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Windows Server 2025 - new features and optimisations

Microsoft has announced the release of Windows Server 2025 for September 2024. This new version brings a variety of improvements and new features compared to Windows Server 2022, designed primarily to maximise the performance and security of your IT infrastructure. In this article, you will learn about the different editions, licensing options and key innovations of Windows Server 2025 – and why used Microsoft software licences represent a cost-effective alternative.

Editions of Windows Server 2025

Microsoft will continue to offer the following three main editions:

Windows Server 2025 Essentials: this edition is aimed at smaller businesses that only need one server with one CPU and ten cores.
Windows Server 2025 Standard: suitable for companies with a low level of virtualisation, supports up to two virtual machines and is licensed per processor core. In addition, CSP subscriptions allow licensing by vCores. User CALs or Device CALs are also required for access here.
Windows Server 2025 Datacenter: this edition is ideal for companies with a high virtualisation requirement, as it has no limit on the number of virtual machines. Licensing is again per processor core, with the additional option of licensing by vCores via CSP subscriptions. User CALs or Device CALs are also required here.

Client Access Licences (CALs)

Various CALs are required to access Windows Server 2025:

Windows Server CAL: required for accessing the server functions.
Windows Server External Connector: licences access for all external users.
Windows Server Remote Desktop Service CAL: enables access to terminal servers (RDS).
Windows Server Rights Management Services CAL: licences access to rights management with AD-RMS.

The main differences between Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025

Active Directory (AD)

is a directory service from Microsoft that helps manage networks. It is integrated in Windows Server 2025 and offers several important improvements compared to Windows Server 2022:

Larger databases – Extension of the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE): the database pages of AD can now be 32 KB in size instead of just 8 KB as in Server 2022. This means that larger amounts of data can be processed more efficiently.
Processor utilisation – NUMA support: Active Directory can now utilise all CPUs in a system, increasing performance and efficiency.
Security:
- Encrypted connections: all sensitive data transfers in AD are now encrypted, which increases security.
- Enhanced encryption: AD now supports stronger encryption methods, which replaces old and insecure methods.
- Secure passwords: randomly generated default passwords are used for computer accounts to increase security.

Server Message Block (SMB)

a network protocol that allows computers to share files, printers and other resources.

SMB over QUIC: This modernised protocol for Windows Server 2025 improves the performance and security of network communications through encrypted connections and faster data transfer. Windows Server 2022 already offered advanced SMB features, including SMB Direct and SMB Multichannel, which increase network performance by supporting RDMA and using multiple network connections.

Hyper-V

a virtualisation technology from Microsoft that allows multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run on a single physical host server.

Extended virtual processor support: Windows Server 2025 supports up to 2,048 virtual processors per VM and host. This means that larger and more complex tasks can be performed on a server than with Windows Server 2022.
GPU sharing: Hyper-V can now distribute the power of a GPU (graphics processing unit) across multiple VMs. This is particularly useful for graphics-intensive applications and artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, VMs with GPUs can be moved between servers without affecting availability.

Azure Arc

an innovative solution from Microsoft that enables organisations to extend Azure management and services to their on-premises and multi-Cloud environments. While Windows Server 2022 already offers robust hybrid and multi-cloud capabilities, Azure Arc significantly extends these possibilities.

Uniform administration: with Azure Arc, you can manage on-premises servers in the same way as Azure resources. This way, you can use the same tools and processes.
Advanced security features: you can create and apply centralised security policies for all your resources, whether on-premises or in the Cloud.
Flexible hybrid and multi-Cloud solutions: Azure Arc makes it easy to move workloads between on-premises data centres, Azure and other Cloud providers.
Automation and compliance: Azure Arc makes it possible to automate administrative tasks and ensure that all systems meet the latest security and compliance requirements.
Integration with DevOps tools: Azure Arc supports DevOps practices, including integration with CI/CD pipelines, which simplifies the deployment and management of applications.
On-premises data services: Azure Arc allows you to use Azure Data Services such as Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure PostgreSQL Hyperscale in on-premises infrastructures as well. This means you can use advanced database services without having to migrate your data to the Cloud.

Advantages of used Microsoft software licences

Microsoft recommends that its customers switch to Windows Server 2022 now to be best prepared for new releases. New software licences can be costly, so now is the time to inform yourself about purchasing used Microsoft licences – as this offers numerous advantages:

Cost efficiency: used licences are often significantly lower in price than new ones, which contributes considerably to IT cost savings.
Full functionality: used licences offer the same functionality as new licences, with no restrictions on features.
Legal certainty: used software licences are entirely legal and in compliance with the licence terms as long as they are resold and used correctly.

Glossary for ‘Windows Server 2025 - New features and optimisations'

Client Access Licences (CALs): licences required for accessing Windows Server. There are various types, such as Windows Server CAL, Windows Server External Connector, Windows Server Remote Desktop Service CAL and Windows Server Rights Management Services CAL.
vCores (Virtual Cores): a term used in virtualisation which refers to the virtual processor cores assigned to a virtual machine (VM).

Key features

Virtual processors: vCores represent the number of virtual processors that can be assigned to a VM to determine its computing power.

Flexibility: the number of vCores can be adjusted to scale the VM's performance as needed.

Billing and licensing: in some licensing models, such as Microsoft CSP subscriptions, software licences can be licensed based on the number of vCores instead of physical processor cores.

Resource allocation: vCores enable more efficient use of physical hardware since they can distribute the resources of a physical server across multiple VMs.

Performance: the performance of a VM can be improved by increasing the number of allocated vCores, which is particularly important for applications requiring intensive computing. By using vCores, companies can optimise their IT resources and flexibly and efficiently shape the performance of their virtual environments.

CSP Subscriptions (Cloud Solution Provider Subscriptions): a Microsoft licensing model that is provided by partners and offers a flexible and scalable option for acquiring and managing Cloud services and software licences.

Extensible Storage Engine (ESE):

A database technology from Microsoft that serves as the basis for various Microsoft applications and services, in particular for the Active Directory service.

Key features

Database structure: ESE uses a transaction-based database structure that ensures high reliability and data integrity.

Extensible database pages: with the expansion to 32 KB database pages in Windows Server 2025, larger amounts of data can be processed and stored more efficiently.

Performance optimisation: the Engine optimises the storage and access of data, which leads to improved overall performance.

Transaction support: ESE provides full transaction support, including commit and rollback functions to ensure data consistency.

Areas of application: used in many Microsoft products, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Active Directory and Windows Search.

The Extensible Storage Engine plays a crucial role in the storage and management of data in various Microsoft applications and contributes significantly to the performance and reliability of these services.

NUMA-Support (Non-Uniform Memory Access):

A technology for optimising memory access in multi-processor systems that has been implemented in Windows Server 2025 to improve the performance of applications and services such as Active Directory.

Key features

NUMA architecture: NUMA stands for Non-Uniform Memory Access, a memory architecture in which each processor in a system has its own local memory. Access to a processor's local memory is faster than access to the memory of other processors.

Performance optimisation: by supporting NUMA, a system can work more efficiently because processors preferentially access their local memory, reducing latency and improving overall performance.

Scalability: NUMA Support enables improved scalability of applications, as they can handle the resources of a multi-processor system more efficiently.

Significance for Active Directory: with NUMA Support, Active Directory can make better use of all the CPUs in a system, which increases the performance and efficiency of the directory services.

Virtualisation application: in virtual environments, NUMA Support helps optimise virtual machine performance by allocating memory according to the physical NUMA topology.

NUMA Support is essential for the performance and efficiency of modern multi-processor systems and allows for optimal use of available hardware resources.

DevOps-Tools

Software applications and platforms designed to support and automate the principles and practices of the DevOps methodology. DevOps aims to improve collaboration between development and operations teams to provide software faster and more reliably. DevOps tools play a central role in automating and optimising software development and delivery processes, resulting in faster releases, higher quality and greater reliability.

Integration with CI/CD-Pipelines (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment Pipelines)
The process of configuring and using development and delivery tools to automatically build, test, and deliver software.

Key features

Continuous Integration (CI): a development practice in which developers frequently integrate their code changes in a central repository. Each integration is automatically checked by build and test processes to detect errors early on. Tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI and Travis CI are common CI solutions.

Continuous Deployment (CD): an extension of CI in which code changes that have passed the integration process are automatically deployed to production environments. This ensures that new features and bug fixes are delivered quickly and reliably. Spinnaker and GitHub Actions are examples of CD tools.

Automated builds: integration with CI/CD pipelines makes it possible to fully automate the build process so that software is compiled and deployed regularly and reliably.

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