Microsoft officially released Windows Server 2012, a major upgrade featuring significant advancements in virtualization, storage, networking and automation. In combination with Windows Azure and System Center, Microsoft is positioning Windows Server 2012 as its “Cloud OS” for running applications and services seamlessly across private, hosted and public data center infrastructure.
In a launch event, Microsoft said it built Windows Server 2012 “from the cloud up,” applying its experience operating global datacenters that rely on hundreds of thousands of servers to deliver more than 200 cloud services.
“The operating system has always been the heartbeat of IT and is now undergoing a renaissance in the new world of continuous cloud services, connected devices and big data,” Nadella said. “Microsoft’s unique legacy in the most widely used operating systems, applications and cloud services positions us to deliver the Cloud OS, based on Windows Server and Windows Azure, helping customers achieve a datacenter without boundaries,” said Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft Server and Tools Business.
Among its features:
- Windows Server 2012 uses a common identity and management framework for more secure connectivity to public cloud services.
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in Windows Server 2012 makes it possible for users to access IT from virtually anywhere on popular devices
- Windows Server 2012 and Virtual Machine Manager aim to be an end-to-end SDN solution for public, private, and hybrid clouds. By building all the pieces as part of a solution — the hypervisor, the SDN control surface on the end host, and the management software — Microsoft said it can ensure a set of seamless experiences for datacenter administrators.
- Virtual Machine Manager plays a key role in automating configuration of SDN policies for Hyper-V Network Virtualization.
- VMM allows customers to unify the individual virtual switches on each Hyper-V host in the datacenter into a distributed logical switch that is dynamically programmed with SDN traffic control policies.
- A new Hyper-V Extensible Switch capability enable Microsoft partners to extend SDN policies within the switc, such as integrating the virtual switch with the rest of the physical network infrastructure.