Grow Your Business with Windows Server 2012

Dell server solutions with Windows Server 2012 enable organisations to manage IT more efficiently, drive profitability and retain a competitive edge through the development of new products and services. Whether a small business is looking to purchase its first server, or is seeking to replace servers that are now ageing, Dell server solutions with Windows Server 2012 offer everything needed for growth including a virtualization platform and connectivity to private and public cloud services.

Windows Server 2012 what’s New?
Dell server solutions with Windows Server 2012 can support small business growth through the creation of a strong IT infrastructure, enabling effective collaboration and flexible working as well as ensuring data security.

Here are some of the things that the flexible, open and scalable Windows Server 2012 makes easy:
· Automated management tasks - Windows Server 2012 comes with a full suite of administrative interfaces, making IT administration much quicker and easier. IT administrators benefit from an overview of the users and devices connected to the network through a series of simplified screens and can check on the health of individual machines. This is very important for small businesses with limited in-house IT support.

· Automated back-up and storage – Easy-to-use guides enable automated back-up and storage of valuable business data and information. As the business grows, and the volume and value of its information increases, small businesses can rest assured that it will be safely stored and organised. This will be especially important as the company grows.

· Easy access to files and applications – Windows Server 2012 provides access to company information from any device, regardless of location. Employees often need to be away from the office but require access to mission-critical information. Using the Windows Server 2012 remote access feature, employees can securely connect to the company network from anywhere there is an internet connection. They can choose to work where they will be most productive, for example in a coffee shop prior to a meeting, on the train, or from home.

· Easy restore – Windows Server 2012 ships with Windows Server Backup which can be used to set automated back-up of data on any device connected to the company network and can be used to restore PCs over the network should a problem occur, making it ideal for servicing remote employees.
· Virtualization – Hyper-V makes it easier to create a virtualized server computing environment. One physical server can be turned into several virtual machines each running separate operating systems and hosting different applications. This will enable organisations to advance their virtualization strategy while reaping the benefits of lower operating costs and the ability to quickly scale.
· Server management – The new version of Powershell 3.0 can help small businesses save time and money by enabling them to automate the management, configuration and maintenance of network servers. Powershell also allows IT staff to remotely manage multiple servers distributed across multiple premises.

Supporting growth
As a small business looks to develop the products and services it offers its customers, it will need additional servers to support the growing business. This means increased costs and the need for extra storage space. In order to overcome this problem, small businesses are increasingly looking towards implementing an IT virtualization strategy to allow them to quickly respond to changes in the business, reduce risk and minimise costs.

Windows Server 2012 enables small businesses to advance their virtualization strategy. It comes with the latest edition of Hyper V, special transformational technology software which can support up to 512GB of RAM and 2TB of disk storage. This allows small businesses to run one or more virtual servers across a single physical server. Server 2012 clusters can contain up to 64 nodes, compared with Server 2008, which contained 16 node capabilities, providing increased capacity to support future expansion and allowing companies to connect more devices to the network as the company grows. Each virtual server has similar properties to that of a single physical machine, which means that organisations won’t need to invest in more physical servers in order to support their growing business.

Normally a business would use one server to host one business application, for example accountancy or customer databases. With Dell server solutions and Hyper V, small businesses can instead eliminate unnecessary hardware and maintenance costs by consolidating applications and running multiple applications on one server. For example, where an organisation once required six servers, the use of virtualization means that they can now be replaced with just one or two physical servers and a couple of virtual machines.

Through the use of virtualization, small businesses can put in place the infrastructure to support the deployment of new applications quickly and easily, or reallocate resources as necessary by improving virtual machines across servers. In this way, virtualization allows small businesses to streamline their IT Infrastructure, lower operating costs, and further improves scalability to support their growing business needs. It is ideal for organisations looking to offer specialised services or to grow beyond 25 employees.

A company with an e-commerce site, for example, may experience spikes in sales during certain times of the year, especially around major holidays. During these times, the demand on the server, which hosts the e-commerce site, may be high, but for the rest of the year it is not used to its full capacity. Virtualization allows small businesses to better manage these types of traffic peaks and make full use of the server capacity. Rather than have a dedicated e-commerce server which would remain largely idle for the rest of the year, the physical machine becomes several virtual machines running several applications, thereby maximising the available server capacity.

Dell server solutions with Windows Server 2012 deliver the virtualization capability required to consolidate the workloads of multiple physical servers to a single system and provide small businesses with the scalability required to grow their business in the future.

The Cloud
Recently there has been considerable growth in the number of customisable cloud services available and small businesses are taking advantage of these through the purchase of software-as-a-service (SaaS), rather than having to invest in software licences. For small businesses that want to go beyond virtualization, Dell server solutions with Windows Server 2012 enable organisations to unleash the power of the cloud through its support of public and private cloud use.

Windows Server 2012 provides connection to cloud services and applications, acting as a gateway to Microsoft’s cloud services, including Office 365, and cloud backup services, regardless of the network, device, or application in use. Businesses using Office 365 can provide their employees with links directly to company resources whether in the cloud or stored locally.

Small businesses are going directly to the cloud as a way of reducing costs and keeping up-to-date with evolving technologies and applications to which they currently don’t have access. It provides a cost effective way to serve their mobile work force and ultimately grow their business.

Migrating to Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 is the latest server operating system from Microsoft and replaces all previous versions, including Windows server 2003, so whether a business needs a first server, or needs to upgrade an existing server, now is the right time to think about investing in Windows Server 2012.
With official support for Windows Server 2003 ending in July 2015, small businesses will need to start thinking about their migration path soon. However, with Hyper-V enabled in Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2003 will still be able to run in a virtualized environment, so any business-critical applications that cannot be migrated to Windows Server 2012 can still run in a secure virtual environment.

As a company grows, there is an easy upgrade path allowing it to move from Windows Server Essentials to Windows Server Standard, so as the organisation moves beyond 25 users, they will not be forced to rip out one system and replace with another.

Windows Server 2012 comes in a number of editions to suit all stages of business growth:
· Windows Server 2012 Foundation for up to 15 users
· Windows Server 2012 Essentials is ideal for small businesses that are not yet at the stage of wanting virtualization, have limited in-house IT expertise, and 25 users or less. It contains many of the same features as Windows Server 2012 standard
· Windows Server 2012 Standard for minimally virtualized environments
· Windows Server 2012 datacentre for virtualized private cloud environments

Technology impacts every sector of business and can bring about significant changes to the way people do business. Getting the right technology in place to create an efficient organisation, improve the way that information is generated and stored, and establish collaborative ways of working, can ease the path from being a small sized company to becoming a mid-sized company.

Today’s servers, such as Dell’s PowerEdge servers are very efficient and powerful, and when combined with Windows Server 2012, can take the pain out of growing the business. Dell’s long long-standing collaboration with Microsoft, including investments in people, process and technology especially for PowerEdge 12G Servers, as well as it’s world-class expertise and services, makes Dell an ideal partner to accelerate the benefits of Windows Server 2012 for small businesses, helping them to immediately exploit advancements enabled with the new release of Microsoft Windows Server 2012.