Windows Server 2012 R2 is at the heart of the Microsoft Cloud OS and provides a unique server and
datacenter platform that allows you to easily and cost-effectively cloud optimize your business. This articles will provide an overview of what’s new Windows Storage Server 2012  R2 including it’s features, File server features and other Enhancements:

Windows Server 2012  &  Windows Storage Server 2012:

Great Storage Improvements with 2012!

• Storage Spaces
• 64-node clusters
• SMB3
• Scale-Out File Server
• 8,000 VMs per Cluster
• Offload Data Transfer
• Dedup
• Hyper-V Replica
• Virtual Fibre Channel
• VM Prioritization
• ReFS
• Cluster-Aware Updating
• iSCSI Target Server
• VM Storage Migration
• VHDX

 New Approach to Storage:

Strategic shifts to reducing storage costs with Windows Server 2012 Software-Defined Storage

New Storage Features in 2012 R2:

Software-Defined Storage Appliances

Introducing Work Folders

Allow information workers to access their individual data

… that is centrally located on a traditional file server

… from all of their devices

… from wherever they are

… while remaining in compliance with policies

 SMB3 – File Server Features

• SMB Transparent Failover – Continuous availability
• SMB Scale-Out – Active/active clusters with auto-rebalancing
• SMB Multichannel – Network fault tolerance and throughput
• SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) – Low latency, low CPU utilization
• SMB Encryption – Security in flight, without IPSec or PKI
• Directory Leasing – Coherent caching of file and folder metadata
• VSS for SMB File Shares – Application-consistent backup/restore
• SMB PowerShell and VMM Support – Manage and automate