We’re happy to announce the availability of our newest free ebook, Introducing Windows Server 2016 (ISBN 9780735697744), by John McCabe and the Windows Server team. Enjoy!

Windows Server has powered a generation of organizations, from small businesses to large enterprises. No matter what your area of expertise, this book will introduce you to the latest developments in Windows Server 2016. Each chapter has been written by either field experts or members of the product group, giving you the latest information on every improvement or new feature that is included in this version of Windows Server.

Introduction

Windows Server has powered a generation of organizations, from small businesses to large enterprises. No matter what your role in IT, you can be guaranteed you that have touched Windows Server at some point in your career or at very least you have seen it from afar! This book introduces you to Windows Server 2016, which is the next version of Windows Server. No matter what your area of expertise, this book will introduce you to the latest developments in Windows Server 2016.

Each chapter has been written by either field experts or members of the product group, giving you the latest information on every improvement or new feature that is included in this version of Windows Server. This information will help you to prepare for Windows Server 2016 and give you the means to develop and design a path to introduce Windows Server 2016 into your environment and take full advantage of what is to come. This book is being written at a time when the product is still evolving and it should be noted that things might change or not appear in the final version of Windows Server 2016 when released. All guidance in the chapters is meant to be tried and evaluated in a test environment; you should not implement it in a production environment.

This book assumes that you are familiar with key concepts surrounding Windows Server (i.e., Microsoft Hyper-V, Networking, and Storage) as well as cloud technologies such as Microsoft Azure. In this book, we cover a variety of concepts related to the technology and present scenarios with a customer focus, but it is not intended as a how-to or design manual. You can use other sources, including the online Microsoft resources, to stay up to date with the latest developments on the roles and features of Windows Server 2016. The online resources will also contain the latest how-to procedures and information about designing a Windows Server 2016 infrastructure for your business.

About the author

John McCabe works for Microsoft as a senior premier field engineer. In this role, he has worked with the largest customers around the world, supporting and implementing cutting-edge solutions on Microsoft Technologies. In this role, he is responsible for developing core services for the Enterprise Services Teams. John has been a contributing author to several books, including Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2 from Sybex, Mastering Lync 2013 from Sybex, and Introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 from Microsoft Press. John has spoken at many conferences around Europe, including TechEd and TechReady. Prior to joining Microsoft, John was an MVP in Unified Communications with 15 years of consulting experience across many different technologies such as networking, security, and architecture.