Along with the new System Center 2016 suite is the eagerly awaited Windows Server 2016 where both products are now officially announced at IGNITE 2016 (Atlanta). Billed as the next cloud-ready operating system, IT administrators can expect improvements in (built-in) security, application platform support and software-defined infrastructure with the BIG focus on (Windows) Container technology *.
The new remote management “successor” option to Server Core call “Nano Server” carries a significantly smaller footprint and is available only to Software Assurance customers for production deployment.
RESOURCES
- Release notes
- System requirements
- What’s new in Windows Server 2016
- Ultimate Guide to Windows Server 2016 (and an updated version of “Introducing Windows Server 2016”)
- Getting Started with Nano Server
- Supported upgrade paths for Windows Server 2016 **
- Evaluation versions (multilingual 180-day time limited ISO and Vhd available at TechNet Evaluation Center in English, German, Chinese, Japanese, etc.)
– Windows Server 2016
– System Center 2016
* packaged with commercial edition of Docker engine – separately install via PowerShell script (a lightweight virtual machine designed for microservices deployment)
** with instructions to convert Windows Server 2016 evaluation version to retail