Windows Server 2016 Edition Packaging

The Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2016 have substantial technical differences, whereas with Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2, the editions had the same technological capabilities. While Windows Server 2016 Standard retains all the capabilities it had with Windows Server 2012 R2 and receives modest improvements, Microsoft chose to make many of Windows Server 2016’s new features exclusive to Datacenter edition. The illustration compares Windows Server 2016 Standard and Datacenter capabilities, with special focus on new Datacenter-exclusive features.

The Datacenter-exclusive features, listed below, are mainly intended to strengthen the product’s role as a virtual machine (VM) hosting platform:

Storage Spaces Direct (S2D). S2D builds on the Storage Spaces feature of earlier Windows Server versions by adding the ability to use internal commodity disks, including solid state disks, rather than more expensive networked storage devices. S2D enables a Storage Space to span four to 12 servers, with up to 240 disks, and offers data mirroring and parity for resiliency. Customers can create architectures where servers using S2D are dedicated solely to storage, or where S2D servers also serve as VM hosts.