What’s New and What’s Next in Windows Server 2019, Powered by Intel

Microsoft Azure Stack HCI is a member of the Azure Stack family that delivers hyper-converged infrastructure with hybrid cloud capabilities built in. It includes Hyper-V for efficient virtualization of Windows and Linux, Storage Spaces Direct for fast enterprise-grade storage, and Azure-inspired software-defined networking.

Stretched clusters is a feature that provides native disaster recovery and business continuity to clusters in Azure Stack HCI. It allows you to stretch Azure Stack HCI systems between multiple sites using Storage Replica replication and automatic VM failover.

Azure Stack HCI is designed to take advantage of the latest Intel technologies. An Azure Stack HCI solution with Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory was able to achieve 13.7M IOPS.

In this webinar, Microsoft’s John Marlin and Intel's Marcelo Pinheiro will discuss Azure Stack HCI and deploying stretched clusters for automatic failover on Azure Stack HCI.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) uses server hardware to run desktop operating systems and software programs on a virtual machine. It offers the flexibility of running traditional desktop workloads on centralized servers. VDI can help keep sensitive company applications and data in a secure data center and accommodate a bring-your-own device policy. VDI has become the de facto standard for supporting remote and branch workers.

Windows Virtual Desktop is a type of VDI from Microsoft that is a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud. It’s the only VDI that delivers simplified management, multi-session Windows 10, optimizations for Office 365 ProPlus, and support Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environments. Deploy and scale your Windows desktops and apps on Azure in minutes.

You can also run VDI on-premises with Azure Stack HCI. It allows you to use remote desktop services, highly available virtual machines, and integrated scalable storage to support your large-scale virtual implementations. Connect virtual desktops to the Azure update management solution to control your enterprise VDI configuration in the cloud.

In this webinar, Numecent’s Doug Pfiffner and DataON’s Henry Fu will discuss deploying and migrating VDI workloads on Windows Virtual Desktop and Azure Stack HCI.

SQL Server helps business solve modern data challenges by helping you apply intelligence across all your data. It allows you to take advantage of breakthrough scalability and performance to improve the stability and response time of your data base without making app changes. It provides high availability for mission-critical applications, data warehouses, and data lakes.

Now you can deploy and manage high-performance, scalable SQL Server running on hyperconverged infrastructure with Azure Stack HCI. Run your applications with high availability and the flexibility of virtualization while using Azure Backup and Azure Blob Storage to back up and restore your organization’s data. If you’re already a Windows Server 2016/2019 Datacenter edition customer then you already have the capability to run Azure Stack HCI.

Azure Stack HCI is designed to take advantage of the latest technologies, including Intel® Optane™ technology. A system with Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory can produce 76% more IOPS performance over a system without Intel® Optane™ persistent memory.

In this webinar, Microsoft’s Brian Carrig will discuss the benefits of virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server on Azure Stack HCI and Intel’s Ken LeTourneau will explain how Intel® technology boosts SQL Server performance.

Deploy your scale-out storage workloads based on Azure Stack HCI with high-bandwidth networking from Mellanox and capacity platforms from Western Digital. Combine unmatched storage and performance with validated hardware to centralize your organization’s fire shares. The Azure File Sync feature keeps the flexibility, performance, and compatibility of an on-premises file server while replacing an aging SAN or aggregating files from multiple sources. See how The Canadian Museum of Human Rights deployed an Azure Stack HCI hybrid cloud solution with scale-out storage for its interactive multimedia exhibits, online experience, archival media, surveillance video bulk storage, and data center backup.

So you’re already familiar with hyper-converged infrastructure and how it simplifies compute, storage, and networking, and provides high-performance, cost-effective, and easily scalable virtualization that runs on industry-standard hardware.

And you already know that with a Windows Server 2019 datacenter license, you already have the capability to run Azure Stack HCI without additional software or incurring additional costs.

But how does Azure Stack HCI work in the real world with real customers?

In this webinar, we’ll discuss how Bradley, a national law firm, deployed an Azure Stack HCI solution powered by the latest Intel technologies for its primary data center and remote offices. It used an Intel Select Solution for Azure Stack HCI with Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® Optane™ technology to greatly reduce SQL backup times and VDI startup times, while increase performance and response times of their business-critical applications.


Speakers:

Jake Smith – Director, Data Center Technologies, Intel
Howard Lo – Vice President, Sales & Marketing, DataON

Data is at the heart of every business or organization. When employees and customers can’t access the data and applications they expect, it damages your brand, your employee’s productivity, and your bottom line.

In today’s 24x7 business, organizations need to protect their data from a myriad of threats, from ransomware and data theft to physical disasters, data corruption, and hardware failures. Ransomware alone cost businesses over $7.5B in the United States in 2019.

Microsoft Azure Stack HCI provides hyper-converged infrastructure that consolidates software-defined compute, storage, and networking into one cluster to provider high-performance, cost-effective, and easily scalable virtualization that runs on industry-standard hardware. It’s designed to withstand multiple hardware failures without loss of storage availability so users, apps, and VMs continue to run without disruption.

Veeam is the leader in backup solutions, providing a single platform for modernizing backup, accelerating hybrid cloud, and securing your data. Its solutions are designed to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft Azure and Hyper-V.

In this webinar, Strategic Online System’s Benjamin Clements and Veeam’s Andy Perkins will discuss how deploying a Microsoft and Veeam solution can help protect your organization from ransomware and other data threats.

Storage Review recently reviewed a DataON solution for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI with 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory. It was their first experience with an Azure Stack HCI solution, and they gave its Editor’s Choice award, calling it “the fastest mid-market 4-node cluster we’ve seen.”

Microsoft Azure Stack HCI consolidates software-defined compute, storage, and networking into one cluster to provide high-performance, cost-effective, and easily scalable virtualization that can run on industry-standard hardware. It can be used for edge, ROBO, data center, hybrid and cloud deployments.

And if you’re already a Windows Server 2016/2019 Datacenter edition customer then you already have the capability to run Azure Stack HCI.

Azure Stack HCI is designed to take advantage of the latest technologies, including Intel® Optane™ technology. A system with Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory can produce 76% more IOPS performance over a system without Intel® Optane™ persistent memory.

In this webinar, Storage Reviews’ Brian Beeler shares his results from testing an Azure Stack HCI solution and Intel’s Alessandro Goncalves will explain how Intel® technology helps Azure Stack HCI achieve incredible performance numbers.

One of the most exciting data center trends of the past few years has been around the push towards software-defined infrastructures such as hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). By 2023, 70 percent of enterprises will be running some form of hyper-converged infrastructure, up from less than 30 percent in 2019, according to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure.
 
Microsoft Azure Stack HCI consolidates software-defined compute, storage, and networking into one cluster to provide high-performance, cost-effective, and easily scalable virtualization that can run on industry-standard hardware. You can implement a full HCI stack without additional software from any other vendor and it can meet the needs of customers for edge, ROBO, data center, hybrid and cloud deployments.
 
And if you’re already a Windows Server 2016/2019 Datacenter edition customer then you already have the capability to run Azure Stack HCI.
 
In this webinar, DataON’s Henry Fu and Intel’s Todd Christ will give an overview of Azure Stack HCI, it’s features, and how Intel technology enhances Azure Stack HCI.

Two of the most exciting data center trends of the past few years has been around the push towards software-defined infrastructures and hybrid cloud computing. Software-defined infrastructures move data centers away from discrete hardware-defined systems and towards a software-defined environment that can run on industry-standard hardware. By 2023, 70 percent of enterprises will be running some form of hyper-converged infrastructure, up from less than 30 percent in 2019, according to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure.
 
Cloud computing has gained popularity for its ease-of-deployment and flexible resource consumption. While it may work for many companies and workloads, it’s not the right answer for everyone. Despite the rise in cloud adoption, some companies are opting to bring certain workloads back on-premises. A hybrid cloud environment combines cloud and on-premises computing and allows data and applications to be shared between them.
 
With both software-defined infrastructure and hybrid cloud computing, the IT goal is the same: increase IT flexibility, improve security, boost performance, and control costs.

In this webinar, DataON’s Howard Lo and Microsoft’s Rick Claus will talk about what you need to know about these trends, and how DataON and Microsoft can help you with your IT modernization journey.

At Microsoft Ignite 2019, Microsoft announced updates to the Azure Stack family and Azure Stack HCI. Enhancements to Azure Stack HCI include new use cases for Azure Stack HCI for specific apps and scenarios, and support for up to 16PB, which is 4x more than before.

Azure Stack HCI has always been designed to take advantage of the latest technologies, including Intel® Optane™ technology. A system with Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory was able to produce 76% more IOPS performance over a system without Intel® Optane™ persistent memory.

StorageReview.com recently reviewed a DataON solution for Azure Stack HCI with 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory. It gave Azure Stack HCI it’s Editor’s Choice award, calling it “the fastest mid-market 4-node cluster we’ve seen.”


In this webcast:

Microsoft’s Adi Agashe will highlight the important updates to Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI from Microsoft Ignite 2019.

Intel’s James Myers will discuss Intel® Optane™ technology and how it helps Azure Stack HCI achieve incredible performance numbers.

StorageReview.com’s Brian Beeler will share his experience working with and testing an Azure Stack HCI solution, and why he gave it an Editor’s Choice award.

With the release of Windows Server 2019 in October 2018 many customers are looking to take advantage of new features in hybrid cloud, security, storage, failover clustering, and the application platform. Upgrading and migrating to Windows Server 2019 can be a relatively easy process but there are things you need to do to ensure that you don’t run into any problems or lose any data.

Intel developed Intel® Select Solutions to simplify and accelerate the process of evaluating, selecting, and deploying hardware with today’s workloads. They are vigorously benchmark-tested to ensure smooth deployments and optimal performance. Intel® Select Solutions for Azure Stack HCI are designed to help customers quickly realize on-premises Microsoft HCI and utilize cloud services powered by Microsoft Azure.

Florida Polytechnic University is a public university that deployed a Microsoft & DataON HCI for its disaster recovery site, then expanded its cluster and upgraded from Windows Server 2016 to 2019.


The webcast will explore the following topics:

• How to successfully plan for an upgrade and migration to Windows Server 2019

• What are Intel Select Solutions and how it simplifies deploying solutions for Azure Stack HCI

• How Florida Poly successfully added a third node to its cluster and upgraded from Windows Server 2016 to 2019.


Presented by:

DataON – Howard Lo, Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Microsoft – Rob Hindman, Senior Program Director of Windows Server

Intel Corporation – Balaji Iyer, Solutions Strategist

Florida Polytechnic University – Bill Webster, Assistant Director of Administrative Computing

To help customers expand from on-premises to the cloud for a hybrid cloud approach, Microsoft has introduced Azure Stack HCI. Built upon the foundation of the Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) program, it helps customers replace aging servers and storage infrastructure, consolidate virtualized workloads, and gain cloud efficiencies on-prem, without length design and build times.

In addition, DataON has partnered with Intel to create Intel Select Solutions for Azure Stack HCI V2 and SQL Server V2. These validated solutions provide faster time-to-value with reduced operational costs. There solutions are vigorously benchmark tested to verify performance and ensure predictability, eliminating guesswork and reducing the time needed to evaluate, select, and purchase hardware.

The second generation of Intel Select Solutions feature the 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory. By having Intel Select Solutions verified with the latest Intel technologies, IT administrators can take advantage of these new technologies faster and respond more quickly to dynamic business demands.

The webcast will explore the following topics:

• What is Azure Stack HCI?
• What is the difference between Azure Stack HCI, Azure, and Azure Stack?
• How Intel Select Solutions simplify and accelerate the process of selecting and deploying hardware and software
• What’s new in 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors?
• What is Intel® Optane DC™ persistent memory and how does it help workload performance?

Presented by:

• DataON – Howard Lo, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
• Microsoft – Jeff Woolsey, Principal Program Manager, Windows Server & Hybrid Cloud
• Intel Corporation – Jake Smith, Director, Data Center Technologies
• APC Integrated Services Group Inc. – Matt Lehmann, IT Manager

Hybrid at its core. Secure by design. With cloud application innovation and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) built into the platform and backed by Azure, Microsoft presents Windows Server 2019.

Cosmos Darwin (Senior Program Manager, Core OS Engineering, Microsoft) will show how Microsoft is making HCI accessible for everyone with Windows Server 2016/2019 and Windows Admin Center. HCI is the next big wave of data center consolidation: simplify your infrastructure, accelerate I/O performance, and save money, from the data center to the edge!

• Why hyper-converged infrastructure, why Windows Server

• What’s new in Windows Server 2019 for Storage Spaces Direct and HCI

• Setting an industry record with Storage Spaces Direct and Intel® Optane™ DC PMEM

Alessandro Goncalves (SSD Solution Architect, Intel) will show how Intel is reimagining memory and storage with Intel® Optane™ technology to break through some of the constricting methods for using data.

• Intel® Optane™ benefits

• Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory

• Intel® Optane™ SSDs

Bring your questions about Windows Server 2019 and Intel® Optane™ technology and get answers from our experts!

PRESENTERS:
Howard Lo, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, DataON

Cosmos Darwin, Senior Program Manager, Core OS Engineering, Microsoft

Alessandro Goncalves, SSD Solution Architect, Intel

Microsoft has simplified and modernized the Windows Server Management experience with the release of Windows Admin Center (formerly Project Honolulu). It consolidates consoles such as Event, Viewer, Device Manager, Disk Management, Task Manager, and Server Managers, into a simplified, integrated and secure remote management experience.

Windows Admin Center is designed to support third party extensions such as DataON MUST, which provides visibility, monitoring and management for Windows Server environments. The integration of these tools provides a seamless experience for customers through a single pane of glass. MUST enhances the Windows Admin Center experience with additional capabilities, such as historic data reporting, disk mapping, system alerts, and call home services.

Mellanox offers complete 10/25/40/50GbE Ethernet Storage Fabric solutions for Windows Server 2016 data centers with end-to-end RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) support. These end-to-end solutions, including Spectrum™ switches and ConnectX-4® adapters, deliver consistently high bandwidth and low latency to I/O intensive applications and fast flash storage, enabling data centers to operate with high performance and efficiency.

The webcast will explore the following topics:

• What is Windows Admin Center and how does it improve your management environment?

• What is DataON MUST and what additional features does it bring to Windows Admin Center

• How Mellanox Ethernet storage fabric solutions accelerate Windows Server 2016 performance?

• Why Trident Seafood choose a DataON Kepler 2-Node (K2N) solution with Windows Admin Center and MUST for their branch offices.


Presented by:

DataON – Howard Lo, Vice President, Sales and Marketing

Microsoft – Daniel Lee, Program Manager, Windows Server Management Experience

Mellanox – Jeff Shao, Director, Ethernet Alliances

Trident Seafoods – Shawn Leonard, IT Network Services Manager

Windows Server 2016 launched in late 2016, with new functionality such as Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct, Storage Replica and advanced Resilient File System (ReFS). As more and more enterprises are adopting and deploying Windows Server 2016 hyper-converged infrastructure, DataON and our partners would like to share our best practices and know-how so your HCI leverages all the key features and functionalities of a Microsoft software-defined data center (SDDC) with Storage Spaces Direct.

Veeam Cloud Connect provides cloud-based disaster recovery and offsite backup. It allows businesses and organizations to have physical and virtual backups off-site and replicate VMs without the cost and complexity of building and maintaining an offsite infrastructure. It’s also one of the few solutions that provides full, advanced support for Windows Server 2016.

HGST (a division of Western Digital) provides high quality and high capacity SAS HDDs that are the core of DataON’s DNS family of JBODs. It lays down the foundation for a worry-free data center powered by Windows Server 2016.


The webcast will explore the following topics:

•What are the top deployment best practices you need to know about in Windows Server 2016

•What is Veeam and how do they support Windows Server 2016

•How does HGST technology support a Windows Server-based data center


Presented by: DataON, Veeam, HGST, and a Microsoft MVP

In support of Microsoft Server software-defined storage, Intel has created Select Solutions. They are workload-optimized data center solutions that accelerate customer paths from product evaluation to installation. Intel selected DataON’s new Purley-based TracSystem HCI to be part of the first Intel Select Solution with Windows Server Software-Defined Storage.

In October, Microsoft released their semi-annual channel (SAC) update of Windows Server 2016, also known as build 1709. Included in the release are updates to the Server Core and Nano Server container images, introduction of a new Windows Server management tool known as “Project Honolulu”, and many compute, storage, networking and remote-desktop services updates.

Cherokee County School District (CCSD) is a public school system in the metro Atlanta, GA area. It consolidated their three-tiered SAN storage system into a consolidated Windows Server 2016 software-defined system that could support over 50,000 students and staff.

The webcast will explore the following topics:

•How Intel Select Solutions simplify and accelerate the process of selecting and deploying hardware and software needed for Window Server software-defined solutions.

•What’s new in Windows Server 2016 build 1709 and why the new features are important.

•Why Cherokee County School District chose a Windows Server 2016 solution to simplify their on-premise storage needs and provide enough VMs for their students and staff.


Presented by:

DataON Storage – Howard Lo, VP of Sales and Marketing
Microsoft – Jeff Woolsey, Principal Program Manager, Windows Server
Intel Corporation – Jake Smith, Director, Data Center Technologies Marketing
Cherokee County School District – Matt Roper, Facilitator of Technology Support Services

Since the launch of Windows Server 2016, Microsoft has transformed the software-defined data center landscape with Storage Spaces Direct and SMB3 RDMA networking for optimal hyper-converged infrastructure deployments.

Storage Spaces Direct enables building highly available and scalable storage using servers with local storage. It simplifies the management of software-defined storage systems and allows the use of new storage devices such as SATA SSDs and NVMe disk drives. Storage Spaces Direct takes advantage of SMB3 RDMA networking technology for high-speed, low latency, CPU efficient storage.

Strategic Online Systems, Inc. (SOS) is a Managed Service Provider that chose a DataON and Windows software-defined solution to replace an aging SAN for one of their non-profit customers.

The webcast will explore the following topics:

•How Storage Spaces Direct enables service providers and enterprises to use industry-standard servers with local storage to build highly available and scalable software-defined storage.

•How Mellanox 10/40/100GbE solutions for Window Server 2016 provide end-to-end support for RoCE, delivering high bandwidth and low latency networking via SMB3 RDMA.

•Best practices on how to deploy Storage Spaces Direct with a Mellanox SMB RDMA network, with real-world examples from SOS.

•DataON’s latest WSSD-certified platforms for Windows Server 2016.


Presented by:
Howard Lo, VP of Sales and Marketing, DataON
Steven Ekren, Senior Program Manager Windows Server, Microsoft
Motti Beck, Sr. Director, Enterprise Market Development, Mellanox Technologies
Benjamin Clements, President, Strategic Online Systems, Inc.

With the launch of Window Server 2016, new storage enhancements bring revolutionary new features within reach of every organization with its software-defined feature setup.

Storage Replica is one of those new features in Windows Server 2016. For the first time, Windows Server offers the peace of mind of zero data loss, with the ability to synchronously protect data on different racks, floors, buildings, campuses, counties, and cities. Before and after a disaster strike, Storage Replica offers you the ability to switch workloads to safe locations prior to catastrophes when granted a few moments warning with no data loss.

Mead & Hunt is a leading engineering firm that chose a DataON and Windows software-defined solution. They replaced their aging SAN with DataON CiB storage, optimized for Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and Hyper-V in a ReFS environment.

The webcast will explore the following topics:

•How Mead & Hunt was able to consolidate and simplify their storage environment, eliminating increasing SAN maintenance costs while increasing performance

•How Storage Replica in Windows Server 2016 allows you to setup storage-agnostic, block-level synchronous replication between clusters or servers for disaster recovery

•Best practices on how to deploy Storage Replica, with real-world examples from Mead & Hunt’s deployment


Presented by:
DataON – Howard Lo, VP of Sales and Marketing
Microsoft – Ned Pyle, Program Manager
Western Digital – Kris Menon, Business Development Manager
Mead & Hunt – Joseph Anich, Systems Administrator

With the launch of Window Server 2016, new storage enhancements bring revolutionary new features within reach of every organization with its software-defined feature setup. With Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) and using Microsoft certified and turnkey platforms, customers now have the ability to deploy highly available and scalable software-defined storage deploy converged or hyper-converged cluster storage architecture. DataON’s new MUST infrastructure visibility and management tool provides SAN-like storage monitoring features for customers deploying Windows Server 2016 SDS. The ability to easily view real-time dashboard level metrics for IOPS, latency, throughput on cluster, nodes and volume levels in a single pane of glass, helping you keep your hyper-converged system up and running.

Join speakers from DataON, Microsoft and Western Digital as they show you how to deploy a Windows Server 2016 S2D hyper-converged solution with DataON MUST.

The webcast will explore the following topics:

• How DataON MUST visibility and monitoring tool helps you manage your Windows Server 2016 software-defined storage

• How Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016 allows you to build software-defined storage using Microsoft-certified industry-standard servers with local storage

• How Western Digital storage solutions support Windows Server 2016

Presented by:
Howard Lo, VP of Sales and Marketing, DataON Storage
Cosmos Darwin, Program Manager II, Microsoft
Peter Plamondon, Director, Strategic Partner Ecosystems (Microsoft), Western Digital