Windows Server Room for Improvement

Virimai Mare - PeerSpot reviewer
L3 Engineer at Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited
It would be nice if it was more user-friendly, especially for migrating applications. View full review »
PS
Senior Manager - SBR Technical Services at Reliance Industries Ltd

In recent times, improvements are required since everything is going to be very granular. If you give access to a particular group or particular user in a particular product line and if you want someone to be a part of that group which has different rights from another team, like an SME, who has more rights compared to an ordinary person, and if a new person or novice person comes in, he will have lesser rights.

Nowadays, everybody wants a user-friendly dashboard and interface. People don't want to know about complex commands and want everything to be available in just a few clicks on the dashboard, where they can see the top trends, what commands are being used, how many logins, and other such related information. The integration process should be smooth if I have Microsoft Active Directory deployed on an on-premises model and I want to connect it to a Microsoft Active Directory on the cloud. Even if you are involved in complex things on the back end, from the front end, the tool should be made easier for users to understand so that they can identify the credentials or keys they use.

If you want to integrate or connect with multiple integration points or ecosystems, then such a process should be something that is easily doable for users. Whether the tool is connected to an API, on-premises model, or cloud, it should be made a process that is easy for users.

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DN
Manager, Strategic Alliances at Softcell Technologies Limited

The UI of the product is an area of concern where improvements are needed to make it more user-friendly. Vulnerabilities are an area for Microsoft to look into so that improvements can be made. From a security perspective, sometimes, malware attacks and hackers take advantage of the tool's vulnerabilities. There is a need to have updates in the product to fill in the vulnerability gaps.

View full review »
Buyer's Guide
Windows Server
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Windows Server. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Sagar SampadMall - PeerSpot reviewer
IT head operations at Granules India Ltd

More security features would be great.

View full review »
Dan Campeanu - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at ProVision

One area for improvement in Windows Server is the basic administration tools and scripts, which have become less reliable and functional over time. Restoring the simplicity and effectiveness of these tools would greatly enhance the user experience and efficiency of server management.

View full review »
Du Hoac Kim - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy Manager at sacombank

The product has certain shortcomings related to security capability in the area of incident response, making it the tool's component where improvements are required. My company uses QRadar to resolve our server-related issues quickly.

View full review »
Gungor Bingul - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT at Korozo

The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required, considering that there has been an increase in the tool's licensing costs, especially the ones required for virtualization.

The scalability of the product needs to be improved, considering that organizations may have an increase in resource requirements.

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SHUBHAM BHINGARDE - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Engineer at CDAC

Compared to Linux, the solution is a bit difficult to deploy. The solution should have a faster deployment.

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Joao Alves - PeerSpot reviewer
Risk Manager at Novo Banco

Windows Server needs to improve stability and pricing. 

View full review »
Kepa-Ayerbe - PeerSpot reviewer
Connectivity Platform Cyber Security Specialist at BASF Business Services GmbH

The user interface needs improvement. 

View full review »
NP
Sr. System and Storage Administrator at a government with 51-200 employees

The technical updates need to be improved upon. How they are delivered isn't ideal.

Technical support in and of itself needs to be better. The experience we have isn't very good. It's hard to get timely answers to our questions.

The system needs to offer better integration capabilities.

The solution's availability could be better in future releases.

View full review »
Abey Varghese - PeerSpot reviewer
Project and Service Delivery Manager Cloud at MANAPPURAM COMPTECH AND CONSULTANTS LIMITED

I believe that Windows Server can be somewhat vulnerable compared to other options, but its security can be improved. I also think that the setup process can be somewhat complex, depending on the applications involved.

Regarding the security features of Windows Server, while it offers some built-in security measures, it's not sufficient to solely rely on them. Additional external devices such as firewalls may be needed for comprehensive protection. Deploying antivirus and firewall software on the server is advisable, but having an external firewall adds an extra layer of security.

When migrating to Windows Server from previous versions or other platforms, noticeable improvements were observed, particularly in the utilization of graphical interfaces. Windows offers robust graphical guidance, especially compared to Linux or other systems like Acronis, making it easier to navigate and manage various functionalities.

View full review »
MdZaman - PeerSpot reviewer
IT manager at a agriculture with 10,001+ employees

The solution's licensing price is on the expensive side. This is an issue which Microsoft should address right away. 

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MY
IT at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

What could help in improving the footprint is if Microsoft could come up with several flavors or start providing containerized solutions for server systems. 

Say, for example, that I wish to host a web server online. I would pose the question whether I would really need to have a Windows Server OS for me to be able to do that on IIS. At the moment, the use of Kubernetes or Docker present the only solution. As there is a steep learning curve for one's team to acquire the skill-set and obtain the capabilities associated with these solutions, a relevant Microsoft version would make life much easier. 

As I have already paid for a license, I should have the option of requesting the containerized functionality from the OS to reduce the Windows Server OS footprint. This will save me from having to make constant installations as a condition of running my servers on it. 

View full review »
Juan Jose Anaya - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at SAPEC

The platform's user interface needs improvement. Additionally, its price could be better.

View full review »
BU
Account Manager Individual Contributor at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

I would like to see better integration with other solutions.

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Ahmed-Ramy - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at TMentors

While I would say scripting needs improvement, I've noticed that they started to do this couple of years ago. They do have their own WSL and PowerShell Scripts.

Generally, there is always room for improvement. However, nothing comes on top of my head right now. 

For countries in the Middle East and Africa, their pricing is a little bit high. Microsoft is having unified pricing across the globe. That's an issue. They don't negotiate on that. It's very expensive for many countries in this region.

They have something called Windows Server Core, and it doesn't have a graphical user interface, which is fine. However, there should be a management console or something that you can hook up to Windows Server Core so you can manage it much easier if you need UI or something.

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MarkNgeno - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Security Manager at Living Goods

The solution’s stability could be improved. The Windows server image was quite large and took some time to be installed.

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Phaniraj DJ - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager at TT Systems LLC

They could provide a lot of patches for the platform.

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Arpit Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise API Architect at Al-Futtaim Group

Windows Server could improve by improving technology modernization.

View full review »
CM
System Administrator at Finlays

Often, we get updates that affect productivity. It's the way they do the updates.

After an update has been done, Microsoft notifies us that there is a problem.

It is not practical to have a test environment. There should be an easier process, as currently, it's a bit tedious. They should find a way of proving or revamping this procedure. It should be very fast.

When you are running Windows and Microsoft, you will see an error message regarding ransomware and suggest the security is up-to-date, but the update always affects the operating system. Most of the issues we have are when we apply security updates or critical updates, which will affect the operating system, the production environment, and your business.

It is recommended to have a test environment, run it on the test environment to make sure that it is working well then put it in the production environment. This is a tedious process. Most of the time, people just take a risk and just apply it without doing the test.

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Eman Taky - PeerSpot reviewer
IT operation manager at Kn

In terms of improvement, performance could be enhanced.

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Muhammad_Irfan - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at ACMC

Windows Server could be improved with cheaper licensing costs. 

View full review »
ZC
Client Services Analyst at Kantar

They could make it more company-specific to some of the tools that we use.

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MB
Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Windows could add more tools to monitor the health of the server.

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SK
Founder at a non-profit with 1-10 employees

I used to like the graphical interface and graphical philosophy in previous versions of Windows Server. I am not able to be as fast and efficient as I used to be using a graphical interface. However, Windows has moved to the PowerShell, it is powerful, but is still limited compared to what we do can do in Linux. Linux was built at the beginning of the command line interfaces which is why they have a very powerful command line. 

When you work on the command line you can make scripts and then use them every time you want to complete a task. You can capitalize on past experiences by using a script to simplify them, such as when you need to install something or do configurations. Making those tasks faster and simplified. You end up saving a lot of time by using the command line which is best for administrators and the graphical interface is best for the end-user.

You can not do most of the automation on Windows that you can on Linux, it is not the same thing. Windows is improving but it is not at the same level as Linux.

When using a graphical interface it tends to have more bugs, vulnerabilities and weakens the server. Normally we install Linux on big servers that do not have any graphical interfaces inside. The fewer services you run the better it with be for security. We prefer most of the time installing Windows without the graphical interface. 

Overall Windows for us is more difficult and less efficient than Linux.

View full review »
SM
Global Head ICT (CITP & MIE) at The Aga Khan Academies

When it comes to virtualization, VMware is a bit more advanced in terms of security. Hyper-V does provide facilities, but it probably has to do a bit more work in terms of encryption. People will normally go for VMware because of the features that it has as a server, particularly the virtualization feature.

View full review »
WilyonTjahyadi - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Major Account Sales Operation 1 at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Windows Server could improve its integration with cloud and hybrid environments to better adapt to modern computing needs.

View full review »
Aqib Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
ITSM Administrator & Analyst at Ministry of Interior

The stability could be improved.

View full review »
JC
IT head at Ficobank

The solution's licensing cost is expensive and could be improved.

View full review »
Youssef_Hmani - PeerSpot reviewer
IT INFRASTRUTURE CONSULTANT at Hyfi Cloud Computing

Windows Server should lower pricing. 

View full review »
AB
Cybersecurity & IT Operations Professional (VirtualCxO) at BrainWave Consulting Company, LLC

Some of the elements of the Windows Server UI from 2012 R2 are better than what is found in 2016, especially the patch management. While it is nice to have the configuration options more centralized than in earlier versions of Windows, the patch/update options in Windows Server 2016 are less flexible than those of earlier versions Windows, and downloads (from Microsoft Update or WSUS) can be more finicky.

View full review »
Daniel Hermink - PeerSpot reviewer
Oracle business analyst at Sensience

Windows Server needs to improve its speed and stability. 

View full review »
MP
IT Cybersecurity and Compliance Coordinator at Plaenge

There is room for improvement in terms of pricing.

View full review »
SK
Group DWH and BI Senior Manager at Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa

The security could improve. If you are comparing the Linux operating systems and Windows Server, Windows Server is still way behind in terms of security. Microsoft can enhance security instead of having customers rely on third-party security tools.

View full review »
PR
Platform Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

It requires a lot of monthly maintenance in terms of vulnerability management, which is the downside. 

I would say the biggest improvement could be improvement in the vulnerability space. Every month we get critical vulnerabilities across the Windows Server fleet. If I could see the volumes come down there, that would be the biggest step forward.

View full review »
OK
Solution Architect at KIAN company

I think integration with Linux operating systems would be a great idea, as well as focusing on the simplicity of running containers in the Linux environments. I think this would be a requirement for the next generation of applications running in .NET and Microsoft programming languages.

Microsoft should expand to integrate the Windows Server with Azure and Linux distribution to provide a simple container environment for running dockerized applications.

View full review »
HT
System Administrator and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

When it comes to the performance of this solution others are slightly better such as Linux. This solution promotes its services only, in some of the integrations, it does not support external ones. 

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Karen Yerznkanyan - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Information Technology Officer at AMX

The product's pricing needs improvement. 

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AhmedElbadry - PeerSpot reviewer
NMS Service Automation & RPA Technical Lead at Vodafone

We encounter issues related to the product's UI when multiple users access the same machine. Additionally, sometimes it doesn't work while upgrading patches from Microsoft. This particular area needs improvement.

View full review »
Sven Missorten - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees

The solution should improve its stability. After some updates, one of the KBs faced issues while booting. On boot, it started boot looping randomly.

The solution is very rigid. Whenever we want to make changes that are slightly out of the ordinary, we have to do them manually.

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Kevin Honde - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Solution Architect at Econet Wireless Zimbabwe

Better integration with more platforms would be useful.

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Narender Reddy - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at iLenSys Technologies Pvt Ltd

The main features that should be improved are the security and it should have better performance.

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MK
Cyber security manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

I would like to see better updates and for it to support other applications

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Ryan Dave Brigino - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Es'hailSat

There are some limitations around scalability.

The solution should be less expensive. Linux options are far less costly.

View full review »
AM
VP Global Information Technology at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

We've had a few minor compatibility issues.

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KC
CEO South East Asia at a engineering company with 10,001+ employees

The stability needs to be improved. I don't find it to be very stable. It's something they need to work on.

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Mohamed Heikal - PeerSpot reviewer
Responsable TUIC at MISSION LAIQUE FRANCAISE

The solution is not easy to use.

The solution could be more stable. It's an aspect they could improve on in future versions.

The solution could be more scalable and flexible.

The solution needs to offer better documentation and more training to its users. This would help customers better understand how to use the product effectively.

View full review »
MS
SA at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

The only thing that could be improved is the price.

I just installed the evaluation because I got the license product key, so I need to activate it. But to my surprise, I cannot activate the evaluation version so I need to recreate the VMs using the ISO that Microsoft gives to me.

View full review »
MA
Lead DevOps Engineer at Etisalat

As for additional features, we are very interested in the new feature released by Windows: Azure Virtual Desktop. We are currently exploring it so that instead of people depending on their own desktop, we could work on Azure Virtual Desktop. Integration with Azure Virtual Desktop would be cool. 

View full review »
LC
Programma / Project Manager at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The cost to use the solution is quite high.

Our main problem is the Citrix environment we're still in. However, we're migrating from that to the Windows 10 environment, so Citrix will be out within two or three years. Therefore,  performance is not really an issue - on the operating system at least. 

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RU
Senior Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

They should release a command-line version of the solution.

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JO
Principle consultant at Active Data Consulting Services Pty Ltd

Intrusive 'You have updates' notification can be annoying -- as it blocks the middle of the screen, but this can be turned off.

When setting a new machine up, users should be given a bit more of information in regards to creating a Microsoft account vs a local account, as being unaware of this can cause a user some confusion down the track if they install an application that needs 'local' user credentials to function.

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WaleedKhan - PeerSpot reviewer
IT manager at ARAR Innovations

The product's user interface upgrades and firewall services need improvement.

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Rachana Upadhyay - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate Consultant at Infosys Compaz

What I'd like to see in the next release of Windows Server is for it to have faster updates.

View full review »
AK
SCADA/EMS System Programmer at GCCIA

I'd like to see more features and more functionality to the Microsoft operating system. The solution should be able to connect remotely and create a safer channel between the user and cloud assets, or through the internet. It's one of the biggest challenges we've had this past year. There are a lot of companies competing with each other to apply these features due to the pandemic. 

For additional features, I'd like to see something like third-party applications that would create a hub to receive a connection from outside. It would handle all types of servers to enable remote access for the user from home, so they can safely connect to the system and check in if there is an emergency. You know that the SCADA system is a critical system and you can be considered on-call and notified at any time. It would enable a remote connection rather than the need for long procedures to connect to my network. It could have a third-party authentication so we could connect to the server safely.

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OL
Technical and Project Manager Industrial Directorate EES CLEMESSY at a construction company with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup could be simplified.

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LS
Director of Information Technology at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees

It can have more integration with different platforms. Its installation could also be easier.

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TR
Control Systems Supervisor with 201-500 employees

I can't think of any improvements off the top of my head. 

There's always room for improvement. However, I'm not in the main IT department, and therefore, I'm not as close to the product as others on my team.

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MM
IT manager at a non-profit with 1-10 employees

While the solution is stable, it could be more so. There are times when there is a need to make corrections. 

It would also be nice to see more integration. 

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MV
Team leader technical support at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

The security suffers the same issues as our Windows 10 for endpoint deployments. It could be more secure.

The support could be more straightforward.

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Nadeem Abdulla - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Manager - IT Infrastructure at Taghleef Industries SpA

The stability could be improved.

The scalability could also be improved.

View full review »
GM
IT Infra Head at a consumer goods company with 1,001-5,000 employees

A lot of attacks are monitored however, there are a lot of things coming into it. This is why we need to provide more security with respect to the Linux platform. There's more security on Windows and not enough on Linux.

The licensing for the solution is expensive.

View full review »
NL
Executive Personal Assistant at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees

There are lots of improvements that can be brought by Microsoft, although for us Windows Server works mostly as expected. For how we're using Windows Server, security is a top priority, so when talking security, it can always be improved upon, no matter what.

Then there's the performance side, which is not bad, but we are currently looking to increase capacity and we have found that we need to enhance the hardware to get the performance we are looking for. Because of this, we are going to be refreshing the hardware and moving to new infrastructure in the next few weeks.

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ZG
Senior System Administrator at Debre Markos University

The security could be improved. 

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Md Saiful Hyder - PeerSpot reviewer
AGM, Enterprise Solutions at Omgea Exim Ltd

We've had a lot of problems from day one.

The security could be better. One of the banks suffered ransomware attacks and they were able to penetrate the servers. 

There's a short availability that could be much better.

The performance is not up to snuff. They need to work on increasing resources. 

View full review »
AO
Senior System Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is not fast and is very slow. Versions before 2002 are not stable.

It is not easy to use, and it could be cheaper as well.

Windows Server could use low resources and have automation abilities.

Automation and implementation could be changed to work better with other systems. It needs be easy to integrate with other cloud and open source systems. Generally, people want to use open source systems because Windows Servers don't integrate easily.

View full review »
KM
SAP Architecture Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

We could always use more security on the product.

If it had more integration capabilities, that would be ideal.

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BP
Disaster Recovery Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

It would help if there was a possibility to postpone some updates. If some are not required, it could speed up the process of starting up the operating system. Sometimes big workloads related to services are running directly on the system itself and not the application. This is what I have noticed.

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TM
Systems Engineer at a educational organization with 11-50 employees

The solution needs to be more stable and secure. Linux servers are much better in terms of stability and security and are better at thwarting any form of cyber attack. You stand a better chance if you're on a Linux box if you get hit. Not that they don't get attacked. However, Windows is a high-maintenance operating system. You have to keep it up to date almost all the time, and you also need to have a lab to test your updates as some of the updates could actually break the environment. There is a fine line between keeping it updated and breaking it.

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DP
IT Support Executive at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

I believe the solution needs to be more secure in the future.

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JP
Chief Technology Officer at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

I can't speak to any missing features. I don't have any opinion on how to improve the product.

The solution needs container compatibility. Windows Server is not able via Docker, for example.

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PS
Project Manager at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

I haven't had any experience with active data storage or high-level configuration. From my perspective, Windows Server can stay on this level without any development as it works for me how it is.

The price could be a little less. It's a bit expensive.

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VG
Regional Head Customer Experience at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Windows Server could improve by having a faster browser, IE is too slow. There are better alternatives, such as Chrome.

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David Berger - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator & IT Specialist at Informat Systems

It should have more stability and fewer automatic updates. A CLI approach, similar to Linux, is missing right now.

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KG
Associate Manager at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees

There should be the ability to add other databases to be installed and configured instead of going to other virtual machines. They should be better integrated so they are all in one place.

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CL
IT Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Stability-wise, there is room for improvement.

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EH
Solutions Development Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The upgrade process for this solution could be simplified and made more straightforward.

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Hemchand KG - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Project Manager at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Perhaps the scalability could be better. 

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Islam Bayraktar - PeerSpot reviewer
PPM Services Director at OPTIIM

Windows Server could always be more secure.

View full review »
AA
Senior Cloud Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

The solution could improve by being more secure.

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MZ
IT Manager at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees

It would be nice if the the Windows Defender feature would be enhanced to be similar to that of other antiviruses or endpoint features on the market that have whole and individual features and are reliable. At present, Defender cannot be relied on independently. Another endpoint must be installed. It would be better could we rely on the more compatible endpoint features that already accompany Windows.

There should be inbuilt endpoints, such as we find with Linux, Unix, Apple Macintosh and other browsers, which don't require the installation of additional endpoints. 

Patch updates should be less frequent. Instead of them being put out daily, they should be put out weekly or monthly. 

If the storage is not installed on the SSD hard disk, it affects the performance. I am not referring to the processor, RAM or GUI, just the storage. Windows 7 worked fine on the HDD. 

The security should be improved. There are many services on the Windows Server which are enabled or started by default and this is unnecessary. Xbox would be an example of this. These should be removed. Only the minimum number of services needed to get the solution up and running should be included. The existence of services means open board and this opens one up to hackers and attackers. As an IT person, it should not be my role to come up with workarounds for such occurrences. This should be in Microsoft's domain. 

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MD
Sales Manager at INFOSEC

It's incompatible sometimes and doesn't communicate with all applications. When you need to share some data, communication is difficult between the server and the app.

A typical user will find implementing it on their own difficult. 

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MS
Head of Technical Support at a real estate/law firm with 51-200 employees

The security needs to be improved. That's its weakest area. It's my understanding that they cannot do anything about it at this stage. We have to wait when they are able to, more or less, integrate with Ubuntu, or with Canonical. Then, we will have a server that is quite stable in terms of security. Maybe in five years or six years, then you could see a Window Server which is going to be very impressive.

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AhmedElbadry - PeerSpot reviewer
NMS Service Automation & RPA Technical Lead at Vodafone

Security and vulnerabilities could improve.

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SK
Senior Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

While it is easy to use, it could be easier. 

The performance is good but we have had some issues when we use virtual machines. Loading and processing a lot of data leads to memory-related issues. As such, while the performance is good, it could still be improved.

We are using version 2012 and it could be that other versions have improved this feature.

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CA
Owner and business consultant at networks srl

In regard to the next release, I would like to see a more scalable solution. I would also like to see any future developments on the market because there was a time when most companies would run away from centralized authentication systems, like Active Directory — they moved to cloud solutions. If the service could be better integrated with the Azure Cloud, I think it would be a plus for Windows.

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NK
Senior IT Manager at Excelra

The solution could have better security features.

The pricing is a bit high. Linux has better pricing. They should try to make their product more competitively priced.

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MA
Senior System Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees

It would help if Microsoft made it lighter to run on the servers and made troubleshooting much easier. I have to deal with unexpected errors and faults that happen in Windows. It also crashes. 

When it's a big environment, especially in an industrialized environment, we see unexpected errors. They create instability, or unexpected errors happen in the infrastructure. You need to restart the server or restart the services. You don't know the root cause of these errors.

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AR
Operations Director / Business Critical Solutions Architect at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I find ethernet configuration and implementation difficult. I would also like to see more reliable updates.

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AS
Deputy IT Manager at ICAPP (Americana Group)

I would like to see better integration with other operating systems. For example, when I migrate from services from Linux or Unix to Windows Server, it's hard to do. I expect it to be easier.

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PM
Senior IT Specialist at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Right now what is needed on the server-side is an easier release process. Every year or every third year they are releasing a newer version and it could go smoother.

The solution lacks a few features here and there.

Although they've done a good job updating security, there's more to be done, and they should continue improving this aspect of the product.

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NE
IT Manager at Rashideen Egypt For Trade

The security should be improved, specifically from port security & Allowed protocols,The improvement should retire all marked ports & protocols as a security breach to enhance platform risks & stability . 

Overall, from a security perspective, Microsoft needs to improve.

The Server platform GUI seems to take up a lot of resources unnecessarily.

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PA
Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The technical support needs to be improved. 

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AL
GM: Information Systems at a logistics company with 501-1,000 employees

I would definitely like to see bolting monitoring tools. To monitor the server you usually have to install third party tools. I would like to be less reliant on third-party tools. They always create some sort of security issue regarding ports that need to be opened, that type of thing. Windows Server has internally monitorable software but remote monitoring software would be a great add-on.

In the next version I would like to see monitoring tools or maybe an easier way to figure out who were the last people that were working on the server, something that gives me better insights into the actions taken by different users who need to access the server. Our server is definitely not for everybody to access, but even if it had logging installed or activated, it's quite difficult to figure out who did what.

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GD
Lead Solutions Architect - International Projects at a media company with 501-1,000 employees

I don't like it. However, I'm forced to use it, due to the applications, or the vendor supply, that need to run on it. Many of the applications only support Windows Server.

The solution is less stable than Linux.

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Girish Kumar. - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at Botmantra

The scalability could be better.

View full review »
OH
Telecommunication Department Head at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is not easy to use. It can be more user-friendly to make our routine work a bit easy.

It could also be cheaper.

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HB
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sometimes we face some overload on servers. You need to request one of the IT to assist as there is no way that you can do a remote session on it. They need to intervene directly on the server. It has to be done manually. We also can't intervene ourselves as there is no way to log in remotely to the servers. That's why IT needs to get involved. It's a pain point for us as all you can really do is wait.

In a future release, it would be helpful if there were more tools to help us do some performance testing. The last time we needed to look for tools online and choose some third-party tools to analyze how the application is performing. If they could instead provide us with pre-installed tools, that would be better. There are some but they don't really give you the information that we are looking for. 

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AA
IT Infrastructure Manager at a consumer goods company with 1,001-5,000 employees

They can simplify the utilization and control of the system when you have a lot of setups. They provided something called Windows Center or Control Center in version 2019. It's a free tool that comes with the Windows Server. You can install it on your desktop and use it. 

This tool simplifies the control and monitoring of all servers. If I have 200 servers, I don't need to log in to each one to configure it. I can manage them from this tool. However, this tool needs quite a lot of improvements. It's difficult to use, and they need to improve it. 

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Charbel Hajj - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Supervisor at MEPEQ

With Microsoft, there are always bugs, and the stability could be improved.

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VJ
System Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The reporting, event logging, and event management functionalities need to be improved.

Windows Server needs more applications from the monitoring and backup perspective. These are not incorporated yet. In previous versions, the backup software was available, but not now.

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AS
Technician at COMPUTEC

Resolving problems in the Windows environment should be improved. 

In an upcoming release, it would be beneficial to have result sharing with the Remote Desktop Service(RDS) Server from the network.

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TC
Solutions Specialist at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

I would like Windows to come up lighter because the footprint itself can consume more than 300GB. It would probably take close to 100GB of space to install a Windows operating system because it has got so many features. It should be a core minimalistic addition, and users also should be allowed to add other features when needed. It should be more modular in nature.

The software should be minimalistic. Instead of offering so many options, it should be ideally the core system. Then, if a customer wants to have Active Directory, they should be allowed to do it separately.

There are hundreds of services which are running unnecessarily and slowing the system down or affecting the performance, and that wouldn't be there, which will be an advantage. It will only be the key services that the customer wants to run.

Microsoft technical support could be improved.

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SM
Insolvency Practitioner and Director at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

I would like to see easier implementation and better customer service in the future.

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NS
IT manager at IRPC PCL

It could be more compatible with other platforms.

The compatibility and the ease of use are areas that I would like to see improved.

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WC
ICT and Cyber Security Adviser at a educational organization with 201-500 employees

We're concerned about Windows vulnerabilities and how to manage those vulnerabilities ourselves. These are the main things that are tricky in Windows, the environment. 

The performance from time to time can be a bit suspect. 

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SE
Senior Software Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

In terms of what could be improved, I would say the Active Directory synchronization on Azure. This is something which was not easy to do. Using Azure Active Directory, I was trying to sync and this was not straightforward. This process could be more simplified.

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TC
Information Systems Infrastructure Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

The security is not good. Windows Server has never been secure. You have put firewalls in place and do other things such as installing anti-virus software to secure Windows, otherwise, it won't work well.

Windows will never be secure, but it should be.

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DM
ICT Manager at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup could be easier. Right now, it's more difficult than it needs to be.

The solution is rather expensive and could be more affordable.

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HP
Computer engineering student at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees

Configuring a group policy has shown to be not very straightforward. For example, one of our assignments was to create a GPO that should block any user of opening and/or downloading an MP3/WAV file, and the same for video files. It was very confusing to find a solution that would do just that, we had to test different approches, or ven combining policies to achieve something that resambles what was asked to do. The default template in the File Server Resouce Manager isn't enough.

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it_user8214 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a energy/utilities company with 51-200 employees

Performance-related defaults should be set according to role of the server. Windows 2012 provides a thumbnail view of different roles that a server is configured for. Click on any role, check the event, services and log data for quick review and solution of any issue. These thumbnails of installed roles are pre-configured and disturbing them is not recommended. If any issue with the installed role is detected, the affected part is highlighted with a red-colored font.

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Amarjit Rathee - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.

Windows Server can improve in patch management and security.

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PM
Quadria Rouen Agency Director at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

The solution could improve by making it more secure.

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MP
ICT System Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Compared to Linux, Windows requires a lot of restarts. If you get a CU update every month, you have to restart. Linux is better in that regard. Sometimes the PowerShell has an overly complicated syntax. 

I'd like to see some more features in the Windows administration kit - the WAC. It's this new product you got on the server and if you have a website you can manage your entire machine. It's a pretty good product, but it's still lacking some features like reporting because it's always a problem to have a dashboard for all your Windows machines, because Microsoft wants you to buy SCCM and all their monitoring services. The WAC is pretty nice but it still lacks some features. It would be great if they would develop it further.

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LD
Works

It would be great to have support for direct USB recognition for the virtual machines. This will allow us to easily move files from a USB drive connected to our host to one of our VM's without having to mount and share a drive trough the network to move the files.

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HM
General Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The solution could improve by being more user-friendly.

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MK
Senior Digital Services Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The solution needs more integration capabilities. 

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SC
Sr Reporter at a media company with 201-500 employees

Windows Server needs to introduce more dashboards.

A common user is not able to implement this solution. It could be simplified.

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WT
Head of Major Account Sales Operation 1 at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The solution could be more secure.

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FB
IT manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

It could be more secure. We don't like it because if you compare it to Linux, Linux is better. 

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DG
Cloud Service Director at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

The patching could be better within the solution. There are many updates, however, if you compare it with other parts of Windows, the patching has a different management structure. 

The scalability could be improved a bit. 

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KH
Principal Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

In terms of support, it's pretty complicated when you have to study the documentation.

It would definitely be helpful if the documentation could be more straightforward.

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DS
System and DBA at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Windows Server could be more user-friendly.

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MC
Line Technical Agent at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

In the next release, I would like to see better pricing.

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AV
Information Systems Computer System Controller at a insurance company with 11-50 employees

The only problem we have faced is when we are upgrading the solution it is complex. 

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ME
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

It would be nice if the solution was a bit cheaper. The product is a little pricey.

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SH
IT strategist at Convergent Wireless Communications

It could be more stable. Windows has certain problems that Unix platforms don't have. It requires more administrative effort as compared to Unix. I don't know why Microsoft has not changed that. It generates a lot of trash data, so slowly and steadily, you find more and more space being utilized. There is some kind of administrative load, which doesn't happen with Unix.

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KS
Chief Manager at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

An improvement would be to have more dashboards.

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KS
General Manager

Rebooting is sometimes required to resolve certain issues, but we've never been able to determine the root cause. The problem gets solved but we'd like to know what causes it.

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SR
Sr. Manager - IT Systems at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees

There is a need for improved security.

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PK
Manager Operations at a non-profit with 1-10 employees

The security policies need improvement. The port mapping and the backdoor entries need to be improved.

I would like to see improvements with the security policies and there should be some other policies inbuilt with the server addition.

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Anteneh Asnake - PeerSpot reviewer
Modern Data Center and Cloud Engineer II at IE Network Solutions PLC

The solution could improve by having more integration and some of the new features that are being released in Windows 11.

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MH
Junior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

The integration and monitoring could be improved.

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GG
IT Production Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

We had some complaints about the initial setup.

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QM
Volunteer - IT Department at SARC

The command-line interface should be improved. Using the command line is less-resource intensive so we use it sometimes. The additional RAM and CPU usage needed by the GUI is something that we were not used to after using Linux. When I switched to the command line, I found it more difficult than Linux.

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AN
Project Leader at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The solution is old so it is not user friendly. I assume that he newer versions would be better than our current one.

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AS
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

There was one instance in which, during an installation, I got an error I could not easily resolve.

The performance could be a bit better.

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RM
DevOps Strategist at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees

Windows should add some more compatibility tools to Windows Server.

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MF
Manager

The graphical user interface could be better. It's a little dated. 

I do not like Microsoft's intrusive policies. 

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AG
Systems and networks engineer at a government with self employed

It would be better if they improved the user interface.

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RP
IT Specialist at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

The solution is not easy to use and could be simplified. Additionally, the solution could have better integration.

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GC
Science Technician at a government with 201-500 employees

In the future, there should be better protection for this solution.

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reviewer1099098 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works with 1,001-5,000 employees

One area that needs improvement is the management console. It seems very easy to use but it is not as powerful as those of other vendors, such as VMware. Their solution allows for operation in a more granular and simpler way. For example, there is a wizard to migrate a VM from one node to another, or from one datastore to another.

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CM
Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The solution could be more reasonably priced.

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RK
Software Test Engineer at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees

The solution would be better by implementing more security and integration. 

Among some of the additional features, I would like to see in the next release are more integration and security.

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Data Analytics and Business Intelligence Manager at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

The solution is easy to use mostly but some features can be hard to understand for customers.

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DO
Network System Administrator - Team Leader at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees

I'd like an improvement in being able to separate all the services offered. 

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JA
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The solution could improve by increasing security.

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SL
System Administrator at a insurance company with 201-500 employees

It would be better if they had more security features and fewer bugs. They can also improve their technical support.

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AA
ASM at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

It could be more secure. We can't compare it to other products because they have their own security and all those things. When it comes to email security, there are issues. Microsoft products used to get hacked all the time, but we're still comfortable with that.

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CB
organizator informatike at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Windows Platforms become rather complicated. We started with the Windows Platform because they simplified it, but now, it has become quite complicated.

The administration has become quite heavy and also the specialization. 

We are a rather small factory, not a big system. We are small with a thousand employees, and we need a simplified environment.

In the next release, I would like to see the administration simplified.

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YL
Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The stability is okay, however, it could be better. It's an area that they could improve on if they wanted to.

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JH
IT Engineer at a printing company with 201-500 employees

The user interface could be simplified. Sometimes I feel like there are too many things going on at once. It should be easier to navigate and find the functions that I am trying to implement. 

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WK
IT Infrastructure Engineer at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

I would like to see the security features improved in the future.

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EM
Responcible specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

We are waiting for the solution to be more secure and more stable.

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MP
Solution Director at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

The license model needs improvement. It would be better if the license had a longer lifetime.

This may be a feature that is already in place, but I like to see a monitoring feature for the desktop.

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DS
Technical Director at a security firm with 51-200 employees

Windows Server could be more secure.

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LW
Technical Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The price should be reduced.

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LG
System Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The pricing aspect of the solution needs improvement. It could be lowered. Over time, the pricing itself has fluctuated, and now, especially pricing around mobile aspects of the solution really seems to be driving everything up.

They also need to work on the license model for virtualization.

The solution could offer higher availability.

Users would benefit if the solution offered better management features.

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MA
Co-Founder at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

I would like to see better performance and more integration options in the next release of Windows Server. 

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MG
Partner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The solution could improve by being more user-friendly.

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MF
Manager Tech. & Support (Information Technology) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It can have more integration, which will be useful for the data integration process. More integration with different applications and different OS would be quite good.

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SB
Senior Practice Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

The on premises to cloud migration should be easier. 

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ST
Vice President at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The solution could be cheaper.

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Buyer's Guide
Windows Server
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Windows Server. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.