Improvements to the Windows Server 2012 OS

With Windows Server 2012 becoming available in the coming days, it's important to take a look at the changes to the OS to support networking. The primary purpose of the OS is to support private cloud implementations, as well as to take Microsoft's virtualization technologies to another level. To accomplish these goals, Microsoft has had to address a couple of issues that have limited the Windows Server OS in the past.

First of all, Microsoft has introduced NIC Teaming as a software solution. Historically, NIC teaming has been a feature brought to the data center by the hardware vendor, and I expect that to continue. Personally, my experience has been to stick with certain hardware-based solutions rather than jump in up to my neck with software-based solutions. That said, there have been times that Microsoft has provided an adequate vendor-agnostic solution. Time will tell if they've achieved that goal with their NIC Teaming solution. One of the better articles on this feature can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2012/06/19/nic-teaming-in-windows-server-2012-brings-simple-affordable-traffic-reliability-and-load-balancing-to-your-cloud-workloads.aspx. Essentially, it comes down to fault-tolerance and load-balancing, and the advantages of being able to mix and match hardware from different vendors.

The other aspect of Windows Server 2012 networking features that you should look at is the VLAN support in Hyper-V. It's no secret that Microsoft is tackling a number of challenges in the virtual network and virtual machine space to challenge the industry leader in network virtualization and "Infrastructure as a Service" with this release. To do that, Microsoft has had to beef-up their virtualized network offerings. Once again, time will tell if they have succeeded or not, but for those intrepid souls willing to take the leap, at least in a lab environment, I'd point you at this article by one of the more respected folks in on the MS side of the table, Deb Shinder. Her in-depth analysis can be found here: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Windows-Server-2012-Network-Virtualization-IaaS-On-Premises-Hosted-Private-Cloud-Infrastructure-Part2.html

These two features are merely a starting point for one's exploration of the networking features, but these two should be enough to pique the interest of the Data Center admins. Have fun in the lab!