Familiar and reliable
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Almost all of our production systems run on Windows Server platforms. We tend to separate each server out as one role to host a single application or set of applications. All servers we run are virtualised and we utilise data centre licensing on our hosts. Most off-the-shelf applications require Windows Server, and we prefer centralised management of a single platform so it's really the only choice for us (apart from some virtual appliances).
Pros
- Centralised management. Active directory and group policies make this quite easy.
- Low resource use. We are able to deploy an increasing number of applications on server core.
- Bundled services. More and more functionality is Bundled and can be added and removed as roles.
Cons
- Some of the management tools are still lacking when it comes to remotely managing server core.
- Some of the more advanced management is nuanced and poorly documented. Anything slightly complex or out of the norm requires a lot of searching.
- Tech support. It is difficult to access Microsoft for support directly, software assurance should make that easy.
Most Important Features
- Standardisation. Allowing us to utilise a common platform.
- Centralised management.
- Regular security updates.
Return on Investment
- It is a critical part of our operation, we could not run 99% of our systems without it. It underpins all of our production systems.
- The latest versions have allowed us to provide controlled access to systems behind a firewall via RDP where we would typically need to purchase another product such as Citrix.
- With some of the complexity of administering difficult features, we have had to bring in additional external assistance at a cost.
Alternatives Considered
Ubuntu Linux
