We use the solution for all the applications and Active Directory. We use it for enterprise management. We have different departments.
The product is secure, and it performs well, but the stability could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "The product’s performance is good."
- "The stability could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
The product is secure.
What is most valuable?
The product’s performance is good. We have a good infrastructure.
What needs improvement?
The stability could be improved.
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Windows Server
September 2026
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for eight to ten years. I am using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is stable. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have more than 5000 users. The usage keeps increasing in our organization.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever we face any issue, we contact our Windows team, and they improve it. The technical support is fine.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was done in-house. We have a big team to deploy and maintain the product, including project and system managers.
What other advice do I have?
I will recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT head at Ficobank
A stable and scalable solution that can be used to run various systems
Pros and Cons
- "Windows Server is a stable and scalable solution."
- "The solution's licensing cost is expensive and could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use Windows Server to run our banking system.
What is most valuable?
Windows Server is a stable and scalable solution.
What needs improvement?
The solution's licensing cost is expensive and could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Windows Server for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Windows Server ten out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Around 42 users in our organization use the solution on a daily basis.
I rate Windows Server ten out of ten for scalability.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is too complex.
What about the implementation team?
We deploy the solution manually because we only have five servers. Around eight technical staff are needed for the solution’s deployment and maintenance.
What was our ROI?
We have seen value from using the solution, and that's why we deploy our systems using Windows Server.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We use a perpetual license for Windows Server, which is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Windows Server to other users. Users should be trained or familiar with operating the solution before using it.
Overall, I rate Windows Server ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Windows Server
September 2026
Learn what your peers think about Windows Server. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior System Engineer at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees
Transparent and easy-to-learn, but the product is not stable
Pros and Cons
- "The GUI is familiar. Anyone who doesn't know how to use a file server can be taught to use the product in a few minutes."
- "The solution should improve its stability."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for mass storage and application storage.
What is most valuable?
DFS is the most valuable feature of the product. The product is very transparent. Any changes to the underlying file servers are not visible to users. It is a huge benefit for us.
The GUI is familiar. Anyone who doesn't know how to use a file server can be taught to use the product in a few minutes.
What needs improvement?
The solution should improve its stability. After some updates, one of the KBs faced issues while booting. On boot, it started boot looping randomly.
The solution is very rigid. Whenever we want to make changes that are slightly out of the ordinary, we have to do them manually.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four and a half years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is definitely scalable. Around 1,500 people are currently using the solution in our organization.
What about the implementation team?
It is quite easy to maintain the product. We have deployed the solution across the whole company.
What other advice do I have?
I have used all the versions from 2003 to 2022. You can change the host and IPs and switch on the whole configuration. The users do not notice anything as long as DFS is active and the file system is the same. The product is a good choice for small-scale environments. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
SA at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enables you to use as a NFS file sharing space and has GUI
Pros and Cons
- "From the very beginning, I have been using a Windows-based OS so for me, it's very easy because it's GUI compared to command line or something Linux-based."
- "The only thing that could be improved is the price."
- "The license is a one-time purchase. The cost could be less expensive. We have education pricing, so it's okay now because we pay less than other agencies."
What is our primary use case?
Currently, we are trying to use the solution as the host for a specific system. Another use case is as NFS files sharing space.
The solution is deployed on-premise.
What is most valuable?
From the very beginning, I have been using a Windows-based OS so for me, it's very easy because it's GUI compared to command line or something Linux-based. I prefer GUI, so Windows is very good for me.
What needs improvement?
The only thing that could be improved is the price.
I just installed the evaluation because I got the license product key, so I need to activate it. But to my surprise, I cannot activate the evaluation version so I need to recreate the VMs using the ISO that Microsoft gives to me.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for around two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't had any issues with stability. We have about eight people using the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I haven't had any issues with the scalability because I'm using virtualization.
How are customer service and support?
When I wanted to activate the Windows Server using the product key that I have just purchased, I used Microsoft support in Malaysia. They wanted me to forward the problem to the Microsoft support machine. It's very fast and they will respond even at night.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I haven't used any other solutions because my IT career began with using Windows.
How was the initial setup?
The solution was easy to install. It didn't take longer than 10 minutes. We have two engineers for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license is a one-time purchase. The cost could be less expensive. We have education pricing, so it's okay now because we pay less than other agencies.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 9 out of 10. I recommend this solution.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr. Network Administrator at ACMC
Good integration and easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most valuable features of Windows Server is that it is easy to use. Also, with Windows, everything is integrated."
- "Windows Server could be improved with cheaper licensing costs."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of Windows Server is running our business applications, such as ERP.
This solution is deployed on-premises.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable features of Windows Server is that it is easy to use. Also, with Windows, everything is integrated.
What needs improvement?
Windows Server could be improved with cheaper licensing costs.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Windows Server for more than 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Windows Server is stable, and we have had no problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of this solution seems good.
We have more than 150 people in our organization using this solution. We don't currently have plans to increase our usage.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before implementing Windows Server, we used Oracle Linux. We switched to Windows Server because, when we upgraded, the integration was good with the FieldServer.
How was the initial setup?
For installation, 2016 took even less time than 2012. '16 takes maybe fifteen to twenty minutes, maximum. I can handle the installation myself.
For deployment and maintenance, we have a team of one or two people.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented this solution through an in-house team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
To use Windows Server, we pay for licensing yearly. The licensing cost should be cheaper—it is expensive and should not cost that much.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Windows Server a ten out of ten. I would recommend Windows Server to others, but it depends on their requirements. We can meet our requirements with Windows because we have a Microsoft ERP. It has good performance with the Windows Server, which is why we use this solution.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Lead DevOps Engineer at Etisalat
Satisfied with performance and stability
Pros and Cons
- "A valuable feature of Windows Server has been the performance. We have done all the redundancy and fault tolerance things to protect our servers and, so far, so good."
- "As for additional features, we are very interested in the new feature released by Windows: Azure Virtual Desktop. We are currently exploring it so that instead of people depending on their own desktop, we could work on Azure Virtual Desktop. Integration with Azure Virtual Desktop would be cool."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of Windows Server is application support. We have applications such as SAP-based or web-based solutions that we use through Citrix-based solutions. We deploy it on Azure.
What is most valuable?
A valuable feature of Windows Server has been the performance. We have done all the redundancy and fault tolerance things to protect our servers and, so far, so good.
What needs improvement?
As for additional features, we are very interested in the new feature released by Windows: Azure Virtual Desktop. We are currently exploring it so that instead of people depending on their own desktop, we could work on Azure Virtual Desktop. Integration with Azure Virtual Desktop would be cool.
For how long have I used the solution?
We recently began using Windows Server.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable and we're satisfied with the performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We enabled scalability, but haven't scaled it much. We have a limited set of users, so the scalability feature is not really in use.
There are many end users, but there are less than 10 people managing this solution. We don't currently have plans to increase our usage because we are happy with the current capacity. We may decide to increase our usage later, but it depends on the solution and new requirements.
How are customer service and support?
We have contacted Microsoft's technical support. We used to have weekly and monthly meetings with them, so we got up-to-date directly from Microsoft support, which were were happy with.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We didn't use a different solution previously. We went directly for Microsoft because the solution is only supported by Microsoft, so we've never tried any other operating system.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was easy. We didn't do it directly because we have an Infrastructure as Code setup, with Terraform, so we were able to do it very easily. As for the time frame, if you go for a manual process, it will take five or ten minutes, but using code, you can deploy the solutions in less than a minute. We managed it ourselves, without any support.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented this solution through an in-house team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not involved much in the payment part, but I believe that we pay a yearly subscription for licensing.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Windows Server an eight out of ten. I would recommend it to others who are considering implementation.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Platform Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Easy to use, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very easy to use and very easy to onboard."
- "The SQL version of the solution is its most valuable aspect."
- "It requires a lot of monthly maintenance in terms of vulnerability management, which is the downside."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for a variety of tasks including active directory servers, exchange servers, hosting applications, running insurance apps, and SQL databases. A whole gamut of things.
What is most valuable?
The SQL version of the solution is its most valuable aspect.
The solution is very easy to use and very easy to onboard.
The solution, for the most part, is stable. The stability is actually pretty good in terms of availability.
The product's performance depends on the use case.
The solution is very scalable.
The initial setup isn't overly difficult.
What needs improvement?
It requires a lot of monthly maintenance in terms of vulnerability management, which is the downside.
I would say the biggest improvement could be improvement in the vulnerability space. Every month we get critical vulnerabilities across the Windows Server fleet. If I could see the volumes come down there, that would be the biggest step forward.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for 15 or more years at this point. It's been well over a decade. it's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is pretty stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
However, every release gets more stable and offers more performance with the exception of vulnerability management, which doesn't seem to improve. I would say, we haven't got that much experience with 2019, yet 2012 was a big advancement on 2008's version. 2016 advanced as well. Every newer version gets better in terms of performance and stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We tend to scale horizontally, and that'll scale up to quite a degree. We have some very large SQL Servers in particular that are scalable.
We have about 5,000 to 10,000 users on the solution currently.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is okay. If I had to rate it against any industry standards, I would rate it at a six or seven out of ten. It's not as good as other providers I work with. Right now, Microsoft needs you to prove it's a Microsoft issue before they'll work on it.
How was the initial setup?
We generate a custom build that's automated. Automating everything took quite a lot of effort, however, now that we have an automated build, implementing that for any new version probably takes, I'd say, a month, or maybe a bit more, which is not too bad. It's pretty straightforward.
We have a team of eight or nine individuals that can handle deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the implementation by ourselves. We didn't need the assistance of any consultants or integrators.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have enterprise agreements with Microsoft.
What other advice do I have?
We are customers and end-users.
While the deployment models we use are mostly on-premises, we do sometimes use cloud deployment as well.
We use a variety of versions of the solution, including 2019, 2016, and 2012. We actually use a lot of 2012.
I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. It's a step up from older versions.
I'd recommend the solution to other companies. However, it depends on the use case. If you were hosting SQL or Exchange server, certainly. However, in other circumstances, if it was between this and Red Hat Linux, you might choose Red Hat Linux.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Cybersecurity and Compliance Coordinator at Plaenge
Easy to use, secure, scales well and has helpful responsive support
Pros and Cons
- "There is room for improvement in terms of pricing."
- "The most valuable features of this solution are its performance, security, and that it is easy to use."
How has it helped my organization?
Managing active directories and middle directories, including users and accounts, is of utmost importance for organizations.
This entails implementing protective measures, enabling conditional access, and ensuring data security, among other essential aspects.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this solution are its performance, security, and that it is easy to use.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in terms of pricing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Windows Server for 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Windows Server a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of Windows Server a nine out of ten.
We have plans to increase our usage in the future.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the technical support a ten out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What was our ROI?
We have experienced a positive return on investment (ROI).
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is relatively high.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Windows Server a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Account Manager Individual Contributor at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Affordably priced, simple to install, and helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to be used in a virtualized environment."
- "I would like to see better integration with other solutions."
What is our primary use case?
I use Windows Server for the deployment of applications for users.
This is only for the duration of the project; it is not for our personal use.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to be used in a virtualized environment.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see better integration with other solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Windows Server for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Windows Server is a stable product.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is fine. They were helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have not worked with other similar solutions.
How was the initial setup?
It's a software solution.
The initial setup is straightforward.
It takes two months to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
For deployment, we have an internal technical team of three people.
What was our ROI?
Because we are not using this solution for our needs, the ROI would be more applicable to our customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of price, it's affordable.
There are additional fees to pay for support. This is more specifically to do with the license price.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated several products, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, in order to find a budget for a project solution, but the project was canceled.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.
Our company is a partner.
I would rate Windows Server a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Enterprise API Architect at Al-Futtaim Group
Beneficial application compatibility, highly scalable, and good support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Windows Server is the ease of use and the applications that are available."
- "Windows Server could improve by improving technology modernization."
What is our primary use case?
For the server-side deployment, we use Windows Server to run applications.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Windows Server is the ease of use and the applications that are available.
What needs improvement?
Windows Server could improve by improving technology modernization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Windows Server for a very long time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Windows Server is an important feature.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have approximately 200 users using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Microsoft is good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Windows Server was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation requires a full team to accomplish the task.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a license required to use Windows Server.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Windows Server a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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