Microsoft yesterday announced that Windows Server 2019 will be made generally available in the second half of the year 2018. The server addresses four important customer challenge areas, including hybrid workloads, security, application platform, and hyper-converged infrastructure.
The new version of Windows Server is built on Windows Server 2016, which was launched in October 2016. It marks the latest release in Microsoft’s long-term servicing channel (LTSC), which comes once in two years.
Windows Server 2019 will be integrated with Project Honolulu, a browser-based management solution. Microsoft aims to make it easier for enterprises to connect their existing deployments of Windows Server to Azure services.
“With Windows Server 2019 and Project Honolulu, customers will be able to easily integrate Azure services such as Azure Backup, Azure File Sync, disaster recovery, and much more so they will be able to leverage these Azure services without disrupting their applications and infrastructure,” wrote Erin Chapple, Director of Program Management, Windows Server.
Microsoft is enhancing the security in Windows Server 2019, with a three-point approach: protect, detect and respond. The company has added Shielded VMs with support for Linux VMs as well. It will protect VMs against malicious activities. The addition of Encrypted Networks will enable encryption of network segments to protect network layer between servers.
Windows Server 2019 will have embedded Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to detect attacks in the operating system. Sysadmins will have access to deep kernel and memory sensors, so that they can respond on server machines.
Under application platform, there will be improved orchestration for Windows Server container deployments. Windows Subsystem on Linux (WSL) support in new version will enable Linux users to bring their scripts to Windows while using industry standards like OpenSSH, Curl, and Tar. There is also a support of Kubernetes, which is currently in beta.
The Windows Server 2019 reduces the size of Server Core base container image from 5 GB to less than 2 GB. This will reduce the image download time by 72%, resulting in optimized development time and performance.
On Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) front, Microsoft said that it has added the ability in Windows Server 2019 to manage HCI deployments using Project Honolulu. It will make the management of several activities on HCI environments simpler.
Microsoft is also planning to launch System Server 2019 with Windows Server 2019 support.
The Windows Server 2019 is now available for preview, and will be generally available in the second half of this year.
