I use the solution in my company for hosting websites. For the many roles my colleagues and I played in the organization, Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 were useful.
CIS Hardened Image Level 1 on Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Center for Internet Security | 4.0.0.1Windows, Windows Server 2019 Base 10.0.17763 - 64-bit Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
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Every Microsoft product is scalable, flexible, secure, and available on a certain budget
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that every Microsoft product is scalable, flexible, secure, and available on a certain budget.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have ten to eleven years of experience with Windows Server. I have been using Windows Server since 2013.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Users can increase the hardware or virtual environment and memory, and it is scalable enough to meet the company's requirements.
Everybody in the organization uses the product. The HR department uses the solution for storage purposes and the website hosting from where the internal applications are made available for use within the company. The developers in our company also developed certain applications that can be hosted on Windows Server. In general, the solution has around 500 users in my company.
My company can increase the number of users of the product in the future, especially if we achieve the capability that can allow us to scale up.
How are customer service and support?
My company did not use the support offered by the product since we have a technical expert who handles the server in our company.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase is simple.
For the product's installation phase, you just download the server on Hyper-V or any bare metal hypervisor and install the solution by clicking the next options provided.
The solution was deployed on an on-premises model. The solution can also be used on the cloud services offered by GCP or AWS. In short, the product is deployed on a hybrid cloud model.
If everything is ready and in place, meaning if the prerequisites for the deployment are met within a particular environment, then the installation process takes around an hour to be completed.
What about the implementation team?
The product can be deployed with the help of our company's in-house team.
What was our ROI?
Only if I consider the fact that my company's technical team is capable enough to handle the vulnerabilities can I say that the ROI is good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a need to make payments towards the licensing charges of the product since we used to purchase licenses for consumption in our company. Microsoft used to provide my company with the keys that can be directly put in to activate the server. If I look into the tasks my company does with the product, I would say that the tool is not that expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There are only two or three options, like Linux or Unix, that can be considered against Windows Server.
What other advice do I have?
My company did not use the support offered by the product since we have a technical expert who handles the server in our company. Every organization uses Windows Server. Most people opt for Windows when it comes to servers since no one can do any work without servers.
The tool is scalable, flexible, easy to use, user-friendly, handy, and easy to maintain, and authentication is good. The product can be integrated with any solution.
I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
The product is secure, and it performs well, but the stability could be improved
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for all the applications and Active Directory. We use it for enterprise management. We have different departments.
How has it helped my organization?
The product is secure.
What is most valuable?
The product’s performance is good. We have a good infrastructure.
What needs improvement?
The stability could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for eight to ten years. I am using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is stable. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have more than 5000 users. The usage keeps increasing in our organization.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever we face any issue, we contact our Windows team, and they improve it. The technical support is fine.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was done in-house. We have a big team to deploy and maintain the product, including project and system managers.
What other advice do I have?
I will recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Easy to setup, stable and caters to my wide range of use cases but lacks user-friendly interface
What is our primary use case?
It's used for a variety of things, like Active Directory, DNS, cloud shares, and application hosting. We also have some third-party applications running on it and web services.
What needs improvement?
It would be nice if it was more user-friendly, especially for migrating applications.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Microsoft for about 12 years now, since December 2004.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's quite stable, probably an eight out of ten. It really depends on the specific business needs and applications running on it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It can be scalable to a certain extent, but it depends on the resources you have available and the applications you're running. We have around a thousand end users using this solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've worked with Unix and Linux before, but it was a long time ago.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite easy for me, especially since I've been using it for so long. It usually takes just a few steps, depending on whether it's deployed in the cloud or on-premises.
What about the implementation team?
We handle it in-house, no need for external help.
What was our ROI?
We've seen value in Windows Server because the systems work smoothly without any problems. And the additional benefit is the support we receive.
What other advice do I have?
My main advice is to understand the business first. Then, see if the solution will work on that platform. Also, check which applications it supports. If they're using data and Microsoft, in some cases, we use applications verified by Microsoft. You can be sure they're compatible with Windows and find support from both ends. So, understand the business in terms of its goals, turnaround time, risk factors, and skill requirements. Consider if they have enough skilled people to support it, both for daily use and when issues arise. You need to know these things before making a decision.
Not every time is Microsoft the right choice. Some systems or platforms they want to run may not be supported by Microsoft. So, it's crucial to understand the business requirements first; then you know which platform or solution works best for you.
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
User-friendly, resources available online to troubleshoot any issue
What is our primary use case?
It's very user-friendly, not like technical stuff like Linux or Unix. It is very easy to go and use. That's one reason we like it.
What is most valuable?
It's easy to manage core applications and deploy engineers.
Windows engineers are more affordable than Linux or Unix engineers, so that's another advantage. So, the management costs are much lower for the Windows Server.
Plus, troubleshooting is straightforward with readily available online resources, so we don't need to raise tickets or wait for help. We can easily search on Google and find the solution on the search engine.
Windows Server is pretty mature already. They're doing a good job with it.
What needs improvement?
More security features would be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been working with Microsoft Server for about 15 years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's definitely scalable. We have over 9,000 users accessing it regularly.
We use it extensively in my company.
How are customer service and support?
We raise a ticket to Microsoft. We have an enterprise agreement, and our in-house team can also solve most issues.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. It really doesn't take much time. It took around one to two hours to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the deployment in-house.
We use both cloud and on-premises deployment models. We start with a server administrator background check, then deploy OS, and finally deliver it to the application servers.
Our technical team has 10 to 12 people, including admins, managers, and engineers.
What was our ROI?
All my business applications run on it. We're very competitive commercially and technically because of it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is not expensive. We have yearly basis licensing.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I'd recommend to make sure you have security checkups before deploying Windows Server. That's the first thing. And you need to consider your licensing options.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
A stable and scalable solution that can be used to run various systems
What is our primary use case?
We use Windows Server to run our banking system.
What is most valuable?
Windows Server is a stable and scalable solution.
What needs improvement?
The solution's licensing cost is expensive and could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Windows Server for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Windows Server ten out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Around 42 users in our organization use the solution on a daily basis.
I rate Windows Server ten out of ten for scalability.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is too complex.
What about the implementation team?
We deploy the solution manually because we only have five servers. Around eight technical staff are needed for the solution’s deployment and maintenance.
What was our ROI?
We have seen value from using the solution, and that's why we deploy our systems using Windows Server.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We use a perpetual license for Windows Server, which is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Windows Server to other users. Users should be trained or familiar with operating the solution before using it.
Overall, I rate Windows Server ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
An easy-to-use solution that can be used to host virtual machines
What is our primary use case?
We used Windows Server to host a couple of virtual machines.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Windows Server is that it is intuitive and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s stability could be improved. The Windows server image was quite large and took some time to be installed.
For how long have I used the solution?
We used Windows Server for a few months for demonstration purposes.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Windows Server is a stable solution, and I had no issues with its stability.
I rate Windows Server a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Around 160 users are using Windows Server in our organization.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution through an in-house team in two hours. To deploy the solution, we installed the Windows server image on the server.
What other advice do I have?
Three technical staff members are involved in the deployment and maintenance of the solution. I would recommend Windows Server to other users.
Overall, I rate Windows Server a nine out of ten.
Manages applications and helps with enterprise security
What is our primary use case?
We use Windows Server to manage applications.
What is most valuable?
The product helps with enterprise security. It becomes more stable with frequent updates.
What needs improvement?
Windows Server should lower pricing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product since 2020.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Windows Server's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. My company has around 1000 users.
How are customer service and support?
The product offers reactive support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
Windows Server's deployment is easy. It takes a few hours to complete.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the product's pricing an eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the product a nine out of ten.
Provides ease of access to databases, but its firewall services need improvement
What is our primary use case?
We use the product to manage databases for various projects.
What is most valuable?
The product offers in-house servers. It helps us update them and check any technical issues easily.
What needs improvement?
The product's user interface upgrades and firewall services need improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Windows Server for seven to eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The platform provides ease of access to databases in terms of migration.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable product. We have more than 200 Windows Server users in our organization. We might increase usage in some of our departments, like support administration, in case the business expands.
How are customer service and support?
We have an in-house technical support team.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy if you have a basic knowledge of the process. We can deploy it on-premise or on the cloud, depending on the project requirements.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There could be a one-time cost for Windows Server and not every month. It is a huge amount for the companies to pay yearly.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend Windows Server to users working on multiple projects and have an in-house team with enough resources. I rate it a seven out of ten.
Easy to install and adapt product with efficient GUI
What is our primary use case?
We use Windows Server to manage Active Directory.
What is most valuable?
The product is easy to use and adapt. It is known for GUI.
What needs improvement?
They could provide a lot of patches for the platform.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Windows Server for 10 to 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I need to ensure patches are updated on time. I rate its stability an eight out of ten. It could be improved.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 400 Windows Server users in our organization. I rate its scalability a ten out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
It is an easy-to-install product. It requires two engineers to manage the infrastructure and takes three to four hours to complete.
What about the implementation team?
We take help from third-party integrators, consultants, and resellers for implementing the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have purchased Windows Server’s yearly license. I rate its pricing a four out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I advise others to ensure updating patches regularly for Windows Server. It is a flexible product. I rate it a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Transparent and easy-to-learn, but the product is not stable
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for mass storage and application storage.
What is most valuable?
DFS is the most valuable feature of the product. The product is very transparent. Any changes to the underlying file servers are not visible to users. It is a huge benefit for us.
The GUI is familiar. Anyone who doesn't know how to use a file server can be taught to use the product in a few minutes.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four and a half years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is definitely scalable. Around 1,500 people are currently using the solution in our organization.
What about the implementation team?
It is quite easy to maintain the product. We have deployed the solution across the whole company.
What other advice do I have?
I have used all the versions from 2003 to 2022. You can change the host and IPs and switch on the whole configuration. The users do not notice anything as long as DFS is active and the file system is the same. The product is a good choice for small-scale environments. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
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