Microsoft announces general availability of Windows Server 2022
It is a couple of weeks since Microsoft almost silently released Windows Server 2022, and now the company has officially announced that the operating system is generally available.
The release comes just over a month before the rollout of Windows 11 begins, and there is a strong focus on security. In particular, there is the addition of encrypted hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) and AES-256 encryption with support for server message block (SMB) protocol. The latest version of Windows Server also greatly increases hardware support.
See also:
- Windows Update is letting Windows 10 users know if they can upgrade to Windows 11
- Microsoft quietly releases Windows Server 2022 with up to a decade of support
- Microsoft is kicking some users off the Windows 11 Insider program
In a blog post about the general availability of the operating system, Bernardo Caldas, Vice President of Program Management, Core OS and Edge Infrastructure at Microsoft says: "Customers who upgrade to Windows Server 2022 can take advantage of scalability improvements such as support for 48TB of memory and 2,048 logical cores running on 64 physical sockets for those demanding Tier1 applications".
He goes on to advise:
In this release, customers can also take advantage of advancements to Windows containers. For example, Windows Server 2022 improves application compatibility of Windows containers, includes HostProcess containers for node configuration, supports IPv6 and dual-stack, and enables consistent network policy implementation with Calico. Furthermore, we are continuing to work with the Kubernetes community to enable Windows Server 2022 container support and bring the new capabilities to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and AKS on Azure Stack HCI.
Other highlights of Windows Server 2022 include SMB Compression, Secured-core server, Windows Admin Center improvements and more. Pricing starts at $501 for the Essentials edition, $1069 for the Standard edition, and $6155 for the Datacenter edition
Caldas concludes his post by sharing the various ways to find out more and get started with Windows Server 2022:
- Windows Server Evaluation Center offers options to try Windows Server in Azure or to download.
- Windows Server on Azure Marketplace for running Virtual Machines on Azure.
- Volume Licensing Service Center, where Volume License customers can download Windows Server 2022.
- Refer to the pricing page for Windows Server 2022 editions and pricing details.
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