Matchmaker Series: HPE & Microsoft–Part 1: Windows Server 2016 & ProLiant Servers

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We'll admit it, we love HPE + Microsoft solutions—our love for them is hard to contain! We want to shout it from the rooftops! Not only is it the model partnership, but we think HPE ProLiant Gen9 Servers + Microsoft Windows Server 2016 is a perfect match too! This Matchmaker blog series will take a look at why they are the ideal pair, and which HPE ProLiant Servers pair best with each edition of Windows Server 2016.

HPE + Microsoft
Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Microsoft have worked together hand in hand as industry partners for over 30 years. By delivering innovative technologies, services, and support strategies designed to accelerate innovation, they help to transform customers’ businesses and unleash new business value. When you pair HPE Servers with Microsoft Windows Server operating systems, you combine the intelligence of HPE ProLiant Gen9—the world's most self-sufficient servers—with the ease of management, virtualization, and scalability of the Microsoft Windows Server product family.

Now, Windows Server 2016, running on the complete portfolio of HPE ProLiant Servers, offers businesses of all sizes enterprise-class security, scalability, and performance—combining the peace of mind found in on premise, traditional IT, with the forward-thinking flexibility of cloud-ready options.

HPE ProLiant Gen9 Servers + Microsoft Windows Server 2016
There are many different HPE ProLiant Servers—rack servers, tower servers, and blade servers just to name a few, so we have something for everyone’s business needs. Likewise, there are different editions of Microsoft Windows Server 2016: Essentials edition, Standard edition, and Datacenter edition. Before you can choose your ideal ProLiant server pairing, it is important to know a bit about each edition of Windows Server 2016 and what kind of businesses they are ideal for.

Essentials Edition: Ideal for small companies with basic IT needs purchasing a first server (likely with a small or no dedicated IT department)
- 25 users/50 devices—No Client Access Licenses (CALs) required
- 1 physical or 1 virtual instance
- Must be root of domain
- For servers with 1 or 2 processors only
- Processor-based licensing

Standard edition: Ideal for SMBs that need advanced features, support for distributed office locations, and require a flexible way to virtualize their environment
- Unlimited users or devices, based on CALs
- 2 VMs or 2 Hyper-V containers
- Unlimited Windows Server containers
- Core-based licensing

Datacenter edition: Ideal for companies of all sizes that have demanding workloads, require advanced storage, virtualization, and application deployment
- Unlimited users or devices, based on CALs
- Unlimited VMs and Hyper-V containers
- Unlimited Windows Server containers
- Storage features include: Storage Replica & Storage Spaces Direct
- New Networking Stack
- Shielded VMs and Hose Guardian Service
- Core-based licensing

In our Matchmaker Series-part 2 we take a closer look at Windows Server 2016 Standard edition and the servers that we think pair best with this edition while our Matchmaker Series- part 3 looks at the best HPE Server pairings for Windows Server 2016 Datacenter edition. 

Too excited to wait for our next blog? Here is a sneak peek at our HPE ProLiant Gen9 + Windows Server 2016 pairings based on server requirements, compute resources, and workload configurability.

Want to make this pairing even sweeter for your customer? HPE OEM Windows Server 2016 licenses are the simplest, most cost-effective license for many small and midsize businesses. HPE OEM licenses for Windows Server 2016 are available worldwide in several languages and can be purchased directly from you, our trusted reseller partner. For available part numbers, please visit: www.hpe.com/servers/ws2016 and click the QuickSpecs link.

Be sure you don't miss the rest of the Matchmaker Series! Check back next week for part 2 and follow Coffee Coaching's social channels for the latest news on HPE ProLiant & Windows Server 2016:
- Twitter: com/CoffeeCoaching
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- YouTube: com/user/CoffeeCoaching
- LinkedIn: com/groups/Coffee-Coaching-MicrosoftHP-3413248