Dynamic Duo: HPE ProLiant Servers + Windows Server 2016 Datacenter

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When you pair HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers with Windows Server 2016 your customers benefit from improved security, improved efficiency, and hybrid IT infrastructure to support their business needs today and in the future. This Dynamic Duo, HPE ProLiant Gen10 + Windows Server 2016, has many great options for businesses from SMBs to enterprises. With a large family of HPE ProLiant Gen10 Rack and Tower servers to choose from and three unique versions of Windows Server 2016 (Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter) there is sure to be an ideal solution for your customers’ businesses.

In previous blogs we have looked at Windows Server 2016 Essentials and Windows Server 2016 Standard and our recommended HPE ProLiant Gen10 Server pairings. If you would like to learn more about server pairings for Windows Server 2016 Essentials and Standard, check out our recent blogs:
- Dynamic Duo: HPE ProLiant Servers + Windows Server 2016 Essentials
- Dynamic Duo: HPE ProLiant Servers + Windows Server 2016 Standard

You can also get a great quick overview of this Dynamic Duo as a whole from our recent video.

Today, we will dive into the benefits of Windows Server 2016 Datacenter and the HPE ProLiant Gen10 servers we think pair best with this version. Windows Server 2016 Datacenter is ideal for highly virtualized and software-defined datacenter environments. As with Windows Server 2016 Standard, Windows Server 2016 Datacenter follows a per core + Client Access License (CAL) licensing model. However, unlike Windows Server 2016 Standard, this version offers unlimited Virtual Machines (VMs) when all physical cores are licensed. In addition, Windows Server 2016 Datacenter includes several features that the Standard does not provide such as new advanced software-defined datacenter capabilities designed for highly virtualized private and hybrid cloud environments and Azure-inspired storage enhancements including Storage Spaces Direct.  

But, what HPE ProLiant Gen10 servers pair best with Windows Server 2016 Datacenter?

The first server we recommend pairing with Datacenter is our tower workhorse and pairs efficiently with Windows Server 2016 Datacenter to support massive in-box storage capacity, agility, and reliability: the HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Server. The ML350 delivers a secure dual-socket towers server with performance, expandability, and proven reliability, making it the choice for expanding SMBs, remote offices of larger businesses, and enterprise data centers. The shorter re-designed rackable chassis with multiple upgrade options provides flexibility that can expand as business needs grow. This server supports up to two Intel Xeon Scalable processors, starting from Bronze through Platinum, 4 cores expanding up to 28 core processors offering unparalleled performance.

If your customers are looking for a secure, performance driven dense rack server that they can confidently deploy for virtualization, database, or high-performance computing, the HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 Server, with a 2P 1U chassis, and the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 Server, with a 2P 2U chassis, are great options to pair with Windows Server 2016 Datacenter for most multifunction use cases. The HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 Server supports industry-standard technology leveraging the Intel Xeon Scalable processor with up to 28 cores, 12G SAS and 3.0 TB of 2666 MT/s HPE DDR4 SmartMemory. The HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 Server supports 12 Gb/s SAS, and up to 20 NVMe drive plus a broad range of compute options.

When HPC and AI are in play, we recommend our 500 series servers for Datacenter. The HPE ProLiant DL560 Gen10 Server is a high-density, 4P server with high-performance, scalability, and reliability, in a 2U chassis and is a great option for business-critical workloads, virtualization, server consolidation, database, business processing, and general 4P data-intensive applications where data center space and the right performance are paramount. The HPE ProLiant DL580 Gen10 Server is a secure, highly expandable, 4P server with high-performance, scalability and availability in a 4U chassis and supports up to four Intel Xeon Platinum and Gold processors.

Don’t forget, Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 are quickly approaching their End of Support date and you may have many customers who need to migrate to a newer version of Windows Server along with new servers. Pair Windows Server 2016 and HPE ProLiant Gen10 servers to provide new compute features and security, assuring your customer is getting the best solution for their workload to power their hybrid IT infrastructure. 

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