- [Instructor] One of the defining characteristics
of Windows Server 2016 was the alignment
between an on-prem installation
and an Azure cloud development.
This step forward laid the groundwork
for even more improvements in networks
that want to use a mix of on-prem servers
and cloud environments like Azure.
The Windows Admin Center
that was shown previously in this course
is another step forward.
Now that the deployments of Windows Server match,
it makes sense to have a unified management tool
that can take care of both types of servers,
on-prem and Azure.
But getting a better management tool
isn't the most important part.
You'll hear a lot about it
as people review Windows Server 2019,
but the most important thing is why this unified tool works
and what that link means for other interactions
between the office and the cloud.
One challenge that we've fought for a while
is the ability to create a link
between on-prem and cloud services
that was both reliable and secure.
Most companies wanted the performance of local servers
and the scalability of cloud servers.
This is easiest to see in one of the oldest
and most common functions of a server, sharing files.
Having an on-prem file server
means that users can easily and quickly
access the data they need as long as they're in the office
and these on-premise file servers
usually have some type of off-site backup,
data that gets located somewhere else
for disaster recovery plans.
But if an employee is on the road
and needs access to company data,
cloud servers begin to feel like a better solution,
but only if the data in the cloud is exactly the same
as the data in the office
with no real risk of version conflicts.
Also, as you start to consider this disaster recovery plan
and the need for an offsite backup,
cloud solutions become pretty reliable.
They're offsite by definition
and the redundancy that's built in
to those types of solutions can provide quite a service.
The improvements placed in Windows Server 2019
that make these features more reliable solutions
are better connections between the two.
The fact that Azure can more easily
and more completely communicate with your on-site server
allows you to not only sync files,
but also take advantage of the artificial intelligence
and machine learning functions of the cloud.
These tools that have helped determine
how to use the cloud more effectively
can now help you use our local servers better as well.
I guess bottom line is this.
The features that have been developed in Azure
from Advanced Threat Protection
to intelligent machine learning
to manage performance and use
are now being baked into Windows Server 2019.
This means that Windows Server 2019 is better
than previous versions in many areas,
but it also means that it's part
of the same development plans as cloud options.
The same management tools will administer both.
The same services can exist in either place.
The same protections are made available
for both environments.