Windows Server Summit | Storage
Krähe mit HutYes, how quickly times change… Admittedly, this statement is already a few years old. However, when you consider how rapidly storage speeds and capacities have advanced, you can't help but smile when you think about how proud we were of the progress made back then. From IDE to SATA to SAS to the first SSD… and now NVMe.
Revision of the Windows storage stack for NVMe
And even with NVMe, speed records are being broken left and right. It goes without saying that current operating systems have to keep up—or at least try to. 😉
With Windows Server 2025, Microsoft has made considerable progress in utilizing the performance of current SSDs. According to its own statement, it has reached the current limits of the HW perf measurement tool while reducing CPU load by up to 45%. This is explained very clearly in the video below. The new storage connection in Windows Server 2025 can now be activated; see the official announcement from Microsoft.
New feature: S2D Campus Cluster
Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) is a technology integrated into Windows for the logical combination of storage media installed directly in servers in a cluster (similar to RAID, but with significantly higher performance; more comparable to VMware vSAN).
The storage space available in the individual servers is thus combined into a logical storage system. This naturally requires high-performance connections and storage links, which is why the nodes of an S2D cluster always had to be located in the same room.
With Windows Server 2025, it is now possible to distribute the nodes of an S2D cluster across multiple interconnected racks in different buildings. This is primarily intended to comply with the NIS2 directive.
Important: The use of Storage Spaces Direct requires the Datacenter Edition! Furthermore, it is not intended that an S2D cluster be installed manually. Instead, a pre-configured solution from one of the typical hardware suppliers (Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc.) is purchased and set up ready for operation.
Additional information
Official videos:
What's next for advanced storage - Windows Server Summit
Highly available, always scalable: Failover clustering and S2D - Windows Server Summit
Overview of all articles: Windows Server Summit in a nutshell
Liked this article? Share it!
One thought on “Windows Server Summit | Storage”