Microsoft-certified Consultants

Windows Server 2019 is the perpetual-license release of Microsoft's server OS. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 includes all the updates to Microsoft Windows Server 2016 formerly offered only via Microsoft's Semi-Annual Channel. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 features significant enhancements in scale, throughput, management, cybersecurity, application compatibility, Linux co-existence, Kubernetes technology, and hybrid integration of on-premises and cloud resources.

Top new features of Windows Server 2019 are Windows Admin Center for unifying the management of hybrid local/cloud-hosted deployments, System Insights for utilizing modern predictive analytics to control local networks, Windows Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) Exploit Guard for host-intrusion defense, container orchestration using Kubernetes, Cluster Sets technology for creating and administering massive high-availability scale-out clusters, and Storage Migration Service for simplifying the migration from legacy editions of Windows Server.

Progent can help your organization to integrate Microsoft Windows Server 2019 with current releases of Microsoft's popular apps by delivering expert services such as Exchange Server support, SQL Server 2019 integration and development consulting, SQL Server 2017 migration expertise, SharePoint 2019 design and deployment, and Microsoft 365 hybrid integration expertise. Progent's solution design, debugging and training support for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are offered online and Progent also offers onsite consulting in metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions with Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 makes the Azure stack accessible to businesses of all sizes for building onsite data centers, private cloud solutions, or hybrid systems that combine on-prem IT assets with infrastructure and services provided via private and public clouds.

Most of modern companies deploy a mix of on-premises and cloud-based IT assets to get the appropriate trade-off of flexibility, affordability, performance, availability, and security/compliance they need. In some fields, regulatory compliance require that specific types of network resources and information be kept locally. In other cases, corporate standards or legacy applications necessitate mission-critical applications to be hosted from a local data center. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 provides a cloud-friendly platform that permits you to build and manage powerful hybrid ecosystems that seamlessly utilize resources spread across on-premises data centers and the cloud.

Planning, configuring and managing optimized hybrid solutions with Windows Server 2019 requires a wide range of knowledge and experience. This is outside the comfort zone of most IT staffs maintained by smaller organizations. Progent's roster of experts gives you on-demand access to the knowledge you require for any aspect of hybrid network deployment and management. Progent's Microsoft-certified and Cisco-certified consulting experts, project managers, and information security specialists can help you to assess the advantages of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 for your organization and build a hybrid environment powered by Windows Server 2019 that delivers top business value.

A Good Time to Upgrade
The introduction of Windows Server 2019 was accompanied by the notification of End-of-Support status for Microsoft's popular Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms. This means there will be no more security fixes onsite, no non-security enhancements, no free support programs, and no downloadable technical content updates. Consequently, security and compliance issues will be more difficult, maintenance costs and effort may go up, and network reliability may go down.

If your company needs guidance migrating to Microsoft Windows Server 2019 from WS 2008 or another out-of-date release of Microsoft Windows Server, Progent offers the skills to make your upgrade process efficient, economical, and on-schedule. Progent's Windows experts can assist you to:

• Identify and inventory your applications and server roles running on your existing Windows Servers
• Migrate your VMs to the Progent Cloud or move to the current release of on-prem Windows Server or to Azure
• Optimize your configuration to reduce costs, manage resources, and strengthen data security across hybrid applications

Windows Server 2019 has two deployment alternatives: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. The Server Core option features a small footprint and no local interface but supports all role-based workloads. This "headless" version needs to be managed remotely, for example via the command line or Windows Admin Center. The Server with Desktop Experience alternative is a full installation and features a comprehensive GUI for local management. Progent's experts can assist your business to select the editions and deployment alternatives best suited to your situation, understand Microsoft's licensing rules, and choose an optimal onsite, cloud-based, or hybrid deployment architecture.

Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 offers improved scale, throughput, manageability, Hyper-V virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid networking, disaster recovery, container management, Linux support, and other major enhancements. Editions of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 licensed under the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) release model are updated two times a year, making enhancements available much sooner than under the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release model.

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 delivers substantial increases in scale vs. Microsoft Windows Server 2016:

Additional headline enhancements in Windows Server 2019 include:

• Cluster Sets is a feature that allows orders of magnitude increases in cluster node count in a Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) by combining numerous smaller Failover Clusters into a single large, uniformly managed interconnected topology. Network managers can transparently migrate virtual machines across the Cluster Set fabric and control every aspect of a Failover Cluster from onboarding to retirement. Clusters joined in a Cluster Set can benefit from additional disk storage and memory in another cluster without requiring you to buy more equipment. CPU and storage resources do not need to be the same, and robustness is as good or better than with ordinary Failover Clusters.
  
  Before Microsoft Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for VMs were a hassle to manage and modify
  
  Microsoft Windows Server 2019 introduces Cluster Sets for unified control of failover clusters

• Storage Replica has been added to the Standard version of Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica offers next-generation disaster recovery capability and is described in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica configuration. Novel features of Storage Replica in Windows Server 2019 are a test failover function that allows you to put a target volume online momentarily for testing and backup. Also, administrators can now manage Storage Replica with the new Microsoft Windows Admin Center, which offers a GUI tool for managing procedures like server-to-server and stretch cluster replication.
• Storage Spaces Direct improvements include deduplication and compression for ReFS volumes, integrated support for persistent memory (PMem), support for using a consumer flash drive to act as a witness with dual-server clusters, increased expandability (as high as 4 PB per cluster), twice the performance for mirror-accelerated parity volumes and storage tiers, outlier detection for drive latency, and the ability to increase availability by selectively changing the limit of volume allocation. Windows Server's Storage Spaces Direct features are described in Windows Storage Spaces Direct consulting.
• Storage Migration Service streamlines the process of moving the volume data from older servers to newer releases of Windows Server. You can deploy Storage Migration Service to migrate to current hardware or to virtual machines. The utility automatically inventories multiple servers and their data; copies files, shares, and security settings to their intended hosts; and permits new hosts to assume the identity of your source servers so your users and applications can access their data without making any changes. Windows Admin Center's GUI can control many simultaneous migrations.
• Expanded Linux support allows organizations to host Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on shielded VMs. Shielded Virtual Machines technology is discussed in Windows Server 2016 Shielded Virtual Machines consulting.
• Windows Admin Center is a web-based app installed locally for controlling servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) with Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 endpoints, and Azure-hosted VMs. Windows Admin Center can be used to manage Windows Server 2012 and later. Windows Admin Center is an "in-box" management tool and therefore can be used to manage servers on private networks disconnected from the public Internet. By publishing the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can administer your servers securely from anywhere.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Admin Center enables you to manage on-premises and Azure-hosted VMs from a single pane of glass

• Container orchestration with Kubernetes, the popular management tool for Docker containers, offers improved features like being able to use integrated security tooling to protect Windows and Linux services. For a discussion of containers on Microsoft Windows Server, visit Windows Server containers consultants.
• Deduplication and Compression for Resilient File System (ReFS) Volumes allows an order of magnitude more data on a specified ReFS volume. The ReFS file system, introduced in Windows Server 2012, integrates silicon high-performance tiers for handling hot data along with HDD/SDD high-capacity tiers for scale and resilience.
• Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection comes with Windows Server 2019 as a built-in feature requiring no additional activation fee and no agent installation.
• Encrypted Networks is a new feature that encrypts data traveling between virtual machines interacting inside subnets you have designated as Encryption Enabled. Datagram Transport Layer Security on the virtual subnet prevents anyone accessing the physical network from looking at, modifying, or spoofing network data. Traffic between encrypted subnets is unencrypted.
• A USB Flash Drive plugged into your router can be assigned as a witness in two-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. With this economical, easy-to-configure solution, when a server fails and then recovers, the USB drive cluster can let you know which server has the more current data.
  
  
  Microsoft Windows Server 2019 allows a USB Flash drive to server as a witness in dual-server clusters

• Low Extra Delay Background Transport (LEDBAT) automatically avoids network congestion by consuming bandwidth only when the network is being sparingly used. LEDBAT enables you to publish massive, critical updates across a corporate network without impacting the performance of mission-critical applications.
• System Insights uses predictive analytics and machine learning to improve capacity planning. System Insights runs internally on every Windows Server 2019 instance and looks at performance stats and events to predict capacity requirements in key areas such as utilization for volumes, storage capacity, processing, and networking.
• Windows Time Service supports the new time synchronization method known as Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and delivers correct time during a leap second. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 also supports time traceability and software time-stamping. These features provide improved accuracy and precision, allow compliance with UTC and other standards like as Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and support various time-critical applications. Since network setup demands care to implement the PTP protocol, NTP remains the default time synchronization method for Windows Server 2019.

Progent's cybersecurity experts can assist your company to follow best practices to build a modern information security environment that is consistent across on-premises and cloud-based assets as well as mobile end points. Progent can assist you to configure 24x7 remote cybersecurity monitoring and management using an effective combination of cybersecurity technologies from Microsoft and other leading vendors. Progent also offers cybersecurity audits to ensure that your IT environment complies with government and industry information security requirements such as SOX, ISO 27001, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.

Progent's roster of Cisco CCIE infrastructure consultants is one of the biggest of any independent IT support company in the United States. Progent can help your business to plan, configure and maintain a modern and affordable hybrid network infrastructure that incorporates the state-of-the-art HA and recovery technologies built into Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC) planning experts can assist your organization create and validate a comprehensive strategy for recovering quickly from any anticipated catastrophe.

To assist you to support your Windows Server 2019 and Windows Hyper-V environment, Progent offers a variety of services such as Windows Admin Center consulting, PowerShell scripting, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud management consulting, and SCOM integration. Progent also has assembled the ProSight line of remote monitoring and management (RMM) outsourcing services that provide small and mid-size businesses an affordable and effective option for network management.

Download the Datasheet for Progent's Windows Server 2019 Consulting Services
To download the datasheet describing Progent's consulting services for Windows Server 2019, click:
Progent's consulting services for Windows Server 2019. (PDF - 319 KB)

Progent's Online Consulting Support and Troubleshooting Services
Progent has two decades of background providing fast, advanced remote technical guidance and troubleshooting support and has provided online support to businesses in every state in the US and throughout Canada. (See Progent's Client Testimonials.) Progent also provides on-premises assistance in most U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent can provide as-needed expertise to assist your company to resolve occasional IT issues or comprehensive project management outsourcing and co-sourcing services.

If you need urgent online technical support from a Microsoft-certified consultant, see Progent's Online Support Services.

Contact Progent for Assistance with Windows Server 2019
To find out more about Progent's consulting support and debugging services for Windows Server 2019, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.