Companies such as Church and Dwight and Altair are migrating their Windows Server apps to Microsoft Azure to transform how they run their business, optimize costs, and increase IT efficiency and security. Today, we are excited to share new capabilities that continue to make Azure the best place to run Windows Server apps.
Increase IT efficiency with Azure Automanage
We often hear from customers that maintaining and operating servers on-premises is complex. Windows Server admins are responsible for day-to-day administration tasks such as backup, disaster recovery, and security updates. With growing security threats every day, ensuring that apps and data remain secured compounds this administrative burden.
This week, we’re introducing the preview of Azure Automanage, a new Azure service that helps customers significantly reduce day-to-day management tasks with automated operations across the entire lifecycle of Windows Server virtual machines (VMs). IT admins can now manage the entire VM lifecycle with point-and-click simplicity, individually or at scale.
Azure Automanage works with any new or existing Windows Server VM on Azure. It automatically implements VM management best practices as defined in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure. Azure Automanage eliminates the need for service discovery, enrollment, and configuration of VMs. For example, Azure Automanage enables customers to implement security best practices by offering an easy way to apply an operating system baseline to VMs per Microsoft’s baseline configuration. Services such as Azure Security Center are automatically onboarded per the configuration profile chosen by the customer. If the VM’s configuration drifts from the applied best practices, Azure Automanage detects and automatically brings the VM back to the desired configuration. Learn more about Azure Automanage and join the preview.
Manage Azure Virtual Machines with Windows Admin Center in the Azure portal
Windows Admin Center delivers a modern, integrated, and simplified browser-based interface to configure and troubleshoot servers. Customers can also connect their on-premises Windows Server to Azure and use Azure services for backup, disaster recovery, centralized security management, and threat protection. Customers use Windows Admin Center to manage millions of Windows Server nodes today, and we’re continuously making it better based on their feedback.
This week, we are introducing the preview of Windows Admin Center available natively in the Azure portal. It is a built-in capability that enables customers to take advantage of the familiar Windows Admin Center experience to manage Windows Server VMs right within Azure. Customers can now do detailed management, configuration, troubleshooting, and maintenance from a unified user experience. For example, customers can launch an in-browser Remote Desktop (RDP) session for Azure Virtual Machines in a few clicks or manage expired certificates, right from the Azure portal. This new capability will be available for Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 versions. Learn more about Windows Admin Center in Azure portal.
Bring Azure services on-premises with Azure Arc and Azure Kubernetes Service
We understand that customers cannot move all their Windows Server apps to the cloud due to compliance requirements. With Azure Arc enabled servers now generally available, admins can use the Azure portal to manage and govern Windows Server anywhere.
We also want to offer options for customers who want to containerize Windows Server apps on-premises. This week, we are introducing the preview of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Azure Stack HCI. This new service simplifies the Kubernetes cluster deployment on Azure Stack HCI. It offers a consistent and familiar Azure experience with built-in security. Customers can use Azure management and governance services such as Azure Monitor to manage on-premises Kubernetes clusters. With AKS on Azure Stack HCI, customers can consistently and easily deploy their modern apps anywhere—cloud, on-premises and edge. Learn more about Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI and register to join the preview.
We are excited to share new Azure innovation that will help you gain IT efficiency for Windows Server. Whether you are attending Microsoft Ignite live or accessing the on-demand content, make sure to check out Windows Server sessions to see these capabilities in action. You can also register for Windows Server Summit where we will dive deep into these capabilities and more.
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