Introducing Windows Server 2025
With enhanced security, enhanced performance, and cloud agility, Windows Server 2025 is now widely available.
With its current general availability, Windows Server 2025 expands on its goal of providing a high-performance, secure Windows Server platform that can be customized to satisfy the various demands of its clients. Deploying apps in any environment on-premises, hybrid, or cloud will be possible with this release.
Windows Server 2025 features
Advanced multi-layered security
In a time when cybersecurity is critical, Windows Server 2025 stands out with some security capabilities that are intended to protect your infrastructure and data. The following are some essential skills:
- The industry standard for identification and authentication, Active Directory (AD), continues to advance with new security features that help strengthen your environment against changing threats. These features include increased scalability, enhanced protocols, encryption, hardening, and additional cryptographic support.
- Server message block (SMB) hardening: Windows Server 2025 has SMB over QUIC built in to allow safe online access to file sharing. Additionally, SMB security includes defenses against man-in-the-middle, relay, and spoofing attacks, as well as strengthened firewall defaults and the prevention of brute force assaults.
- Unlike standard service accounts, Delegate Managed Service Accounts (dMSA) do not require manual password management because AD handles it automatically. Specific rights can be granted to access domain resources through dMSAs, which lowers security risks and improves service account activity visibility and logging.
Because of these cutting-edge security capabilities, Windows Server 2025 is a reliable and safe platform for your IT infrastructure that you should start assessing right away.
Windows Server 2025 new features
Cloud agility everywhere
A number of cutting-edge hybrid cloud features are introduced in Windows Server 2025 with the goal of improving operational flexibility and connectivity in a variety of settings. The following are important features:
Windows Server 2025 Hotpatching
Hotpatching made possible by Azure Arc: Users who run their entire business in the cloud benefit from built-in contemporary security features like backup and recovery and automatic software updates. It is now implementing some of those features for on-premises users of Windows Server 2025 through a new hotpatching subscription service that is made possible by Azure Arc. Customers will have fewer reboots and less operational disturbance with hotpatching. Hotpatching provides security updates for Azure Arc-enabled Windows Server 2025 Standard or Datacenter that are installed on on-premises, multicloud, virtual, or physical servers. Hotpatching, which is in preview right now, will cost a monthly fee. For Windows Server Datacenter Azure Edition virtual machines, the hotpatching capability is still free.
Easy onboarding for Azure Arc: Windows Server 2025 uses Azure Arc to deliver Azure’s potent capabilities straight to your datacenter. This integration improves operational flexibility and streamlines the onboarding process to Azure’s hybrid features, enabling you to better manage and secure your multicloud and hybrid environments.
Multisite aspects of software-defined networks (SDN): The software-defined network (SDN) multisite features provide unified network policy administration together with native L2 and L3 connection for smooth workload movement across many locations.
Unified network policy administration: This feature makes it simpler to maintain uniform security and performance requirements throughout your hybrid cloud system by enabling centralized management of network policies.
Because of these hybrid cloud features, Windows Server 2025 is a great option for businesses trying to maximize their IT infrastructure and take use of both on-premises and cloud settings.
AI, scale, and performance
The most demanding tasks, such as AI and machine learning, are intended to be handled by Windows Server 2025. These are a few essential skills:
- AI, machine learning, and hyper-V: Windows Server 2025 provides a high-performance platform for both conventional applications and sophisticated AI workloads with live migration and high availability. It also has built-in support for GPU partitioning and can process massive data sets across distributed environments.
- Performance of NVMe storage: On the same systems, Windows Server 2025 offers up to 60% higher storage IOPs than Windows Server 2022. (Based on Kioxia CM7 SSd and 4K randread with Diskpsd 2.2.)
- Areas for Storage Direct and storage flexibility: For decades and even now, Windows Server has supported a variety of storage options, including local, NAS, and SAN. More storage innovation is provided by Windows Server 2025, which now comes with Storage Replica Compression, thinly provisioned Storage Spaces, and Native ReFS deduplication and compression in all editions.
- Hyper-V performance and scalability: Azure’s performance and scalability enhancements are introduced in Windows Server 2025. Server 2025 for Windows Virtual machine maximums for Hyper-V:
- Each virtual machine can have up to 240 Terabytes of RAM.
- Maximum number of virtual processors per virtual machine: 2048 VPs* — (~8.5x before)
*Needs Generation 2 virtual machines
Hyper-V, GPU integration, Storage Spaces Direct (software defined storage), software-defined networking, and clustering all get significant improvements with Windows Server 2025. With these enhancements, Windows Server 2025 is a great choice for businesses seeking a virtualization solution and for businesses wishing to use AI and machine learning while still achieving high performance and scalability.
Access to System Center 2025 is now possible
System Center 2025 is delivered alongside Windows Server 2025, allowing you instant access to scalable Windows Server management. As a result, businesses can take full use of the latest capabilities in Windows Server. This version is expected to improve how businesses optimize their infrastructure and virtualized software-defined data centers, intending to improve agility, performance, and security. You may find out more by visiting the System Center 2025 site.
Windows Server 2025 price
Depending on your organization’s size, virtualization needs, and datacenter specifications, you can select between two main editions of Windows Server.
Standard edition
Suggested MSRP: $1,176
- Ideal for physical or minimally virtualized environments
- Core-based licensing model
- Requires Windows Server CAL
Datacenter edition
Suggested MSRP: $6,771
- Ideal for highly virtualized datacenters and cloud environments
- Core-based licensing model
- Requires Windows Server CAL
Windows Server 2025 Pay as you go
In order to accommodate capacity spikes or short-term seasonal demands, Windows Server Standard users who do not have unlimited virtualization can scale up with more virtual machines (VMs).
- To transact, connect to Azure Arc.
- Increase your agility
- Only pay for what you require.
Microsoft Ignite 2024
Microsoft Ignite in Chicago on November 19–21. Many sessions will be accessible for online streaming for those of you who are unable to attend, including its Windows Server breakout titled Windows Server 2025: New Ways to Acquire Cloud Agility and security.
Microsoft offers its clients additional features on current versions of Windows Server, including 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2025. Customers with a valid subscription or Windows Server Software Assurance can utilize Azure administration tools such as Azure Update Manager, Azure Policy Guest Configuration, Disaster Recovery, Change Tracking and Inventory, and more. Many of these services are available at no additional cost. Stay tuned for additional demonstrations and details on how to utilize these new products at Microsoft Ignite.
