When Microsoft releases a new operating system,
they generally release it in different versions.
The same is true for Windows Server 2022. It has been
released in three major versions.
Let's take a look at what is different amongst these three versions.
The first version that we have is the Standard version.
This is essentially the primary version amongst the
three flavors of Windows Server 2022.
This version is, of course, stuffed with a lot of features.
However, it does have some features that it lacks.
For example,
it lacks the capability of Hotpatching and software‑defined networking. With
regards to the storage replica options, the Standard version supports
storage replicas, but at a very limited capability.
For example,
you can leverage only one partnership and one resource group with a
maximum of 2 TB. It also lacks the Storage Spaces Direct feature.
From a Hyper‑V capability, the Standard version allows you to
support two virtual machines.
That includes one Hyper‑V host per license and two
virtual Hyper‑V isolated containers.
The security feature for Hyper‑V, which is Host Guardian Hyper‑V support,
is currently not available for the Standard version.
The next major version that we have is the Datacenter edition.
This version, of course, is a step up from the Standard version, however,
it does not support Hotpatching.
It does include support for software‑defined networking. From a
storage replica perspective, the Datacenter edition provides you
with support for unlimited storage replicas.
It includes the Storage Spaces feature, and from a
Hyper‑V virtual machine capability,
you have the ability to run unlimited virtual machines.
The great thing about the Datacenter edition is that it does support Host
Guardian Hyper‑V and shielded virtual machine security features.
The final version that we have of Windows Server 2022 is the Azure Edition.
This essentially is the premium edition among the three of
them, and as you guessed due to the name,
this is only available in Azure. And this is purely because it supports
features that's not available outside of the Azure environment,
for example, Hotpatching, SMB over QUIC,
which is an IETF‑standardized protocol which provides a lot of
benefits such as the ability to always have packets encrypted,
parallel streams of reliable application data,
improved congestion control and loss recovery, and more; and then, of course,
additional functionality such as the Azure extended networking.
Now what's great with the Hotpatching functionality is that it
allows admins to apply patches to the operating system without
rebooting the actual server.
So when you think of patching your server from a security standpoint,
you can now act on patching really quickly and ensure that your server is fully patched and operational.