Windows Server 2012 R2 Products & Editions Comparison

When you started your business you may not have given much thought to your IT Servers, if and when your business expanded, by adding more users and application servers.

When choosing your server operating systems for your office network, it’s important to determine the best foundation for your company’s needs. I hope this blog gives you some tips on how to choose the appropriate edition of the Microsoft Windows server operating system!  

Having the correct version of Windows server edition could reduce licensing costs as your company grows and keep your company compliant with regards to Microsoft licensing.

Attached is a comparison document for the different editions of Microsoft Server.

First some differences between the editions:

• With Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter the base server is licensed for unlimited Virtual Machines.

• With Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard the base server is licensed for unlimited Virtual Machines.

• With Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials the Hyper-V role is not included but recently Microsoft has extended their licensing model to include Hyper-V and allow one licensed Virtual machine.

Here is a link which explains the extension:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2013/09/03/understanding-licensing-for-windows-server-2012-r2-essentials-and-the-windows-server-essentials-experience-role.aspx

Benefits to implementing the right edition of Windows server:

1. Reduce licensing operation system costs as your company grows in size and applications.

2. Keep your company compliant with regards to Microsoft licensing.

This approach makes managing your IT more efficient allowing you to get back to your core strengths.  Need help setting this up?  Call Mantralogix at 1-866-320-8922 and we’d be pleased to assist you!