Microsoft Licence Program Select Plus Academic (EDU) - Windows Server Datacenter

Windows Server 2022

• Advanced multilayer security
  Elevate the security posture of your organization starting with the operating system.
• Hybrid capabilities with Azure
  Extend your datacenter to Azure for greater IT efficiency.
• Flexible application platform
  Empower developers and IT pros with an application platform to build and deploy diverse applications.
• Unbeatable offers on Azure
  See how your cost savings will add up on Azure with offers such as Azure Hybrid Benefit and Extended Security Updates.

Run business critical workloads in Azure, on-premises, and at the edge.

Organizations are digitally transforming their operations and running business-critical workloads that span across cloud, on-premises, and the edge. As a result, the need to secure workloads and data has never been greater.

Windows Server 2022 enables you to run business-critical workloads anywhere — in your datacenter, in the cloud, and at the edge — while staying ahead of emerging security threats and helping secure your data. This release builds on the advancements made in Windows Server 2019, the fastest-adopted Windows Server ever.

Windows Server 2022 introduces advanced multi-layer security, hybrid capabilities with Azure and flexible application platform.

What's new in Windows Server 2022

Windows Server 2022 is built on the strong foundation of Windows Server 2019 and brings many innovations on three key themes: security, Azure hybrid integration and management, and application platform. Also, Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Azure Edition helps you use the benefits of cloud to keep your VMs up to date while minimizing downtime.

Security

The new security capabilities in Windows Server 2022 combine other security capabilities in Windows Server across multiple areas to provide defense-in-depth protection against advanced threats. Advanced multi-layer security in Windows Server 2022 provides the comprehensive protection that servers need today.

Secured-core server

Certified Secured-core server hardware from an OEM partner provides additional security protections that are useful against sophisticated attacks. This can provide increased assurance when handling mission critical data in some of the most data sensitive industries. A Secured-core server uses hardware, firmware, and driver capabilities to enable advanced Windows Server security features. Many of these features are available in Windows Secured-core PCs and are now also available with Secured-core server hardware and Windows Server 2022.

Hardware root-of-trust

Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM 2.0) secure crypto-processor chips provide a secure, hardware-based store for sensitive cryptographic keys and data, including systems integrity measurements. TPM 2.0 can verify that the server has been started with legitimate code and can be trusted by subsequent code execution. This is known as a hardware root-of-trust and is used by features such as BitLocker drive encryption.

Firmware protection

Firmware executes with high privileges and is often invisible to traditional anti-virus solutions, which has lead to a rise in the number of firmware-based attacks. Secured-core server processors support measurement and verification of boot processes with Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement (DRTM) technology and isolation of driver access to memory with Direct Memory Access (DMA) protection.

Virtualization-based security (VBS)

Secured-core servers support virtualization-based security (VBS) and hypervisor-based code integrity (HVCI). VBS uses hardware virtualization features to create and isolate a secure region of memory from the normal operating system, protecting against an entire class of vulnerabilities used in cryptocurrency mining attacks. VBS also allows for the use of Credential Guard, where user credentials and secrets are stored in a virtual container that the operating system cannot access directly.

HVCI uses VBS to significantly strengthen code integrity policy enforcement, including kernel mode integrity which checks all kernel mode drivers and binaries in a virtualized environment before they are started, preventing unsigned drivers or system files from being loaded into system memory.

Secure connectivity

Transport: HTTPS and TLS 1.3 enabled by default on Windows Server 2022

Secure connections are at the heart of today's interconnected systems. Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 is the latest version of the internet's most deployed security protocol, which encrypts data to provide a secure communication channel between two endpoints. HTTPS and TLS 1.3 is now enabled by default on Windows Server 2022, protecting the data of clients connecting to the server. It eliminates obsolete cryptographic algorithms, enhances security over older versions, and aims to encrypt as much of the handshake as possible.

Azure hybrid capabilities

You can increase your efficiency and agility with built-in hybrid capabilities in Windows Server 2022 that allow you to extend your data centers to Azure more easily than ever before.

Azure Arc enabled Windows Servers

Azure Arc enabled servers with Windows Server 2022 brings on-premises and multi-cloud Windows Servers to Azure with Azure Arc. This management experience is designed to be consistent with how you manage native Azure virtual machines. When a hybrid machine is connected to Azure, it becomes a connected machine and is treated as a resource in Azure.

Windows Admin Center

Improvements to Windows Admin Center to manage Windows Server 2022 include capabilities to both report on the current state of the Secured-core features mentioned above, and where applicable, allow customers to enable the features.

Application platform

There are several platform improvements for Windows Containers, including application compatibility and the Windows Container experience with Kubernetes. A major improvement includes reducing the Windows Container image size by up to 40%, which leads to a 30% faster startup time and better performance.

You can now also run applications that depend on Azure Active Directory with group Managed Services Accounts (gMSA) without domain joining the container host, and Windows Containers now support Microsoft Distributed Transaction Control (MSDTC) and Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ).

There are several other enhancements that simplify the Windows Container experience with Kubernetes. These enhancements include support for host-process containers for node configuration, IPv6, and consistent network policy implementation with Calico.

In addition to platform improvements, Windows Admin Center has been updated to make it easy to containerize .NET applications. Once the application is in a container, you can host it on Azure Container Registry to then deploy it to other Azure services, including Azure Kubernetes Service.

With support for Intel Ice Lake processors, Windows Server 2022 supports business-critical and large-scale applications, such as SQL Server, that require up to 48 TB of memory and 2,048 logical cores running on 64 physical sockets. Confidential computing with Intel Secured Guard Extension (SGX) on Intel Ice Lake improves application security by isolating applications from each other with protected memory.

Nested virtualization for AMD processors

Nested virtualization is a feature that allows you to run Hyper-V inside of a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM). Windows Server 2022 brings support for nested virtualization using AMD processors, giving more choices of hardware for your environments.

Windows Server 2019

Because Windows Server 2019 is a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release, it includes the Desktop Experience. (It's not included in Windows Server, version 1709, Windows Server, version 1803, or Windows Server, version 1809, because Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) releases don't include the Desktop Experience by design; they are strictly Server Core and Nano Server container image releases.) As with Windows Server 2016, during setup of the operating system you can choose between Server Core installations or Server with Desktop Experience installations.

System Insights is a new feature available in Windows Server 2019 that brings local predictive analytics capabilities natively to Windows Server. These predictive capabilities, each backed by a machine-learning model, locally analyze Windows Server system data, such as performance counters and events, providing insight into the functioning of your servers and helping you reduce the operational expenses associated with reactively managing issues in your Windows Server deployments.

Hybrid Cloud

The Server Core App Compatibility feature on demand (FOD) significantly improves the app compatibility of the Windows Server Core installation option by including a subset of binaries and components from Windows Server with the Desktop Experience, without adding the Windows Server Desktop Experience graphical environment itself. This is done to increase the functionality and compatibility of Server Core while keeping it as lean as possible.

This optional feature on demand is available on a separate ISO and can be added to Windows Server Core installations and images only, using DISM.

Security

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

ATP's deep platform sensors and response actions expose memory and kernel level attacks and respond by suppressing malicious files and terminating malicious processes.

Windows Defender ATP Exploit Guard is a new set of host-intrusion prevention capabilities. The four components of Windows Defender Exploit Guard are designed to lock down the device against a wide variety of attack vectors and block behaviors commonly used in malware attacks, while enabling you to balance security risk and productivity requirements.

Storage

Storage Migration Service is a new technology that makes it easier to migrate servers to a newer version of Windows Server. It provides a graphical tool that inventories data on servers, transfers the data and configuration to newer servers, and then optionally moves the identities of the old servers to the new servers so that apps and users don't have to change anything.

Microsoft Windows Server 2016

The cloud offers IT organizations opportunities to flourish under a new model that delivers faster time to value and innovation. Many organizations, however, face strict compliance or business requirements. For organizations that need it all-security, efficiency, and innovation-Windows Server 2016 delivers it. Windows Server 2016 is the cloud-ready operating system that supports your current workloads while introducing new technologies that make it easy to transition to cloud computing when you are ready.

What's New with Windows Server 2016:

Added layers of security
Enhance security and reduce risk with multiple layers of built-in protection.

New deployment options
Increase availability and reduce resource usage with the lightweight Nano Server.

Built-in containers
Develop and manage with agility thanks to Windows Server and Hyper-V containers.

Cost-efficient storage
Build highly available, scalable software-defined storage and reduce costs.

Innovative networking
Software-defined networking to automate with cloud-like efficiency.

Features:

Security at the OS level

Windows Server 2016 includes built-in breach resistance to help thwart attacks on your systems and meet compliance goals. Even if someone finds a way into your environment, the layers of security built into Windows Server 2016 limit the damage they can cause and help detect suspicious activity.

Protect your virtual machines.
Use the unique Shielded Virtual Machines feature to encrypt your VMs with BitLocker and help ensure they can run only on hosts approved by the Host Guardian Service.

Help secure admin credentials.
Protect admin credentials from Passthe- Hash attacks using Credential Guard and Remote Credential Guard, and control administrator privileges with Just-In-Time Administration and Just Enough Administration, which together help minimize the time and capability granted for specific privileges.

Protect the operating system.
Resist breaches with built-in Control Flow Guard, which helps prevent memory corruption attacks, and Windows Defender, optimized for server roles. Help ensure only trusted software can be run on the server with Device Guard.

Improve ability to detect attacks.
Use advanced auditing capabilities to help detect malicious behavior.

Isolate applications.
Help protect container-based applications with Hyper-V containers, which do not share the host kernel with other containers. Use the distributed firewall, a software-defined networking capability, to control internal and external network traffic to VMs.

Evolve your infrastructure

Datacenter operations are struggling to reduce costs while handling more data traffic. New applications stretch the operational fabric and create infrastructure backlogs that can slow business. As organizations push the boundaries of highly virtualized environments, they can use Windows Server 2016 capabilities to meet operational and security challenges, freeing up IT resources to plan a strategy that uses the cloud for future applications and solutions.

Trust your workloads to an enterprise-class hypervisor.
You can be confident your workloads will perform on Hyper-V, which Microsoft uses to run hyperscale datacenters around the globe. When needed, you also can easily migrate a Hyper-V workload from on-premises to a Windows Server VM in Azure.

Reduce datacenter footprint.
Increase availability and reduce resource usage with "just enough OS" using the Nano Server installation option, with an image that is 25x smaller than Windows Server 2016.

Upgrade efficiently.
Upgrade infrastructure clusters to Windows Server 2016 with zero downtime for your Hyper-V or Scale-out file server workloads, and without requiring new hardware, using Mixed OS Mode cluster upgrades.

Stay open.
Deploy applications on multiple operating systems with best-in-class support for Linux on Hyper-V.

Automate server management.
Use PowerShell 5.1 and Desired State Configuration to automate routine operations.

Manage remotely.
Control Windows servers from anywhere using Server management tools, a new Azure-based GUI-especially useful for managing headless installation options such as Nano Server.

Affordable high-performance storage

Storage systems are critical to the performance of most business applications. But traditional, expensive, manually configured storage systems can prevent organizations from realizing the efficiency benefits of a software-defined datacenter. In contrast, the Azure-inspired, software-defined storage capabilities in Windows Server 2016 use policies and automation to reduce costs and add scale.

Reduce cost.
Build highly available, scalable software-defined storage solutions at a fraction of the price of SAN or NAS. With Storage Spaces Direct, you can use industry-standard servers with local storage, including high speed solid-state drives.

Create affordable business continuity.
Prepare for the worst using Storage Replica synchronous storage replication for disaster recovery among datacenters.

Prioritize storage resources.
Ensure critical applications receive priority access to storage resources using storage Quality of Service (QoS) policies.