Windows Server 2012 within teaching, learning and research

Well this week marked another important milestone for Microsoft with the release of Windows Server 2012, on Tuesday 4th of September, Microsoft made the official announcement of Windows Server 2012 you watch all the content at https://www.windows-server-launch.com

What’s new in Server 2012

Microsoft has positioned this as a very cloud-friendly OS. So its more important then ever to start ensuring your teaching cloud fundamentals to your students to help with this we have dedicated curriculum at https://www.microsoft.com/faculty

Here are some of the new features.

• New file system — Included in Windows Server 2012 is ReFS, a new file system designed to survive failures that would bring down or corrupt the previous NTFS file system (which is still available). Combined with improvements in cluster management and failover, this is a capability that will play across the entire user spectrum.
• Deploy and manage at scale — Windows Server 2012  is designed to make it easy to deploy multiple copies of the OS on geographically distributed systems. Obviously this is a good feature for cloud platform, but is of use to almost any enterprise IT group. Improvements in application development and deployment promise the ability to deploy any Windows Server 2012 application to any location(s) from a centralized deployment server.
• Vastly improved Hyper-V, virtual networking, and associated tools — Windows Server 2012 has many improvements to Hyper-V, including features to improve HA/DR provisioning, enhanced virtual networking, and improvements to the size of individual VMs. Microsoft’s new management solution, Systems Center 2012, offers deep integration with Hyper-V for advanced management.
• Heavy emphasis on multi-tenancy — A fundamental for deploying clouds, either as an internal private cloud or as a service provider offering shared cloud services, the ability to securely and efficiently handle multiple tenants on the cloud is a fundamental requirement. Windows Server 2012 has multiple features to enhance this capability, most of which will also be potentially useful for traditional enterprise IT environments as well. Security across the entire OS is integrated with these enhancements as well.
• Client and remote office functions — Improved management of client devices to allow centralized control of data and enhanced audit and compliance. Improvements in Branch Cache remote file services will allow tighter and more efficient management of data served to remote offices.

So, what are the press and analyst saying about Windows Server 2012?

Windows Server 2012 offers a major step in function capabilities aligned with several major strategic trends for both Microsoft and the rest of the industry.

The team at Forrester posted a blog titled, “Microsoft Announces Windows Server 2012,” Here are just a few quotes.

On the release of Windows Server 2012 as a whole:

“Make no mistake, this is a really major restructuring of the OS, and a major step in function capabilities aligned with several major strategic trends for both Microsoft and the rest of the industry. While Microsoft’s high level message is centered on the cloud, and on the Windows Server 2012 features that make it a productive platform upon which both enterprises and service providers can build a cost-effective cloud, its features will be immensely valuable to a wide range of businesses.”

“ There is no doubt that this is the most significant jump in OS capabilities since Microsoft first introduced Windows as a server OS .”

Forrester Says Evaluate Windows Server 2012 NOW:

“But, and this is critical, you must begin to evaluate and pilot it even if you are still completing your rollout of Windows Server 2008, as many Forrester clients still are. My guess is that WS2012 is the future of Windows OS, and will probably serve as the core of Microsoft’s strategy for the next decade. I doubt their ability to produce a radical upgrade to this in the next four or five years, and even the next version of the OS is likely to look like WS2012. This implies that you need to understand how this new OS will change and enable your strategic IT road map, particularly since the new OS has features and capabilities that, if properly exploited by you (or by your competitors), could generate real competitive differentiation such as the ability to deploy applications more rapidly, manage them more efficiently, etc.”

What does this mean For IT Students and curricula?

Firstly if your teaching infrastructure, administration, storage, cloud or virtualisation its critical, that you begin to evaluate and become familiar with Windows Server 2012. As academics you have a number of ways of doing this.

1. Download a trial version from https://www.windows-server-launch.com

2. Download and install a full version for FREE for teaching, learning and research in your labs and computer clusters from DreamSpark Premium – https://www.dreamspark.com 

3. Point your students at www.dreamspark.com and get them to install windows server 2012 and get familiar. For further details and FAQ click here

The key thing is that understand how this new OS will change and enable your strategic curricula roadmap, particularly since the new OS has features and capabilities that, could generate real competitive differentiation for your student employability giving them experience of skills such as the ability to deploy applications more rapidly, manage them more efficiently have experience of the Windows Azure IaaS, PaaS and SaaS options and virtualisation using HyperV.

Recommendations

1. You should evaluate this new release.

2. Make use of FREE training resources for your IT Services and support teams at https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/

3. Attend one of our FREE IT Camps to get deeper understanding of Windows Server 2012 https://uktechdays.cloudapp.net/it-camps.aspx

4. Make use of the curricula and teaching resources at https://www.microsoft.com/faculty

5. Consider running older OS and software stacks within a VM, particularly given the improvements to the overall Hyper-V environment.

6. If your contemplating a major new cloud or virtualization project or initiative, Windows Server 2012 should be the platform of choice, simply because of the FREE licensing options for teaching, learning and research as part of DreamSpark premium.