To meet today’s complex data and business needs, Microsoft regularly introduces upgrades and enhancements to its server operating system, and Windows Server 2022 is no exception to that by being Microsoft’s most secure, Azure-compatible, storage-friendly and hardware-supportive server OS so far.
The New Security Capabilities in Windows Server 2022
In Windows Server 2022, security level is increased with multilayer advancements. Microsoft brings in secured-core capabilities to help protect hardware, firmware, and Windows Server OS capabilities against advanced security threats. Windows Server 2022 also provides secured connectivity that introduces several new capabilities such as faster and more secure encrypted HTTPS connections, industry standard SMB AES 256 encryption and more.
Windows Server on Azure
The advantages of running Windows Server 2022 on Azure are including but not limited to;
- Being able to perform virtual machine (VM) lifecycle management for Azure Stack HCI and VMware environments from a centralized location,
- The ability of bringing the first cloud native SIEM to all the resources by the use of Microsoft Sentinel, and
- The Hotpatch feature saving the users from the trouble of restarting the systems for the patches to take effect.
Plus, users can save 40% or more and get free Extended Security Updates when Windows Server licenses are used in Azure. The Azure Hybrid Benefit allows for bringing on- premises Windows and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to Azure and paying a reduced compute rate.
Features Related to Storage
The innovation at the storage level represents one of the major improvements on Windows Server 2022. Daily data management has become a problem for data engineers. In such scenarios, advanced storage upgrades are built into the 2022 servers such as better caching to store important data on faster volumes, ReFS file snapshots, faster hard drive fixes after restart or failure, and enhancements to Storage Migration Service making it easier to migrate storage to the Server from more source locations.
Hardware Support
Windows Server 2022 comes with extended hardware limitations too. It supports 48 TB of memory and 2048 logical cores running on 64 physical sockets. Furthermore, it supports the latest Intel Xeon Processors, allowing the users to benefit from fast data encryption with a low performance overhead. On top of that, Intel® Xeon® Processors offer many more features specifically added to enhance the experiences during cloud computing, edge computing, AI-related uses, uses related to 5G networks and workstation-based uses.
With the support for Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 coming to an end in October 2023, upgrading to Windows Server 2022 definitely becomes an option to consider as there will be no more updates or service packs provided for these decade-old server operating systems. This simply means that older operating systems used are now at greater risk of cyberattacks, so now might be the right time to benefit from the latest innovations and new options with Azure in Windows Server 2022.
For more details, you can visit the related page on Microsoft’s website. If you want to take a look at the Windows Server 2022 operating system before buying, you can try the 180-day evaluation by downloading its ISO.
