Last November, our most innovative, secure, and performant release to date was made generally available: Windows Server 2025. Incorporating input and feedback from customers, our Windows Server engineering team delivered a release that can enable customers to safeguard their data and infrastructure, handle their most demanding workloads, and help enhance their operational flexibility and connectivity, all with advanced security, cloud agility, and improved performance. As we continue to build and innovate, our team looks forward to engaging and learning from you at every opportunity to help ensure Windows Server continues to enable customers to accelerate innovation in their businesses.

As we reflect on over 30 years of innovation and our most recent release, we are thrilled to invite you to the Windows Server Summit 2025, held on April 29th and 30th on Microsoft Tech Community. This is a premier event for Windows Server professionals eager to stay involved and ahead of the curve. This year’s summit features a lineup of sessions designed to provide deep insight into the latest innovations and best practices in Microsoft Windows Server and Azure.

How to sign up

This event does not require registration, but you should be a member of Microsoft Tech Community to join us live and ask questions via chat during the sessions. We have tons of great content spanning two days, April 29—30th, each day starting at 7 AM PST. Visit this page for details on how to join and add the event to your calendar

Microsoft Tech Community

Meet the experts

You will have the opportunity to meet Windows Server engineering leaders, including Ian LeGrow, CVP PM. Ian leads the Operating Systems Division product management team, responsible for Windows Server and all Windows-based OS at Microsoft. Throughout the event, product managers will share how they have taken your feedback to deliver improved features and one of our most innovative and secure releases of Windows Server yet. They will also provide an exclusive look behind the scenes at what’s coming next in Windows Server, Azure, and hybrid cloud innovations.

Session highlights

After the keynote, you can listen or watch all the way through or pick and choose from mostly 30-minute sessions according to your interests. Here is a small sample of the sessions we have planned:

• Upgrades made easy with Windows Server 2025: Discover why Windows Server 2025 is the easiest version to upgrade ever. Join Rob Hindman and Jeff Woolsey as they delve into media upgrades and feature updates.
• Securing Active Directory: Join Active Directory Program Manager Cliff Fisher for a deep dive into new security features, policies, and defaults for Windows Server 2025. Learn about the new Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) features, Delegated Managed Service Accounts, and more.
• Windows Server Hyper-V Architecture, features, GPUs, and more! Explore the new GPU partitioning innovation in Windows Server 2025 Hyper-V. This session will cover use cases and hardware considerations.
• Modernize server management and connectivity with Azure Arc: Connect Windows Servers across hybrid, multicloud, and edge environments to Azure. This session will showcase connectivity options and highlight Azure capabilities focused on SCCM modernization.
• What’s next for advanced storage: Discover the major improvements to storage in Windows Server 2025 and get a sneak peek at innovations like Native NVMe (nonvolatile memory express) and rack-aware clustering.
• Fine-tuned host networking for Windows Server 2025: Transform your network setup and management for Windows Server 2025 clusters with Network ATC and Network HUD. Learn how to achieve peak network performance for your workloads with AccelNet.
• SDN magic—Windows Server 2025 innovations: Uncover the power of software-defined networking on Windows Server 2025, including effortless deployments with native SDN (Software-defined networking) and enhanced security posture for your applications.
• Harden security and build resiliency with Windows Server 2025: Stay up-to-date with the latest security features and best practices for securing Windows Server. Learn about Microsoft Defender for Cloud and more.
• Hotpatching and update management for Windows Server with Azure Arc: Learn about the popular new hotpatching feature in Windows Server 2025 and watch demos on managing updates with Azure Arc.
• The Support Case Files—Windows Server troubleshooting tips: Join our Windows Server support engineers as they break down your most requested support cases.
• From on-premises to cloud with Azure File Sync: Learn how to use Azure File Sync to employ hybrid topologies and migrate seamlessly from on-premises to cloud.

Don’t miss out!

Windows Server Summit is a special virtual event with a community-driven, educational focus, and Microsoft engineers as featured speakers. While most of the sessions are advanced and assume good Windows Server experience, you will get something out of this event, whether you are a seasoned IT professional or just starting your journey. We hope you will join us live so you can participate in the Q&A, but if you cannot, sessions will be available on demand a few days after the event. Sign up now and join us for two days of learning together.

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The post Join us at Windows Server Summit 2025 and learn more about our latest innovations! appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Would you like to avoid spending your weekends patching servers? The new Hotpatch feature in Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition addresses this pain point—it can reduce many IT teams’ headaches including reboot failures and coordinating multitier workloads. It increases productivity and end-user uptime and can reduce the vulnerability window that would result if an update is delayed.

To demonstrate how Hotpatching works, we’ve brought in an example from our very own Xbox team. In this article you’ll learn how Microsoft has been using Hotpatch with Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition to substantially reduce downtime for SQL Server databases running on Windows Server Azure virtual machines on an important set of backend services for the Xbox network.

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What is Hotpatch?

Hotpatch for Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition allows you to apply every month’s “patch Tuesday” security updates, but does not require the server operating system to restart two out of three months.

While Hotpatch has been available on the Server Core option of Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition for some time, it has just become available in summer 2023 for the more widely used Desktop Experience option. You can see a demo of it in this on-demand session from Ignite.

Here’s what’s great about it:

• Higher availability and fewer restarts.
• Faster deployment of updates because the packages are smaller, install faster, and have easier patch orchestration using Azure Update Management.
• Better protection because the Hotpatch update packages are scoped to Windows security updates that install faster without restarting.

 When you enable Hotpatch, a baseline Cumulative Update is applied to the server. This update does require a reboot. After this point, your team can update easily, with fewer restarts, which can greatly reduce any vulnerability window. Check out this release documentation for details on the Hotpatch calendar.

How the Xbox network team uses Hotpatch

The Xbox network relies on several critical backend services hosted in SQL Server databases running on Windows Server Azure virtual machines. There are 18 different services hosted in this manner, with some services handled by two SQL Servers and others up to 120 SQL Servers. Some of these workloads have been in production for 15 years.

Of course, when you’re running backend services for a group of passionate gamers like Xbox network customers, it’s imperative to patch and restore services with as little downtime as possible.

Approximately 1,000 servers hosting these services started their journey on physical hardware when the services were first deployed, and more than 15 years later, through a process of rolling upgrades and migration, are now running in Azure hosted as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) Virtual Machines (VMs). According to senior service engineer Tim Dreyling, the team has found it “magnitudes easier to manage Windows Server on Azure VMs, over relying on data center support to address ‘machine’ issues.”

After migrating the backend Xbox network services from the earlier version of Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition to the version that supported Hotpatch, the team that supported these specific backend services went from an update cycle every month that could take weeks of careful orchestration to being able to apply Hotpatch updates across a fleet of nearly 1,000 servers in less than 48 hours two months out of every three.

“As a database administrator (DBA) this is the biggest thing to increase our service reliability and uptime since SQL Server Availability Groups were introduced with SQL Server 2012,” says Tim.

Hotpatch with Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Azure Edition isn’t just used with SQL Server with Xbox network backend services, but is also used on IaaS VMs running Active Directory DS Domain Controllers and VMs hosting web services roles.

While your services might not have the complexity and scale of the Xbox network, we think you’ll quickly see the Hotpatch advantage of minimizing reboot downtimes while ensuring the services you host are reliable, protected, and available.

Hotpatch is currently available on Azure Edition (see below for details), but the team has more innovations in the works, and many ways to access cloud innovation in your hybrid cloud environment by connecting your servers to Azure Arc.

In case you weren’t able to join us at Ignite, you can watch two Windows Server-focused sessions on-demand. These talks cover Hotpatching and the Xbox example discussed above, along with a number of new and upcoming features for our Windows Server and SQL Server customers:

1. Do More with Windows Server and SQL Server on Azure—Bob Ward, Principal Architect in the Azure Data team, and Jeff Woolsey Principal PM Manager in Windows Server, do a quick-fire session with descriptions of the latest innovations across these technologies.
2. What’s New in Windows Server v.Next—Elden Christensen, Principal Group PM Manager, joins Jeff Woolsey to explain and demo the features that our engineering team is working on for the next Windows Server.

If you’re interested in being hands-on and trying what’s coming next for Windows Server, you can get early access to the latest features in the works by joining the Windows Insider program.

Learn more about Windows Server and Hotpatch

• Try the latest versions of SQL Server and Windows Server 2022 on Azure.
• You can find out more about Hotpatch for Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition in the documentation and in this blog post.
• Download the image here to get the new edition with Hotpatch (Azure account required).

The post How Hotpatching on Windows Server is changing the game for Xbox appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

However, as many organizations like yours are eager to innovate with AI for various use cases, it is also very important, if not more, to have a solid IT foundation that can support that ambitious AI vision—from a cost, performance, and security perspective. The last thing companies want is to make a big investment in AI and machine learning initiatives too soon, without the bandwidth, guardrails, or necessary performance in place to support it.

At the heart of your IT estate lies strategic investments you have in business-critical workloads like Windows Server and SQL Server that are and have been the foundation of many organizations for more than 30 years now. The question then becomes—how do you modernize these foundational technologies to make you ready to leverage the full power of AI, that will allow you to adopt AI in a secure, responsible way and gain an edge over the competition?

Catch up on sessions from Microsoft Ignite

Whether you missed some of the sessions at Ignite or just want a recap of all things Windows Server and SQL Server, we’ve got you covered. In this blog, we’re going to showcase the main Ignite sessions for Windows Server and SQL Server, where we had various announcements, demos, and customer testimonials.

Windows Server

What’s New in Windows Server v.Next: In this session, we provide a preview of what’s coming next for Windows Server, a platform that enables IT professionals and developers to modernize their applications and enable hybrid use cases. The topics covered were Active Directory, File Server, Storage, Hyper-V, Security, and more.

Do more with Windows Server and SQL Server on Azure: This session highlights how you can reap more technical and business benefits by running Windows Server and SQL Server on Microsoft Azure. You’ll learn how Azure provides optimal cost benefits, performance, and security for these workloads. Get tips and demos on how to extend Azure innovations to your hybrid and multi-cloud environments with Azure Arc.

Migrate to Innovate: Be AI-ready, secure, and optimize operations: This is an immersive session for IT practitioners on how to migrate to Azure. We highlighted practical steps, demos, and guidance on how migrating to Azure can accelerate the impact of AI in your organization. We then highlighted how you can enhance security and optimize operations once in the cloud and take the first step into Azure with Azure Migrate.

Learn Live: Upgrade and migrate Windows Server IaaS virtual machines: In this online session, you can learn to migrate a workload running in Windows Server to an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) virtual machine and to Windows Server 2022 by using Windows Server migration tools or the Storage Migration Service.

SQL Server

Get superior price and performance with Azure cloud-scale databases: In this session, you can learn how to improve performance with the latest capabilities for Azure SQL Databases, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc for hybrid and multi-cloud. You’ll learn how customers enabled ongoing innovation by migrating to Azure Database for MySQL. This session will cover tactical ways to get the most from your applications with the databases that are easy to use, deliver unmatched price and performance, support open-source, and enable transformative AI technologies.

Accelerate your SQL migration with Azure Data Migration Service: In this demo, you’ll see how the new Azure Data Migration Service along with Azure Migrate can accelerate your SQL modernization journey. We will showcase Azure Data Migration Service streamlined capabilities for readiness assessment, SKU recommendations based on workload rightsizing, and online and offline data migration across Portal, Azure Data Studio, PowerShell, and command-line interface (CLI) experiences that you need for your SQL Server migration journey to Azure from on-premises.

Migrate to innovate: Modernize your data on Azure SQL Managed Instance: In this session, you can watch new performance enhancements in action and experience the ease of online migration to Azure SQL Managed Instance using the link feature. See how you can continue to modernize on Azure through Microsoft Fabric integration and connections to other Azure services.

Bring enhanced manageability to SQL Server anywhere with Azure Arc: Join this discussion to discover how connecting your SQL Servers to Azure can enhance your management, security, and governance capabilities with live demos. SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc is a hybrid cloud solution that allows you to manage, secure, and govern your SQL Server estate running anywhere from Azure. Our experts will also explore different options for deploying Azure Arc to your SQL Servers at scale.

Next steps to modernize Windows Server and SQL Server

Ready to take the next step in modernizing your Windows Server and SQL Server? Here are some quick resources to get started:

1. Upgrade to the latest versions of Windows Server to take advantage of the latest capabilities. Learn more about Windows Server 2022 and SQL Server 2022.
2. Looking to migrate to Azure? Take the first step with Azure Migrate and Modernize, our offering that has programs, offers, support, free tooling, and expert guidance to confidently migrate to Azure.
3. Join the discussion on our Windows Server Tech Community and SQL Server Tech Community.

¹ ITProToday, Microsoft Ignite 2023 Envisions AI as an Everyday Reality, November 16, 2023.

The post Windows Server and SQL Server at Microsoft Ignite 2023 appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Azure Hybrid Benefit expansion

As customers are increasing cloud adoption to run virtual machine (VM)–based and containerized applications, they also need to keep some workloads on-premises. At Microsoft, we are committed to meeting customers where they are. Azure Hybrid Benefit is a program that enables customers to reduce the costs of running workloads in the cloud. At Microsoft Ignite, we’re introducing new additions to Azure Hybrid Benefit to bring the value of Azure to where customers are.

As part of our updates, customers with Windows Server Software Assurance or a Cloud Solution Provider subscription will be able to use Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI in their own datacenters or edge infrastructure at no additional cost. This will enable customers to containerize their applications and deploy them on Azure or on-premises consistently by maximizing business value with a managed Kubernetes service in their own environments.

For customers looking to modernize their environment, we are also introducing a new benefit for Windows Server Datacenter Software Assurance customers to use Azure Stack HCI at no additional cost.¹ With this, customers can modernize their existing datacenter and edge infrastructure to run their VM and container-based workloads on modern infrastructure with industry-leading price performance and built-in connectivity to Azure. Learn more about Azure Hybrid Benefit for AKS and Azure Stack HCI.

More flexibility to run Windows Server

On October 1, 2022, we implemented several updates to outsourcing and hosting terms for customers and partners globally. Among these is the Flexible Virtualization Benefit, which allows customers with Software Assurance or subscription licenses to run their own licensed software, including Windows Server, on other cloud providers’ infrastructure—dedicated or multitenant.² Additionally, customers can also license Windows Server on a VM basis.

Windows Server customers have been increasingly leveraging Windows containers to modernize their applications. However, we heard from a few of our customers and application vendors that needed the ability to distribute a complete containerized application directly to their end users. Starting today, customers will be able to redistribute Windows Container base images beyond their organization in accordance with the updated End-User Agreement License. Now, customers and application vendors across segments like medical, financial, manufacturing, or other air-gapped environments can more easily use Windows containers to modernize their applications. Learn more about the upcoming changes in our tech community blog.

Modernize for end of support

With all the added benefits and flexibility mentioned above, there is no better time to modernize than now. This is especially true if you are running Windows Server 2012/R2, which is reaching end of support next year on October 10, 2023. We have several options to keep your Windows Server 2012/R2 workloads protected:

• Migrate to Azure and run securely with up to three years of free Extended Security Updates. This includes all Azure destinations such as Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure VMware Solution, and the Azure Stack portfolio.
• Upgrade to Windows Server 2022 to get the latest innovation in security and application modernization.
• Deploy extended security updates on-premises. Customers that cannot meet the end of support deadline and have Software Assurance or subscription licenses under an enterprise agreement enrollment, and cannot migrate their Windows Server to Azure, will have the option to buy Extended Security Updates.

Start migrating and modernizing your Windows Server workloads

No matter where you are in your migration and modernization journey, we are committed to supporting you at every step. Here are some resources to get started today:  

• Learn more about the unique capabilities and cost-savings available when running Windows Server on Azure.
• Learn more about your options for Windows Server and SQL Server 2012/R2 end of support.
• Migrate and modernize with confidence through the Azure Migration and Modernization Program.

¹_{Currently only available for Windows Server Datacenter licenses with Software Assurance purchased through Enterprise Agreements. Customers can only use Windows Server or Azure Stack HCI. Customers will have 180 days of concurrent use rights to move to Azure Stack HCI.}

²_{Note that these changes exclude what we term Listed Providers: Alibaba, Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft. Customers that want to use a Listed Provider for outsourcing can acquire licenses directly from the Listed Provider.}

³_{Note: In alignment with the servicing model for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 (link to blog), the Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 ESU program will only include Monthly Rollup packages; Security Only update packages will not be provided.}

The post Maximize your Windows Server investments with new benefits and more flexibility appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

If you’re interested in learning how Microsoft technologies work—for example, Windows Server, Exchange Server, Windows Azure, and SharePoint Server 2013—this is the Windows Store app for you.

Enjoy! Kevin

Hi, we’re Martin McClean and Brian Lich from the Windows Server Information Experience team.

Server Posterpedia is a Windows Store app designed for Windows 8 and Windows RT that brings graphical content together with content from TechNet and MSDN. It enables you to learn about Microsoft technologies by providing deep links to Microsoft content from within a Windows Store app. Today we’re pleased to announce that Server Posterpedia v2 is available in the Windows Store. The following features are available in version 2:

• Image hotspots that allow you to get content specific to a part of the poster (new).
• Semantic zoom that enables easy navigation of the different groups (new).
• A full-screen viewing mode without the chrome and hotspots (new).
• The ability to share a link to a poster through email (new).
• App bar buttons specific to each poster.
• Technical content for Hyper-V, Active Directory, Remote Desktop Services, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2010, Windows Azure, SQL Server, Lync Server 2010, and Office 2013.

Server Posterpedia is updated frequently with new content, so be sure to download any app updates when you’re notified.

If you’re running Windows 8, you can get this app from the Windows Store:
https://aka.ms/sposterpedia

If you’re not running Windows 8 yet, check out this video that illustrates the app’s features and functionality:
https://aka.ms/sposterpediavid

The post Server Posterpedia v2 available in the Windows Store! appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

• Heterogeneous server environment inventory
• Software usage tracking for Windows Server, SharePoint Server, System Center Configuration Manager, Exchange Server and SQL Server
• Microsoft Office 2010 readiness assessment
• SQL Server discovery and assessment for consolidation
• Windows 2000 Server migration assessment

This is a powerful tool for assessing your current IT situation and planning for the future — and it’s free! Make sure to check it out.

The post Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) v5 toolkit now available appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.