Windows Server 2016 is the forthcoming successor to Microsoft s Windows Server 2012 server operating system. Windows Server 2016 is expected to see an official release in the second half of 2016, and technical previews of the server OS have been available since October 2014, with the most recent, Technical Preview 4, released in November 2016.
Originally codenamed Windows Server vNext (and before that, Windows Server Blue), Windows Server 2016 has been developed by Microsoft with a focus on helping companies operate and thrive in the modern cloud and mobile era.
What’s New in Windows Server 2016
Two of the most prominent changes in Windows Server 2016 are the addition of containers to the Windows Server operating system environment via Windows Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers, and Nano Server, a minimal footprint deployment option for Windows Server 2016 that can be installed on a physical host or in a virtual machine (VM).
Other notable additions in Windows Server 2016 include software-defined datacenter (SDDC) and software-defined networking (SDN) enhancements, support for shielded VMs and Storage Spaces Direct, rolling upgrades for Hyper-V and Storage clusters, new PowerShell cmdlets, and support for Hyper-V containers, which Microsoft touts as providing the flexibility of the container model with the additional isolation provided by a container-optimized version of Hyper-V.
In conjunction with Windows Server 2016, Microsoft is also updating System Center 2016 with extended capabilities designed to help make managing today’s data center easier and more efficient.
