Subscribe

Windows Server 2019 from Microsoft addresses vulnerability, cost control for business in uncertain times


Johannesburg, 19 Feb 2021

According to Dell Technologies, five trends underpin technology in 2021 for businesses after exiting an eventful 2020. These five trends are:

  • Workforce transformation
  • Multicloud
  • Asset financing
  • As a service
  • Cyber security

Upgrading to Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Server 2019, is a critical element in response to businesses’ needs based on these trends, with the focus on reducing vulnerabilities and preparing for cloud platform migration amid tough economic times.

Johannes Groenewald, General Manager: Demand Factory at Tarsus Distribution.
Johannes Groenewald, General Manager: Demand Factory at Tarsus Distribution.

This is according to Johannes Groenewald, General Manager: Demand Factory at Tarsus Distribution. “Currently, South African companies are facing uncertain times when planning for the future,” he says. “Companies are facing unparalleled challenges when outlining future revenue, profitability and the technology resource requirements to support forecasts and budgets.”

It has become challenging for companies to predict everything from physical office infrastructure and IT requirements, through to what the new normal might look like for a hybrid work-from-home workforce. These uncertainties have forced them into ultra-conservative mode when it comes to capex and expanding existing infrastructure, he says. “Companies need to find alternative ways with trusted partners to sweat their existing assets before they invest in new infrastructure as a last resort.”

At the same time, however, businesses need to be preparing for growth, innovation and the move to a cloud or hybrid cloud environment. This is where Windows Server 2019 becomes an ally, says Groenewald. “Windows Server 2019 helps businesses to sweat their existing assets and allows them to benefit from features such as the latest and greatest in security, remote management and improved resource use and flexibility,” he says.

Given the tough decisions business leaders must make in the current environment, partnering with Microsoft can be a winning strategy. Groenewald says: “From Teams to the latest Windows, be it the latest operating system in Windows Pro 2019 or Windows Server 2019, the benefits are by far outweighing the investment. The focus shifts from considering whether it is the right time to invest in new IT infrastructure, to expanding on existing IT infrastructure, to optimising existing investments by considering flexibility of hybrid cloud, security, scalability, remote management and infrastructure redundancy. This is where Windows Server 2019 comes to the rescue.”

Tarsus Distribution lists the top reasons why business needs the latest Windows Server 2019 operating system, as follows:

Hybrid converged infrastructure (HCI): Extend your data centre with the Windows Server 2019 Operating System to the cloud through Microsoft's consistent hybrid services that include a common identity platform with Active Directory, unparalleled security, a common data platform built on SQL Server technologies and hybrid management. The latest version of Windows Server allows your business to evolve your physical or host server infrastructure to maximise your investments and gain new hybrid capabilities by bridging on-premises environments with HCI enabled through Windows. Benefits include your business being able to consolidate compute, storage and networking into the same nodes, resulting in reduced physical infrastructure costs while still getting better performance, scalability, redundancy and reliability.

Built-in hybrid management capabilities: Windows Admin Centre offers an elegant, browser-based view of Windows Server workloads running on-premises and in Azure managing your virtual machines. This allows your business to access natively integrated services such as Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery without disrupting applications and infrastructure.

Advanced multilayer security: Elevate your security posture by protecting the data centre, starting with the right operating system in Windows Server 2019. Introducing Windows defender advanced threat protection to your business will add additional layers of security while helping you modernise your applications and infrastructure.

Virtual architecture security: Windows Server 2019 offers extra support to run Linux virtual machines and, in addition, the latest version is based on the protect, detect and respond approach to security.

Faster innovation for applications: Enable the creation of cloud-native apps and modernise traditional apps using containers and micro-services.

Application platform offering Linux containers: Windows Server 2019 supports Linux containers on operating system level that works on the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and even manages the smaller container images.

Flexible licensing: Single Windows Server 2019 licence allows for multiple user and multiple device client access licences.

Protect existing hardware investments: Windows Server 2019 enables businesses to grow, extend operations to the cloud and protect existing hardware investments and builds on Windows Server security, app innovation and hyper-converged infrastructure capabilities. This process happens through a connected experience across the cloud and edge through controlled access and a consistent set of experiences for security, containers and management.

To read more about the key features such as storage migration, system insights, resource management and more, refer to this article published by Tarsus Distribution previously https://tarsusdistribution.co.za/time-is-running-out-for-end-of-support-for-microsoft-windows-server-2008/. It is also possible to try Windows Server 2019 on Microsoft Evaluation Center following this link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2019.

Tarsus Distribution and its network of expert partners across the southern Africa region are now helping customers of all sizes to roll-out Windows Server 2019, to help them do more with their existing IT investments and reduce risk due to end of support for Windows Server 2008. For more information and assistance, contact Tarsus Distribution: https://tarsusdistribution.co.za/contact-us/

Information sourced from https://www.microsoft.com and Tarsus Distribution technical teams.



Share