Microsoft announces Windows Server 2025

Microsoft announced at the Windows Server Summit the name of the new server operating system. Windows Server 2025 will notably bring the following elements:

General

• Hot Patching
• A perpetual license and a "Pay-as-you-Go" model are available
• Wi-Fi will be enabled by default, provided compatible hardware is available. 
• Introduction to
• Local KDC: A Kerberos Key Distribution service built into Windows, not just in the domain controller.
• IAKerb: A Kerberos Negotiation Mechanism
• Deprecation of Mailslots
• Simplified upgrade from Windows Server 2022 to Windows Server 2025 via Windows Update
• Simplified onboarding in Azure Arc.
• Support for Microsoft 365 Apps during the main support period.

Storage

• Optimization for NVMe storage (70% more IOPS)
• Performance improvements
• Lower CPU usage
• NVMe-oF TCP initiator
• Performance improvements and logs for Storage Replica
• Storage Replica compression is available in all editions of Windows Server
• Deduplication and native Compression for ReFS.
• Disabling NTLM for SMB
• SMB Signing is enabled by default for Windows Enterprise, Education and Pro as well as all editions of Windows

Failover Clustering

• Live migration of VMs based on certificates
• Stretch Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Clusters between two sites
• Improvement of reliability and performance of Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU)

Virtualisation

• Windows Server 2025 offers better GPU support through Hyper-V via GPU-P support enabling the creation of GPU partitions.

Containers

• You can run WS2022 container images without having to update the base image
• Reduction in image size with smaller incremental layers
• Improved application compatibility coverage for Nano Server

Active Directory

• A new functional level Active Directory (Windows Server 2025)
• LDAP communications will support TLS 1.3 for LDAP over TLS.
• The legacy SAM-RPC protocols will be blocked by default.
• NUMA Support for Active Directory
• The new domain controllers are installed with a 32K page size and use 64-bit long value IDs (instead of 8K previously). Backward compatibility is maintained as the 32K page size is optional. A forest-level change is required to use the 32K page size; in that case all domain controllers must be compatible.
• Additional performance counters will be added
• The Active Directory diagnostic data collector set will be updated.
• Addition of a RootDSE mode to define priority over specific replication links
• Reinforced replication links are prioritised in the replication queue
• Announcement of NTLM deprecation.

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More information on what's new: What's New in Windows Server v.Next (microsoft.com)

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