AWS Adds Support For Microsoft Windows Server 2016 On EC2 Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced its support of Microsoft’s Windows Server 2016 on its Elastic Compute 2 (EC2) cloud across all its regions.

AWS will deliver Windows Server 2016 in four forms. The first will be a mainstream version of Windows Server designed to be run securely and at scale, with support for both native cloud apps and traditional versions.

The second is a ‘cloud-native’ version of Windows Server 2016, dubbed Nano Server, where by a minimal install takes up a small amount of server disk space and boots more quickly than the former version. This frees up more system resources, like memory, storage and processing power, for running apps and services.

Third is support for Windows Server 2016 running Windows and Docker containers, and the fourth is a set up of Windows Server 2018 with Microsoft’s SQL Server 2016 pre-installed.

AWS and Microsoft

While undoubtedly Microsoft would prefer to have its latest Windows Server running on its own Azure cloud infrastructure, AWS remains the world leader in cloud infrastructure.

So with support from AWS EC2, Microsoft has the scope to see Windows Server 2016 spread to the large amounts of companies, notably Netflix and Airbnb as high profile companies, using AWS to support their cloud deployments, as well as companies using its own Azure cloud.

There are a few caveats to deploying Windows Server 2016 on AWS EC2 as Microsoft recommends a minimum of 2GB of memory to run the software, meaning users will need to consider which EC2 instances fit their needs.

Standard Windows EC2 pricing applies, with the option to purchase reserved instances, and providing it meets Microsoft’s licencing terms, users can bring existing licenses over to AWS.

Despite this harmonious setup between Microsoft’s software and AWS, competition in the cloud infrastructure market is tight between the two companies, resulting in slashed costs and Microsoft claiming it tries harder than AWS.

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