Desktop Experience option is a complete installation and features a comprehensive graphical user interface for local management. Progent's experts can assist your organization to determine the versions and deployment options most appropriate for your situation, understand Microsoft's licensing requirements, and pick an efficient on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid deployment model.

Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers improved scale, throughput, manageability, Hyper-V virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid deployment support, disaster recovery, orchestration, Linux co-existence, and other key enhancements. Editions of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 licensed under Microsoft's SAC model are updated two times a year, making enhancements available much sooner than under the LTSC program.

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers significant improvements in capacity vs. Microsoft Windows Server 2016:

Other notable improvements in Windows Server 2019 include:

• Cluster Sets is a feature that allows dramatic expansion in cluster nodes in a Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) by combining numerous smaller Failover Clusters into a single large, uniformly controlled interconnected topology. You can seamlessly migrate VMs across the Cluster Set fabric and control every facet of a Failover Cluster from initial deployment to decommissioning. Clusters included within a Cluster Set can benefit from additional disk storage and memory in another cluster without requiring that you buy additional hardware. CPU and storage assets do not have to be identical, and robustness matches or exceeds ordinary Failover Clusters.
  
  Before Microsoft Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for virtual machines were difficult to manage and modify
  
  Windows Server 2019 introduces Cluster Sets for centralized management of failover clusters

• Storage Replica has been included in the Standard version of Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica offers advanced disaster recovery capability and is described in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica deployment. Novel capabilities of Storage Replica include a test failover option that permits you to bring a destination volume online temporally for testing and backup. In addition, administrators can now manage Storage Replica with Microsoft Windows Admin Center, which offers a GUI tool for controlling procedures like server-to-server and stretch cluster replication.
• Storage Spaces Direct improvements include deduplication and compression for Resilient File System (ReFS) volumes, integrated support for persistent memory, the ability to use a low-cost 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 abnormal 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 consulting.
• Storage Migration Service simplifies the task of migrating the volume data from legacy servers to volumes in current releases of Windows Server. You can utilize Storage Migration Service to move to current physical devices or to virtual machines. The utility inventories Windows and Linux servers and their data; moves files, shares, and security configurations to their intended servers; and permits destination servers to take over the identity of your legacy servers so that users and apps can have access to existing data without making any changes. Windows Admin Center's GUI can control many concurrent migration processes.
• Expanded Linux support allows organizations to run Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server within shielded VMs. Shielded Virtual Machines technology is described in Windows Server 2016 Shielded VMs consulting.
• Windows Admin Center is a new browser-based application deployed on-premises for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) with Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 endpoints, and Azure-based 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 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 manage your servers securely from any location.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Admin Center allows you to manage on-premises and Azure cloud virtual machines from a single pane of glass

• Container networking with Kubernetes, the open-source open-source management tool for Docker containers, includes enhanced features like being able to utilize integrated network security to protect both Windows and Linux services. For a discussion of containers on Microsoft Windows Server, see Microsoft Windows Server containers expertise.
• Duplicate Elimination and Compression for Resilient File System Volumes allows 10 times more data on a specified Resilient File System (ReFS) volume. Microsoft's ReFS file technology, first released in Windows Server 2012, integrates silicon performance tiers for 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 feature requiring no additional activation fee and no agent installation.
• Encrypted Networks is a function that encrypts data traveling between virtual machines communicating inside subnets you have designated as Encryption Enabled. DTLS on the virtual subnet prevents entities accessing the physical network from reading, modifying, or faking network data. Traffic between encrypted subnets is unencrypted.
• A USB Flash Drive connected to your router can be assigned as a witness in two-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. With this affordable, easy-to-configure technique, if a server fails and then returns to operation, the USB drive cluster can say which server holds the fresher data.
  
  
  Windows Server 2019 allows a USB Flash drive to act as a witness in dual-server clusters

• Low Extra Delay Background Transport (LEDBAT) automatically avoids network traffic jams by consuming bandwidth only if the network is being sparingly used. This allows an organization to send massive, critical updates throughout an enterprise network without degrading the responsiveness of business-critical services.
• System Insights uses predictive analytics to inform capacity planning. System Insights runs internally on every Microsoft Windows Server 2019 instance and looks at performance counters and events to predict capacity needs in important areas including utilization for volumes, storage capacity, CPU, and network traffic volume.
• Windows Time Service supports the new time synchronization method known as Precision Time Protocol and delivers correct 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 regulations like as Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and meet the requirements of various time-critical applications. Because network configuration is challenging to support PTP, the older Network Time Protocol remains the default time synchronization technique for Microsoft Windows Server 2019.

Progent's cybersecurity consultants can help you to follow best practices to build a modern security environment that is consistent across on-premises and cloud-based assets as well as mobile end points. Progent can help your company to set up 24x7 remote data security monitoring and management using an optimal mix of security tools and services from Microsoft as well as other leading vendors. Progent also offers cybersecurity audits to ensure that your IT environment meets regulatory and industry cybersecurity requirements such as SOX, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.

Progent's roster of Cisco CCIE network experts is one of the biggest of any independent IT support firm in the United States. Progent can assist your company to design, configure and manage a resilient and affordable hybrid network infrastructure that delivers the modern high-availability and recovery technologies built into Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity preparedness consultants can assist you create and test an end-to-end process for rebounding quickly from any anticipated catastrophe.

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

Download the Datasheet for Progent's Windows Server 2019 Consulting Services
To see the datasheet describing Progent's expertise for Windows Server 2019, select:
Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Windows Server 2019. (PDF - 319 KB)

Progent's Remote Consulting and Debugging Services
Progent has 20 years of background delivering rapid, top-tier remote technical guidance and debugging support and has delivered online support to clients in every state in the United States and across Canada. (Refer to Progent's Customer Testimonials.) Progent also offers on-premises support in most U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent can provide as-needed support to assist you to resolve challenging IT issues or comprehensive project management outsourcing support.

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

Contact Progent for Assistance 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 visit Contact Progent.