Windows 10: Windows Server 2019 - Announcing general availability in October 2018

Brink · Sep 24, 2018

I am thrilled to be back at Ignite this year! Over the last two years, I’ve had the pleasure to announce major releases of Windows Server. Two years ago, it was the launch of Windows Server 2016. Last year, it was the first release in the Semi-Annual Channel, Window Server, version 1709. This year is no different.

Today, I’m excited to announce that Windows Server 2019 will be generally available in October and we have updated Windows Admin Center, version 1809, to support Windows Server 2019 and Azure hybrid scenarios. Windows Server 2019 builds on the foundation of Windows Server 2016, the fastest adopted version of Windows Server with 10s of millions of instances deployed worldwide. Customers like Alaska Airlines, Tyco, and Tieto have adopted Windows Server 2016 to modernize their datacenters.

Through various listening channels such as the Insider program, product telemetry analysis, and industry trends, we heard loud and clear that hybrid, security, agility, and TCO are top of mind for our customers. Datacenter modernization is critical to support your business and deliver innovation, especially given the competitive landscape today. Windows Server 2019 is designed and engineered to help modernize your datacenter, delivering on four key areas:

Hybrid: The move to the cloud is a journey. A hybrid approach, one that combines on-premises and cloud environments working together, is a core element of our customers’ modernization strategy. This is why hybrid is built in to Windows Server 2019 and Windows Admin Center. To make it easier to connect existing Windows Server deployments to Azure services, we built interfaces for hybrid capabilities into the Windows Admin Center. With Windows Admin Center and Windows Server 2019, customers can use hybrid features like Azure Backup, Azure File Sync, disaster recovery to extend their datacenters to Azure. We also added the Storage Migration Service to help migrate file servers and their data to Azure without the need to reconfigure applications or users.

Security: Security continues to be a top priority for our customers. With the security threats growing in number and becoming more and more sophisticated, we continue to keep a persistent focus on security. Our approach to security is three-fold: Protect, Detect, and Respond. We bring security features in all three areas to Windows Server 2019. On the Protect front, we had previously introduced Shielded VMs to protect sensitive virtualized workloads such as Domain Controllers, PCI data, sensitive healthcare, and financial data among others. In Windows Server 2019, we extended support of Shielded VMs to Linux VMs. On the Detect and Respond front, we enabled Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), that detects attacks and zero-day exploits among other capabilities. Windows Server 2019 also includes Defender Exploit Guard to help you elevate the security posture of your IT environment and combat ransomware attacks.

Application Platform: A key guiding principle for us on the Windows Server team is a relentless focus on the developer experience. We learned from your feedback, a smaller container image size will significantly improve experience of developers and IT Pros who are modernizing their existing applications using containers. In Windows Server 2019, we reduced the Server Core base container image to a third of its size. We also provide improved app compatibility, support for Service Fabric and Kubernetes, and support for Linux containers on Windows to help modernize your apps. A feedback we constantly hear from developers is the complexity in navigating environments with Linux and Windows deployments. To address that, we previously extended Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) into insider builds for Windows Server, so that customers can run Linux containers side-by-side with Windows containers on a Windows Server. In Windows Server 2019, we are continuing on this journey to improve WSL, helping Linux users bring their scripts to Windows while using industry standards like OpenSSH, Curl & Tar.

Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI): HCI is one of the latest trends in the server industry today. It is primarily because customers understand the value of using servers with high performant local disks to run their compute and storage needs at the same time. In Windows Server 2019, we democratize HCI with cost-effective high-performance software-defined storage and networking that allows deployments to scale from small 2-node, all the way up to 100s of servers with Cluster Sets technology, making it affordable regardless of the deployment scale. Through our Windows Server Software Defined program, we partner with industry leading hardware vendors to provide an affordable and yet extremely robust HCI solution with validated design.

In October, customers will have access to Windows Server 2019 through all the channels! We will publish a blog post to mark the availability of Windows Server 2019 soon.

Learn more about Windows Server 2019

This week at Ignite we have a complete line-up of Windows server sessions to go deep on all the aspects of Windows Server 2019. Join us in person at one of the sessions throughout the week or watch it online. Be sure to stop by the Windows Server area in the Expo hall where you can meet the engineers who built this amazing product and check out our amazing partners across the Expo hall showcasing their Windows Server and Windows Server Software Defined solutions. They will be happy to answer any question you may have. We have a Windows Server Fans’ appreciation party at Ignite on Wednesday, the 26th of September where you can meet your favorite Windows Server experts.

Finally, a huge thank you to our partners and Windows Server community. Since the release of Windows Server 2019 preview earlier this year, we have seen over 500,000 server instances deployed worldwide! Your feedback is essential to the product and I know I can speak for the engineering team when I say, your enthusiasm for Windows Server motivates us to deliver amazing products to power your business!

Frequently asked questions on Windows Server 2019

Q: When will I be able to download the final version of Windows Server 2019?
A: Windows Server 2019 will be generally available in October. We will publish another blog to inform that the build is available for evaluation and download through Azure Marketplace or Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC).

Q: How do I stay informed about when the Windows Server 2019 GA build will be available for download?
A: We will publish a blog to mark the availability of Windows Server 2019. Follow Windows Server on Twitter and Facebook to get updates.

Q: Is Remote Desktop Server included in Windows Server 2019?
A: Yes. Remote Desktop Server 2019 will be a server role in Windows Server 2019.

Q: Will Microsoft release a new version of System Center?
A: Yes. System Center 2019 will be generally available in the first half of calendar year 2019.

Q: What are the different editions available for Windows Server 2019 and where can I find more information on licensing Windows Server 2019?
A: Windows Server 2019 will be available in Datacenter, Standard, and Essentials editions. Please visit our Licensing page for more information on how to license Windows Server.
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Source: Windows Server 2019 â€“ Announcing general availability in October!Â* - Windows Server Blog

:)

Ahhzz · Sep 24, 2018

Office 2019

Only supported on Win10. Sorry, 8.1 users, only 4 years old, gotta go.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/1/16960640/microsoft-office-2019-windows-10-support

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...-to-office-and-windows-servicing-and-support/

Spoiler Office 2019
Last year at Ignite, we announced Office 2019 – the next perpetual version of Office that includes apps (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and Skype for Business) and servers (including Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business). Today we’re pleased to share the following updates:

Office 2019 will ship in H2 of 2018. Previews of the new apps and servers will start shipping in the second quarter of 2018.

Office 2019 apps will be supported on:

Any supported Windows 10 SAC release

Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2018

The next LTSC release of Windows Server

The Office 2019 client apps will be released with Click-to-Run installation technology only. We will not provide MSI as a deployment methodology for Office 2019 clients. We will continue to provide MSI for Office Server products.

Brink · Sep 24, 2018

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 hits general availability

Microsoft is making available the release-to-manufacturing bits of Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 today, October 12th 2016.

Microsoft officials said at the company's recent Ignite conference that customers should be able to get the final Windows Server 2016 bits by mid-October. During Ignite, Microsoft released the Evaluation version of Windows Server 2016, but not the final version. At Ignite, officials also announced all Windows Server 2016 customers will get the commercially available Docker engine for no additional cost.

As of today, Microsoft is releasing the RTM version of its latest Server release to MSDN, as an Azure image and likely via its Volume Licensing Service Center. (Thanks to Aidan Finn and Marko Loukkaanhuhta for the heads up on Azure and MSDN availability.)...

Download Windows Server 2016 evaluation

Read the Ultimate Guide to Windows Server 2016
Click to expand...

Read more: Microsoft's Windows Server 2016 hits general availability | ZDNet

See also:

Windows Server 2016 Webinar | Microsoft

Windows Server 2016 new Current Branch for Business servicing option | Windows Server Blog

Announcing the launch of Windows Server 2016

Brink · Sep 24, 2018

Introducing Windows Server 2019 – now available in preview

Today is a big day for Windows Server! On behalf of the entire Windows Server team, I am delighted to announce Windows Server 2019 will be generally available in the second half of calendar year 2018. Starting now, you can access the preview build through our Insiders program.

What’s new in Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 is built on the strong foundation of Windows Server 2016 – which continues to see great momentum in customer adoption. Windows Server 2016 is the fastest adopted version of Windows Server, ever! We’ve been busy since its launch at Ignite 2016 drawing insights from your feedback and product telemetry to make this release even better.

We also spent a lot of time with customers to understand the future challenges and where the industry is going. Four themes were consistent – Hybrid, Security, Application Platform, and Hyper-converged infrastructure. We bring numerous innovations on these four themes in Windows Server 2019.

Hybrid cloud scenarios:

We know that the move to the cloud is a journey and often, a hybrid approach, one that combines on-premises and cloud environments working together, is what makes sense to our customers. Extending Active Directory, synchronizing file servers, and backup in the cloud are just a few examples of what customers are already doing today to extend their datacenters to the public cloud. In addition, a hybrid approach also allows for apps running on-premises to take advantage of innovation in the cloud such as Artificial Intelligence and IoT. Hybrid cloud enables a future-proof, long-term approach – which is exactly why we see it playing a central role in cloud strategies for the foreseeable future.

At Ignite in September 2017, we announced the Technical Preview of Project Honolulu – our reimagined experience for management of Windows and Windows Server. Project Honolulu is a flexible, lightweight browser-based locally-deployed platform and a solution for management scenarios. One of our goals with Project Honolulu is to make it simpler and easier to connect existing deployments of Windows Server to Azure services. With Windows Server 2019 and Project Honolulu, customers will be able to easily integrate Azure services such as Azure Backup, Azure File Sync, disaster recovery, and much more so they will be able to leverage these Azure services without disrupting their applications and infrastructure.

Figure 1: Project Honolulu’s management dashboard for Azure Backup in Windows Server 2019 Preview

Security:

Security continues to be a top priority for our customers. The number of cyber-security incidents continue to grow, and the impact of these incidents is escalating quickly. A Microsoft study shows that attackers take, on average, just 24-48 hours to penetrate an environment after infecting the first machine. In addition, attackers can stay in the penetrated environment – without being noticed – for up to 99 days on average, according to a report by FireEye/Mandiant. We continue on our journey to help our customers improve their security posture by working on features that bring together learnings from running global-scale datacenters for Microsoft Azure, Office 365, and several other online services.

Our approach to security is three-fold – Protect, Detect and Respond. We bring security features in all three areas in Windows Server 2019.

On the Protect front, we introduced Shielded VMs in Windows Server 2016, which was enthusiastically received by our customers. Shielded VMs protect virtual machines (VM) from compromised or malicious administrators in the fabric so only VM admins can access it on known, healthy, and attested guarded fabric. In Windows Server 2019, Shielded VMs will now support Linux VMs. We are also extending VMConnect to improve troubleshooting of Shielded VMs for Windows Server and Linux. We are adding Encrypted Networks that will let admins encrypt network segments, with a flip of a switch to protect the network layer between servers.

On the Detect and Respond front, in Windows Server 2019, we are embedding Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) that provides preventative protection, detects attacks and zero-day exploits among other capabilities, into the operating system. This gives customers access to deep kernel and memory sensors, improving performance and anti-tampering, and enabling response actions on server machines.

Figure 2: Windows Defender ATP securing a machine running Windows Server 2019 Preview

Application Platform:

A key guiding principle for us on the Windows Server team is a relentless focus on the developer experience. Two key aspects to call out for the developer community are improvements to Windows Server containers and Windows Subsystem on Linux (WSL).

Since the introduction of containers in Windows Server 2016, we have seen great momentum in its adoption. Tens of millions of container images have been downloaded from the Docker Hub. The team learned from feedback that a smaller container image size will significantly improve experience of developers and IT Pros who are modernizing their existing applications using containers. In Windows Server 2019, our goal is to reduce the Server Core base container image to a third of its current size of 5 GB. This will reduce download time of the image by 72%, further optimizing the development time and performance.

We are also continuing to improve the choices available when it comes to orchestrating Windows Server container deployments. Kubernetes support is currently in beta, and in Windows Server 2019, we are introducing significant improvements to compute, storage, and networking components of a Kubernetes cluster.

A feedback we constantly hear from developers is the complexity in navigating environments with Linux and Windows deployments. To address that, we previously extended Windows Subsystem on Linux (WSL) into insider builds for Windows Server, so that customers can run Linux containers side-by-side with Windows containers on a Windows Server. In Windows Server 2019, we are continuing on this journey to improve WSL, helping Linux users bring their scripts to Windows while using industry standards like OpenSSH, Curl & Tar.

Figure 3: Kubernetes managing a container host running Windows Server 2019 Preview

Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI):

Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI): HCI is one of the latest trends in the server industry today. According to IDC, the HCI market grew 64% in 2016 and Gartner says it will be a $5 billion market by 2019. This trend is primarily because customers understand the value of using x86 servers with high performant local disks to run their compute and storage needs at the same time. In addition, HCI gives the flexibility to easily scale such deployments.

Customers looking for HCI solutions can use Windows Server 2016 and the Windows Server Software Defined program today. We partnered with industry leading hardware vendors to provide an affordable and yet extremely robust HCI solution with validated design. In Windows Server 2019 we are building on this platform by adding scale, performance, and reliability. We are also adding the ability to manage HCI deployments in Project Honolulu, to simplify the management and day-to-day activities on HCI environments.

Figure 4: Project Honolulu’s Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) management dashboard in Windows Server 2019 Preview

Finally, Window Server customers using System Center will be excited to know that System Center 2019 is coming and will support Windows Server 2019.

We have much more to share between now and the launch later this year. We will bring more details on the goodness of Windows Server 2019 in a blog series that will cover the areas above.

Sign up for the Insiders program to access Windows Server 2019

We know you probably cannot wait to get your hands on the next release, and the good news is that the preview build is available today to Windows Insiders. Join the program to ensure you have access to the bits. For more details on this preview build, check out the Release Notes.

We love hearing from you, so don’t forget to provide feedback using the Windows Feedback Hub app, or the Windows Server space in the Tech community.

Frequently asked questions

Q: When will Windows Server 2019 be generally available?
A: Windows Server 2019 will be generally available in the second half of calendar year 2018.

Q: Is Windows Server 2019 a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release?
A: Windows Server 2019 will mark the next release in our Long-Term Servicing Channel. LTSC continues to be the recommended version of Windows Server for most of the infrastructure scenarios, including workloads like Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, and Windows Server Software-defined solutions.

Q: What are the installation options available for Windows Server 2019?
A: As an LTSC release Windows Server 2019 provides the Server with Desktop Experience and Server Core installation options – in contrast to the Semi-Annual Channel that provides only the Server Core installation option and Nano Server as a container image. This will ensure application compatibility for existing workloads.

Q: Will there be a Semi-Annual Channel release at the same time as Windows Server 2019?
A: Yes. The Semi-Annual Channel release scheduled to go at the same time as Windows Server 2019 will bring container innovations and will follow the regular support lifecycle for Semi-Annual Channel releases – 18 months.

Q: Does Windows Server 2019 have the same licensing model as Windows Server 2016?
A: Yes. Check more information on how to license Windows Server 2016 today in the Windows Server Pricing page. It is highly likely we will increase pricing for Windows Server Client Access Licensing (CAL). We will provide more details when available.
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Source: Introducing Windows Server 2019 - now available in preview Windows Server Blog

See also: Announcing Windows Server 2019 Insider Preview Build 17623 - Mar. 20 Insider - Windows 10 Forums

Windows 10: Windows Server 2019 - Announcing general availability in October 2018

Windows Server 2019 - Announcing general availability in October 2018

Windows Server 2019 - Announcing general availability in October 2018

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