When Microsoft announced its Windows Server 2019, a lot of those users or businesses who were currently on the 2016 version of the same service, faced a major conundrum i.e. whether to continue with Windows Server 2016 or move on to the new Windows Server 2019 version?
Obviously, such a significant shift would require a complete revamp of the current processes governing the 2016 version and would involve a significant amount of costs as well, so it would only make sense to opt for a shift if the 2019 version offered any significant advantages that could better serve the firm’s business goals.
Microsoft did provide a complete list of continued, discontinued and newly added features for the 2019 version in comparison to the 2016 version, but the list was quite complex and didn’t make it easy to understand the basic differences between the two versions.
To ease out this issue and yet still allow you to make an informed choice on the matter, we have gone through all these changes and have zeroed in on the four different areas where these significant changes have been introduced.
Here are these four core areas:
Support Offered For Hybrid Cloud
The biggest drawback of Windows server 2016 that was slowly becoming apparent to most users was the lack of support for a hybrid approach when it came to handling cloud migration. Microsoft also understood this and made the 2019 version allow such functionality. Through this way, you can ensure that your cloud solutions can work in tandem with your on-premise resources to deliver an optimized, enterprise environment that’s highly cloud friendly.
If you learned networking with Windows Server 2016, you would be well versed with the fact that this version only supported cloud for active directory, syncing servers for files and creating data repositories. This limitation has been removed from the 2019 version and now you can easily use it to access advanced cloud tools and technologies like IoT resources.
On top of this, the 2019 version supports Project Honolulu, which if supported by Microsoft Azure, can power a truly flexible and customized platform for your needs.
Addition of New, Robust Security Features
Server 2016 never supported Linux VMs, which was problematic from a security standpoint. This also restricted firms to just use Shielded VMs, making their functional domain restricted. The server 2019 version now adds support for VMs based on the open-source Linux OS as well.
The Windows server 2019 also has rolled out new features related to security that serve a three-pronged approach that aims to offer protection and help with the rapid identification of threats to make responsiveness better.
The Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection is also a security-oriented feature of server 2019, which allows it to become a much more competent platform when it comes to protecting the system from emanating threats.
Changes to Application Based Provisions
When Windows server 2019 was about to debut, developers had a lot of expectations tied to it and Microsoft surely didn’t disappoint as one of its core improvements came in the domain of Windows server containers.
Windows Server containers were found to be extremely effective at enhancing the efficiency of the development process when they came in as a part of the Windows server 2016. But now, container image has the ability to accommodate server base core of a much smaller size than was possible in Windows 2016, making it an incredibly flexible and development-oriented resource for emerging DevOps teams in enterprises who require agility in building apps.
Revamped Support For HCI Deployment
This one is a bit tricky as Hyper-Converged Infrastructure deployment was supported by Windows 2016 server as well, but then, the server allowed small businesses to use it as it was within an affordable range.
This time around, the features have remarkably improved as you can now pull in much more agile scalability, power better performance and have a much more solid robust resource to run HCI, but these features will only benefit a business if it is operating on a larger scale, making this feature off bounds for small-medium corporations.
Is The Windows Server 2019 Update Worth Adopting?
The upgrade from Windows to the 2019 version did certainly bring in some noticeably advanced and powerful features to its core service pack. From much better support for HCI deployment to the introduction of the ATP, the Windows server 2019 version is definitely much more suited to modern-day IT needs. If you compare it with 2016, it certainly is more secure and developer-friendly than its predecessor.
However, the cost still remains a major contention point as Microsoft has explicitly mentioned that the Windows Server Client Access licensing will now have an increased price. This makes it difficult for small businesses to opt for adoption, rendering the domain of operations of the Windows server 2019 highly restrictive among industry verticals.
Moreover, to run the 2019 version, it’s essential that certifications regarding the 2016 version are acquired by the IT team because most of the forerunning technologies in server 2019 continue on the same work format as server 2019. If you have done the MS 20740 installation storage and compute with windows server 2016 certification, you will probably face no difficulty in running up the installation of server 2019 as well as most of the frameworks remain the same between both versions.
Wrapping Things Up
The differences between the two versions are quite diverse and analyzing individual elements remains out of the scope of this article. So, we instead decided to present only the comparison among the core features from this update.
But which one is better? Well, there is no clear answer to this one as different business needs can change the way the new updates are perceived and valued for each concern. If you are looking to take the leap then the ATP, as well as the provision of cloud support for the hybrid model, are two of the most important factors that would provide high value to your business by adopting the Windows server 2019 version.