What IT Pros Need to Know About Windows Server 2022

Microsoft has announced the general availability of Windows Server 2022, hailing the new version of the operating system as a more secure, hybrid-capable and scalable.

The company announced the general availability Wednesday, but Microsoft has been rolling out the latest version of the on-premises system to customers since last month – Aug. 18 to be specific.

Windows Server 2022 is a Long-Term Servicing Channel release, so it will get support for 10 years, with five years of mainstream support and another five of extended support, ending on Oct. 14, 2031.

In a blog post, Microsoft’s Vice President of Program Management, Core OS and Edge Infrastructure, Bernardo Cladas, runs through some of the features of Windows Server 2022, which includes multi-layered security, hybrid capabilities with Azure and scalability improvements.

Security

Windows Server 2022 features several security advancements, including Secured core server, which means that Microsoft’s hardware partners have provided hardware, firmware and drivers to help customers harden the security of their critical systems, Cladas wrote.

“It allows IT and SecOps teams to apply comprehensive security broadly in their environment with Secured-core server’s advanced protection and preventive defense across hardware, firmware, and virtualization layers,” Cladas wrote.

Secured connectivity is another feature in Windows Server 2022 that adds faster and more secure encrypted HTTPS and industry-standard AES-256 encryption with support for server message block (SMB) protocol.

Hybrid capabilities

With cloud computing becoming more popular, Microsoft is introducing cloud services with on-premises Windows Server 2022 by connecting with Azure Arc to help customers adopt a hybrid or multiload approach.

According to Cladas, the new release also includes File Server enhancements, including SMB Compression, to improve application file transfer by compressing data while in transit over a network.

For admins, the Windows Admin Center includes a modern server management experience including a new event viewer and gateway proxy support for Azure connected scenarios

Scalability and flexibility

Microsoft bills Windows Server 202 as a flexible application platform that allows customers to grow, with improvements including support for 48TB of memory and 2,048 logical cores running on 64 physical sockets for customers that need Tier1 applications.

There are also advancements to Windows containers, according to CLadas.

“For example, Windows Server 2022 improves application compatibility of Windows containers, includes HostProcess containers for node configuration, supports IPv6 and dual-stack, and enables consistent network policy implementation with Calico,” Cladas wrote.

Microsoft is also working with the Kubernetes community to enable Windows Server 2022 container support and bring these new capabilities to Azure Kubernetes Service and AKS on Azure Stack HCI, Cladas wrote.

Customers can also take advantage of new Azure services and service enhancements for Windows Server that allow IT pros to easily Mirgate to Azured and modernize their IT environment, Cladas says:

On Azure: Azure Automanage (in preview) enables IT pros to not only automate cloud best practices but also put into practice our enterprise expertise with the Microsoft cloud adoption framework. With Azure Automanage for Windows Server, customers can migrate to Azure easily without any changes to network IP, securely do file transfer to Azure using SMB over QUIC, and implement hotpatch for new Windows Server Azure Virtual Machines.

To modernize existing applications, customers have many options in Azure depending on their application architectural needs. For example, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with native .NET support enables customers to modernize applications with Kubernetes, the container orchestrator of choice for many.

Lastly, when customers move their workloads to Azure, they can take advantage of benefits such as Azure Hybrid Benefit and free Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2008 and 2012—only on Azure.

Hybrid and on-premises: Many customers need to run applications and services on-premises. Through Azure Arc and Azure Stack HCI, customers can modernize the management and virtualization layers, respectively. Similarly, customers who want to modernize their Windows Server applications on-premises can use AKS on Azure Stack HCI.

While we will continue to introduce new capabilities in Window Server Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), we will also enable new scenarios in Azure that make it simple for customers to modernize their Windows Server IT environment.