Windows Server Reviews

We use this solution for the deployment of virtual machines on Hyper-V.

We moved from having more than twelve physical servers to only five, reducing costs and improving the infrastructure during the process.

The most valuable feature of this solution is Hyper-V Live Migration for Critical applications.

It would be great to have support for direct USB recognition for the virtual machines. This will allow us to easily move files from a USB drive connected to our host to one of our VM's without having to mount and share a drive trough the network to move the files.

We started virtualizing servers to reduce the number of physical servers and to optimize the data center. We started with standalone installations of the Hyper-V server and synchronized with our virtual machine. After that, we built a cluster and all of the VMs were hosted in that environment.

The organization spent a lot of money buying a large number of physical machines, which made up the workspace. With a physical machine, it is easy to incur damage with hardware faults, such as the loss of a disk or another component. With a cluster environment, we obtain an HA solution.

We like all of the features connected with sharing resources, typical of a Hyper-V cluster manager. Several of these further stand out, including:

• The ability to Hot Add resources to the VM.
• The ability to work on the physical server without disconnecting services.
  
• Provides workspaces for the entire organization with fewer resources.

One area that needs improvement is the management console. It seems very easy to use but it is not as powerful as those of other vendors, such as VMware. Their solution allows for operation in a more granular and simpler way. For example, there is a wizard to migrate a VM from one node to another, or from one datastore to another.

Hyper-V and the updated PowerShell are among the best features that I have taken advantage of.

I have been able to support more VMs on Windows 2016 than on 2012 R2, using the same hardware. Additionally, the improvements in live migrations have been a plus in availability.

We plan to take advantage of the improved storage replication functionality in Q1 2018.

Some of the elements of the Windows Server UI from 2012 R2 are better than what is found in 2016, especially the patch management. While it is nice to have the configuration options more centralized than in earlier versions of Windows, the patch/update options in Windows Server 2016 are less flexible than those of earlier versions Windows, and downloads (from Microsoft Update or WSUS) can be more finicky.

One year.

None.

No. The stability has been stellar.

So far, scalability has not been a problem.

Customer Service:

We have not needed to use Microsoft support, but have utilized online forums for support. (We do have Microsoft support available.)

Technical Support:

We have not needed to use Microsoft support, but have utilized online forums for support. (We do have Microsoft support available.)

Not applicable.

Very straightforward deployment.

In-house.

ROI was not calculated for this project.

Pay close attention to the licensing, as there is a focus on core licensing under Windows 2016.

None.

Windows 2016 continues the trend of solid, stable, high-performing Windows Server products from Microsoft.

Speed and ease with integrating into Microsoft Azure AD environment, security, being able to log in the 'Hello' service.

In my small development environment, speed and security are important, we actually make use of the Microsoft's Edge browser -- which is getting better with each update. Simplified management of Windows 10 machines is also nice.

Intrusive 'You have updates' notification can be annoying -- as it blocks the middle of the screen, but this can be turned off.

When setting a new machine up, users should be given a bit more of information in regards to creating a Microsoft account vs a local account, as being unaware of this can cause a user some confusion down the track if they install an application that needs 'local' user credentials to function.

Since it was released.

No, Windows 10 has deployed onto legacy systems fine.

Very stable, Haven't had any issues with instability whatsoever.

Being a Desktop operating system, scalability is really a function of the resources of the desktop or VM it's running in.

I'm on a 16GB system with a 500GB SSD and I can run multiple VM's on VirtualBox, client sessions, multiple displays and so forth without any issues at all.

Very good, Microsoft makes it easy to get most things set up fairly easily.

Very high, I had the need to contact Microsoft customer support on a matter, and their engineer was able to remotely assume control of the screen (with my permission and after following instructions) and in a few minutes had resolved the problem.

Windows 7, which had become old, bloated with patches and security updates, and was generally just getting slow.

Very straightforward. So far, the installer has identified all of our hardware and everything is running.

In-house.

Difficult to calculate, improved efficiency, less time to get things done, less downtime...can't put an exact dollar amount on it, but our environment is more efficient with Windows 10 installed.

I can't see any reason why anyone would want to downgrade a new machine (if that's even possible now) to Windows 7...

We looked at Remaining on Windows 7, but decided we would make the move to Windows 10.

TEST your applications, especially legacy applications. Most things work just fine on Windows 10, but very old applications that may have just worked under windows 7 may encounter problems.

If that's the case and there's an application you absolutely must have, then consider setting up a dedicated VM with Windows 7 on it just for that application or look at replacing the ancient software.

We only had one old 90's era application that wouldn't run on Windows 10, so we just replaced it and dealt with the change.

The benefits of moving to Windows 10 far outweigh the costs of replacing some old applications (that are probably no longer supported and may have serious security issues).

Work Folder Synchronization: This feature provides offline synchronization of users’ data whether it resides in a desktop, laptop or hand-held device. It also facilitates the BYOD policy if implemented in the company. Its single point of access provides users access to files in online and offline mode with convenience. When the device is connected to the network, data is synched to the storage point as per policies set by the user. The procurement department uses this feature for their purchase-related documents that are shared within department.

Storage Tiering and Pinning: This feature is designed by keeping the data usage frequency in mind. Data that is accessed frequently is stored on a faster hard drive by the operating system. Suppose if you have SSD and SATA or other type of drives, the system will move frequently accessed data to SSD.

Performance-related defaults should be set according to role of the server. Windows 2012 provides a thumbnail view of different roles that a server is configured for. Click on any role, check the event, services and log data for quick review and solution of any issue. These thumbnails of installed roles are pre-configured and disturbing them is not recommended. If any issue with the installed role is detected, the affected part is highlighted with a red-colored font.

I have been using it for about one year.

I have not encountered any stability issues at all.

I have not encountered any scalability issues at all.

Technical support is good.

We were using Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. We were upgrading our hardware, so decided to upgrade the OS version as well.

Initial setup went through very smoothly.

Licensing is a complex issue when it comes to Microsoft. Read all the detail and assess your requirements before finalizing any licensing option.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

Plan according to your environment.

We use this solution for hosting applications on the server. 

The on premises to cloud migration should be easier. 

I have used this solution for ten years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

We used Windows Server to run SQL applications and a few remote desktop applications.

The solution is easy to use.

I have been using Windows Server for approximately four years.

The solution is stable.

Windows Server is scalable.

We have approximately 20 people in my organization using this solution.

Windows Server is easy to configure. However, it takes approximately three months for the full implementation.

We used integrators to do the implementation of the solution. We have one technician that works on the solution.

Windows Server's whole licensing model is complex because if you have, for example, Microsoft Office and end-user applications installed on a server with a remote desktop, then the licensing can be complex. If the model could be simplified it would be better.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Windows Server an eight out of ten.