Sneak peek #2: Windows Server, version 1709 hyper-converged infrastructure

This blog post was authored by Elden Christensen, Principal PM Manager, Windows Server.

A decade ago came the virtualization wave, where datacenters filled full of hundreds of servers were virtualized and reduced to dozens of servers. The consolidation of the compute layer brought incredible cost savings to the business, and IT admins were hailed as heroes. The next evolution for the on-premises datacenter is here with hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) where the storage and compute layers are being collapsed to reduce costs and achieve new levels of performance, resulting in IT admin’s once again being hailed as heroes.

In Windows Server 2016 we introduced our Microsoft hyper-converged solution, and we are seeing incredible adoption and wonderful success stories. HCI in Windows Server 2016 represented a major investment and the beginning of a journey, and we will continue the hyper-converged infrastructure journey in the Semi-Annual Channel cadence. Building on our successful launch of HCI, here is a sneak peak into some of the enhancements you will see coming:

• Data Deduplication: You will now be able to achieve upwards of 95% data efficiency on your HCI solution. We have also done deep integration to dedup data as it is rotated between tiers in the most optimal way.
• Management: HCI will reduce the hardware acquisition costs, but we also want to reduce the operational expenses to deliver the lowest cost way to run your datacenter. We have an all new management experience that is specifically tailored to managing your HCI solution in the most simple and intuitive way.
• Performance: The Microsoft HCI solution is the industry leader in performance, but we aren’t going to let that be good enough! In the next releases we will be raising the bar even further with integration of evolving silicon, like Persistent Memory, and improving our erasure coding performance to deliver higher performance capacity optimized solutions.

We have much more coming, in diagnosability, additional workloads/scenarios, security, and expanding the hardware ecosystem, to name a few. We look forward to seeing you at Microsoft Ignite on September 25th – 29th in Orlando, Florida where you can learn more about all the hyper-converged infrastructure enhancements coming in the next releases in the Semi-Annual Channel.

If you haven’t already, join the Windows Insiders program so you can get started with the preview builds for Windows Server, version 1709. Also, don’t forget to join the conversation in the Tech Community!

Be an IT hero once again with Microsoft hyper-converged!

Check out other blogs in this series:

• Sneak Peek #1: Windows Server, version 1709

UPDATE: As announced during Ignite, Windows Server, version 1709 will focus on helping customers on their application innovation journey with containers and microservices. The items mentioned in this blog post are still available for Windows Insiders and will show up in the next release in the Semi-Annual Channel.