Windows Server 2012 was the first version of Windows Server which was designed primarily for Cloud computing environments. The core of Microsoft’s private cloud concept is Hyper-V, first released as part of Windows Server 2008 but significantly updated in Windows Server 2012 to take advantage of the new hardware available at the time.

This allowed for the usage of up to 64 processor chips and 4TB of RAM (in Standard and Datacenter editions) - allowing for massively increased support for computing and memory clusters and much faster virtual machine migration. Hyper-V was also updated to allow for virtual software switches and to provide the tools to be part of a software defined network allowing for rapid reconfiguration of networking features.

The VHDX format for virtual disks was first introduced with Windows Server 2012 which is more efficient and able to support larger disk sizes than its predecessor VHD.

Dynamic Access Control replaced complex ACL’s with rule base file and directory policies and is managed using Active Directory.

Windows Server 2012 was the first release of Windows to emphasize command-line usage over the traditional Windows GUI desktop, and by using the ‘Core’ option on installation it is possible to forego the GUI entirely which offers a number of benefits such as smaller deployment sizes, reduced attack surface and lower resource loads.

Due to Microsoft’s prevalence in the marketplace and the wide availability of Windows software, Windows Server 2012 can be found almost everywhere Windows software is used, ranging from small to medium enterprises, educational institutions, retail applications, airports and multi-national corporations.