Last year I wrote about how we had uplifted our core infrastructure to Windows Server 2016, System Center 2016, and Exchange 2016.  We are writing now to update you on the evolution of that project and new initiatives for 2018.

Windows Server

Since adopting Windows Server 2016 we have encountered a relatively small number of issues with this new operating system compared to previous operating system releases. 

One of the changes has been the cumulative updates that Microsoft rolls out each month and the fact that they put out a preview of that release for testing in advance.  This is nice because it basically establishes a new baseline each month for the global Windows server ecosystem.  The only downside so far has been the absolutely atrocious patching window needed to apply these massive cumulative updates.  Long gone are days of the 5 minute patch and quick reboot.  These new patches are monsters that take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  Consequently we have had to increase our Saturday maintenance window times in order to keep the environment patched and safe.

Due to the remarkable stability we have had with Windows Server 2016 we are using it as the preferred platform for all workloads that will support it.

We have obsoleted Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, and Windows Server 2008 in our data centers and have painted a big target on Windows Server 2008 R2 as the next OS to be obsoleted.  That mean if you are a customer that is currently hosting application with us on that platform we are going to be reaching out to you shortly to help you plan a migration to a newer operating system version if possible. 

We are also working with existing customers looking to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 but have found that a migration tends to work better (and is safer) than a direct upgrade and that in many cases existing application software still may not be certified for Windows Server 2016 and may require application upgrades as well.

Why do we do this?  Simple: security.  As Microsoft phases out support for these legacy operating systems and stops patching them they become susceptible to new security vulnerabilities and we aggresively work with customers to prevent that.

Our guidance is basically this:  for new customers we recommend that you deploy to the latest know stable Windows operating system (now Windows Server 2016 in our estimation) and for existing customers to consider upgrading the operating system in conjunction with application upgrades.

If you are interested in hosting your workload on one of our Windows Server 2016 virtual machines or are interested in upgrading an existing workload please contact us for more information.

System Center

We use the System Center components Operation Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Configuration Manager, and Data Protection Manager to monitor, manage, and protect our core infrastructure and these products have kept pace with the rapid change we have seen in the last year.  Our antivirus protection is still fantastic: low impact on resources and user experience and highly effective at stopping viruses and malware. 

Office

For those customers currently hosting Microsoft Office 2013 or earlier with us the option to upgrade to Office 2016 is here.  What's new here?  Not much.  This is a product line that does not seem to be innovating much anymore.  Each release sees a change in icons and not much else that actually impacts user experience.  The only real differences we have observed between 2016 and it's predecessors seems to be memory consumption.  It uses more.  For those trying to pinch pennies you may just want to stay on your old version for now.  For those that like the shiny new experience we will upgrade you for free but you may find that you need to add a couple GBs of RAM to your Remote Desktop servers if you want to go this route.

SQL Server

SQL Server 2017 has been out for about a year now and we have found it to be extremely stable.  Our entire pasPortal and pasUnity application infrastructure now runs solely on this platform in our Data Center.

We have obsoleted SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 and removed the last instances from our production cluster environments.  We are now painting a target on SQL Server 2008 R2 the same as we are for Windows Server 2008 R2 and will be working to assist our customers in getting off this legacy database platform for the exact same reasons as Windows.

Hardware

Every few years we refresh our baseline hardware for servers and storage. 

This year we will be phasing out our current traditional SAN hardware with new all-flash arrays.  This should translate into a massive increase in capability along the lines of 20x more IOPS capacity than we have now which should be immediately impactful to all Hyper-V and SQL Server workloads in the environment. 

We are also replacing our entire line of 12th generation Dell servers with 14th generation Dell servers.  This is all going to happen fairly transparently to our customers except for the fact that once your workloads move over to the new hardware you are going to see a (hopefully) very noticeable increase in performance.  Stay tuned for more on this in the coming weeks!

Firewall

We have best-in-class firewall appliances protecting our data center infrastructure and customer workloads.  This year we have already implemented some changes to our web filtering system that limit what end-users can do via the browser in Remote Desktop sessions and there will be more changes to come.