Showing posts with label os. Show all posts
Showing posts with label os. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Windows Server 2012 R2: The Heart of Cloud OS


For years now, Microsoft has been building and operating some of the largest cloud applications in the world. The expertise culled from these experiences along with our established history of delivering market-leading enterprise operating systems, platforms, and applications has led us to develop a new approach for the modern era: the Microsoft Cloud OS.
The Cloud OS vision combines Microsoft knowledge and experiences with today’s trends and technology innovations to deliver a modern platform of products and services that helps organizations transform their current server environment into a highly elastic, scalable, and reliable cloud infrastructure. Utilizing the software that powers the Cloud OS vision, organizations can quickly and flexibly build and manage modern applications across platforms, locations, and devices, unlock insights from volumes of existing and new data, and support end-user productivity wherever and on whatever device they choose.

At the heart of Cloud OS is Windows Server 2012 R2. Delivering on the promise of a modern datacenter, modern applications, and people-centric IT, Windows Server 2012 R2 provides a best-in-class server experience that cost-effectively cloud-optimizes your business. When you optimize your business for the cloud with Windows Server 2012 R2, you take advantage of your existing skillsets and technology investments. You also gain all the Microsoft experience behind building and operating private and public clouds – right in the box. Delivered as an enterprise-class, the simple and cost-effective server and cloud platform Windows Server 2012 R2 delivers significant value around seven key capabilities:

Server virtualization. Windows Server Hyper-V offers a scalable and feature-rich virtualization platform that helps organizations of all sizes realize considerable cost savings and operational efficiencies. With Windows Server 2012 R2, server virtualization with Hyper-V pulls ahead of the competition by offering industry-leading size and scale that makes it the platform of choice for running your mission critical workloads. Using Windows Server 2012 R2, you can take advantage of new hardware technology, while still utilizing the servers you already have. This functionality enables you to virtualize today and be ready for the future tomorrow.

Whether you are looking to expand virtual machine mobility, increase virtual machine availability, handle multi-tenant environments, gain bigger scale, or gain more flexibility, Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V gives you the platform and tools you need to increase business agility with confidence. Plus, you can also benefit from workload portability as you extend your on-premises datacenter into a service provider cloud or Windows Azure.

Storage. With the increase in new applications, the explosion of data, and growing end-user expectations for continuous services, there has come a significant increase in storage demands. Windows Server 2012 R2 offers a wide variety of storage features and capabilities to address the storage challenges faced by organizations. Whether you intend to use cost-effective, industry-standard hardware for the bulk of your workloads or Storage Area Networks for the most demanding ones, Windows Server 2012 R2 provides you with a rich set of features that can help you maximize the returns from all of your storage investments.
Microsoft designed Windows Server 2012 R2 with a strong focus on storage capabilities, including improvements in the provisioning, accessing, and managing of storage and the transfer of data across the network that resides on that storage. The end result is a storage solution that delivers the efficiency, performance, resiliency, availability, and versatility you need at every level.

Networking. New technologies, such as private- and public-cloud computing, mobile workforces, and widely dispersed assets have transformed the business landscape and altered how we manage networking and network assets. Still, the main goal remains the same: keep all networking components connected to ensure smooth data transmission and reliable access by users and customers to the services they need when they need them.

Windows Server 2012 R2 makes it as straightforward to manage an entire network as a single server, giving you the reliability and scalability of multiple servers at a lower cost. Automatic rerouting around storage, server, and network failures enables file services to remain online with minimal noticeable downtime. In addition, Windows Server 2012 R2 provides the foundation for software-defined networking, out-of-the box, enabling seamless connectivity across public, private, and hybrid cloud implementations.
Whatever your organization’s needs, from administering network assets to managing an extensive private and public cloud network infrastructure, Windows Server 2012 R2 offers you solutions to today’s changing business landscape. These capabilities help reduce networking complexity while lowering costs, simplifying management tasks, and delivering services reliably and efficiently. With Windows Server 2012 R2 you can automate and consolidate networking processes and resources, more easily connect private clouds with public cloud services, and more easily connect users to IT resources and services across physical boundaries.

Server management and automation. Datacenter infrastructure has become more and more complex. Multiple industry standards are confusing hardware vendors. Customers are looking for guidance on how to best automate their datacenter while adopting a standards-based management approach supporting their multi-vendor investments. Windows Server 2012 R2 enables IT professionals to offer an integrated platform to automate and manage the increasing datacenter ecosystem. Features within Windows Server 2012 R2 enable you to manage many servers and the devices connecting them, whether they are physical or virtual, on-premises or in the cloud.

Web and application platform. Chances are your organization already uses or is planning to use a combination of on-premises and off-premises IT resources and tools for building a hybrid environment. To protect your existing investment in on-premises applications as you begin to migrate to the cloud, you need a scalable application and web platform that enables you to manage your applications and websites in a unified way.

Windows Server 2012 R2 builds on the tradition of the Windows Server family as a proven application platform, with thousands of applications already built and deployed and a community of millions of knowledgeable and skilled developers already in place. The capabilities included in Windows Server 2012 R2 offer your organization even greater application flexibility, helping you build and deploy applications either on-premises, in the cloud, or both at once, with hybrid solutions that can work in both environments.
As your organization plans for and moves to a hybrid or cloud-based environment, Windows Server 2012 R2 provides the tools you need to build, provision, and manage multi-tenant environments while still supporting your large enterprise or the many customers hosted within your service provider infrastructure.
Access and information protection. Information exists almost everywhere in your organization: on servers, laptops, desktops, removable devices, and in emails. Users need to be able to access this information from anywhere, share it where appropriate, and achieve maximum productivity with the assets they have. To further complicate matters, the move to cloud computing necessitates being able to secure enterprise applications that no longer live in your datacenter.

Microsoft assists you in supporting consumerization of IT and in retaining effective management, security, and compliance capabilities. The enterprise tools and technologies that Microsoft provides can help with key enterprise tasks such as identifying non-corporate devices, delivering applications and data to those devices with the best possible user experience, and establishing and enforcing policies on devices based on the end user’s role within the organization. Microsoft enterprise tools and technologies can help IT staff to maintain a high level of security across all device types, whether the devices are corporate or personal assets, and establish security measures that protect their organization’s systems, data, and network.
To address these information needs and challenges, organizations have to make fundamental shifts in how they approach identity and security. Windows Server 2012 R2 helps you accommodate these changes through exciting new remote access options, significant improvements to Active Directory and Active Directory Federation Services, and the introduction of policy-based information access and audits with Dynamic Access Control, and new scenarios to help customers provide access to corporate resources for users from their own devices. With these new capabilities, you can better manage and protect data access, simplify deployment and management of your identity infrastructure, and provide more secure access to data from virtually anywhere across both on-premises well managed devices and new consumer orientated form factors.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Most IT departments currently face the challenge of enabling worker productivity on a growing number of mobile devices in the workplace. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) helps you accommodate these new devices by enabling them to access a centralized instance of the Windows desktop in the datacenter. By virtualizing these desktop resources, you can alleviate device compatibility and security issues while still delivering a consistent, familiar experience that enhances end-user productivity. With Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft makes it easier and more cost-effective to deploy and deliver virtual desktop resources across workers’ devices.

VDI technologies in Windows Server 2012 R2 offer easy access to a rich, full-fidelity Windows environment running in the datacenter, from virtually any device. Through Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Microsoft offers three flexible VDI deployment options in a single solution: Pooled Desktops, Personal Desktops, and Remote Desktop Sessions (formerly Terminal Services). With Windows Server 2012 R2, you get a complete VDI toolset for delivering flexible access to data and applications from virtually anywhere on popular devices, while also helping to maintain security and compliance.

To compete in the global economy and keep up with the pace of innovation, IT organizations must improve their agility, their efficiency, and their ability to better manage costs while enabling their business and end users to stay continuously productive.

Microsoft has gained expertise from years of building and operating some of the largest cloud applications in the world. We’ve combined this expertise with our experiences in delivering market-leading enterprise operating systems, platforms, and applications to develop a platform for infrastructure, applications, and data: the Cloud OS.

The Microsoft Cloud OS delivers a modern platform of products and services that helps enterprise IT teams transform their current environment to a highly elastic, scalable, and reliable infrastructure. With Cloud OS, organizations can quickly and flexibly build and manage modern applications across platforms, locations, and devices, unlock insights from volumes of existing and new data, and support user productivity wherever and on whatever device they choose. Microsoft uniquely delivers the Cloud OS as a consistent and comprehensive set of capabilities that span on-premises, service provider, and Windows Azure datacenters, enabling enterprises to improve scale, elasticity, and availability of IT services.

At the heart of Cloud OS is Windows Server 2012 R2, which delivers upon the promises of a modern datacenter, modern applications, and people-centric IT. Whether you are an enterprise building out your own private cloud environment or a service provider offering large-scale cloud services, Windows Server 2012 R2 offers an enterprise-class, simple and cost-effective solution that’s application-focused and user centric. With Windows Server 2012 R2, you can utilize the capacity of your datacenter, deliver best-in-class performance for your Microsoft workloads, and receive affordable, multi-node business continuity scenarios with high service uptime and at-scale disaster recovery.

Monday, October 28, 2013

New Features In Windows 8.1

Microsoft has finally released Windows 8.1 to the public and it’s available as a free update to all existing Windows 8 users. If you have upgraded to Windows 8.1 or planning to upgrade to Windows 8.1 in near feature, check out the 50 best features introduced with Windows 8.1.

The Start button: Microsoft has restored the Start button in Windows 8 to help users quickly switch to the Start screen. Right-click on the Start button to see Power User Menu (Windows + X menu) containing shut down, restart and a couple of other options.
Set desktop background as Start screen background: 8.1 comes with an option that lets you automatically set desktop background picture as Start screen background. When you change the desktop background, Windows automatically applies the new picture to the Start screen background.
Use lock screen as picture frame: The lock screen can now be used as a picture frame to showcase your pictures from local drives as well as your SkyDrive.
Small tiles on Start screen: Start screen now lets you have tiny app tiles.
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Extra large tiles on Start screen: Some tiles on the Start screen such as Desktop and Weather tiles support extra large size.
Option to disable Charms: An option is present under Taskbar and navigation settings to disable the Charms that appear when you move the mouse cursor to the upper or lower right-corner of the screen.
Shutdown and restart options in Win + X menu: In Windows 8.1, you don’t need to open the Settings charm to access shut down and restart options. Simply press Windows + X keys or right-click on the Start button to to see shutdown and restart options.
New PC Settings: The PC Settings or the modern Control Panel has been updated with plenty of new settings. Most of the settings that are present under the old Control Panel are now available in PC Settings as well.
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Internet Explorer 11: This update ships with the newest version of Internet Explorer.
Motion picture as Start screen background: The Start screen now supports and comes with a motion picture as background by default.
Uninstall apps from multiple PCs: If you’re using the same Microsoft account on all of your PCs, you can now uninstall apps from all of your PC from at once.
New SkyDrive app: The updated SkyDrive app lets you easily browse and manage files in your SkyDrive account.
Slide to shut down: Slide to shut down is one of the hidden features present in Windows 8.1. As the name suggests, you can use this feature to shut down your PC with a touch gesture or a simple drag. Follow our how to use slide to shut down feature for detailed instructions on using the feature.



Resize apps: You can now resize apps to nearly infinite sizes, just like desktop programs.
All apps on Start: Simply click the Down arrow button or swipe up from the bottom of the screen to see all installed apps.
Highlights newly installed apps: The Start screen now highlights newly installed apps to help you easily access them.
Boot to desktop: When this option is enabled, Windows 8.1 boots directly to the desktop, skipping the Start screen.
Start screen sync: This feature lets you sync Start screen layout and settings with other Windows 8 PCs signed-in using the same Microsoft account.
Download Manager in IE11 Metro: The modern version of Internet Explorer 11 includes a download manager which can be accessed using Control + J hotkey.
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New Start screen patterns: Windows 8.1 includes new Start screen patters and backgrounds, including animated ones.
Native support for touchpad gestures: Unlike Windows 8, Windows 8.1 doesn’t require you install drivers to enable supported touchpad gestures. All touchpad gestures are supported out of the box.
Assigned access: Available in Windows 8.1 RT, Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 8.1 Enterprise, it lets you enable a single Windows Store app experience on your PC or tablet.
Sync tabs in IE11: Internet Explorer 11 supports syncing tabs across multiple Windows 8.1 PCs. You need to sign-in with your Microsoft account to use this feature.
Updated Windows Store: The updated Windows Store is now has close to 1,00,000 apps.
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Network behavior monitoring: Windows Defender now comes with network behavior monitoring feature to provide better protection to your PC.
Internet sharing options: You can easily share your mobile broadband Internet connection with other people. They will need the password and network name to connect.
Reading list feature: Snap view now supports up to three apps: You can now place up to three modern apps side-by-side on each screen.
Multi-monitor support for apps: Modern apps now fully support multi-monitor setup.
Automatic updates of Modern apps: Windows 8.1 automatically checks and updates all modern apps installed from the Store and requires no manual intervention.
Outlook app for Windows RT: This update brings Outlook 2013 RT app to Windows RT.
Multi-instance support: You can now have multiple instances of a Modern app.
Powerful search: In addition to local files, the Search in Windows 8 brings results from your SkyDrive as well as Bing.
Alarms app: Windows 8.1 ships with a beautiful Alarm app.
50 New features in Windows 8.1
Uninstall multiple apps at once: You can now select multiple apps at once on the Start screen and uninstall all of them at once.
Calculator app: In addition to the Calculator program, Windows 8.1 includes a Modern version of Calculator app as well.
Scan app: A free app for basic scanning of documents and pictures, requires a scanner.
Food and Drink app: A free app to search for food and drink. It also lets you manage your recipe, plan your meals, and shopping list.
Help & Tips app: This app provides help and tips to use Windows 8.1 and its features.
Reading List: Available only for the Modern UI version of Internet Explorer, this feature is similar to Read Later apps. Useful for tablet users who use Modern UI Internet Explorer to browse the web.
Sound Recorder: As the name suggests, a handy sound recording app for Windows 8.1
Health and Fitness: One of the most useful apps included in Windows 8.1. In addition to health and fitness tips, it also allows you health and exercise trackers.
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Use camera from lock screen: Lets you access camera right from lock screen even if your PC is locked.
Set removable device as default save location: The feature lets you configure Windows 8.1 always save files to a removable drive by default.
View SkyDrive storage space: You no longer need to open up your SkyDrive account page to view used and available space in your SkyDrive account as you can view the same right in PC Settings.
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Save files to SkyDrive account by default: When this feature is enabled, Windows 8.1 lets you save files to your SkyDrive account by default, rather than Documents folder.
Quiet hours: You can use this feature to stop app notification during certain hours of the day.