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With a growing number of cyber-security threats and the impact of incidents escalating quickly, security is a top priority for Microsoft customers. Windows Server 2022 includes security capabilities like secured-core server and secure connectivity.

Secured-core server brings powerful threat protection together to provide multi-layer security across hardware, firmware, and the operating system. It uses the Trusted Platform Module 2.0 and System Guard to boot up Windows Server securely and minimize risk from firmware vulnerabilities. Secured-core server also includes virtualization-based security (VBS) features like Credential Guard and Hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI). Credential Guard provides preventative defense for sensitive assets like credentials, and HVCI applies hardware - rooted security to prevent advanced malware from tampering with the system.

Secured connectivity adds an additional layer of security during transport for advanced protection. Windows Server 2022 improves connection security with faster and more secure encrypted hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) and transport layer security (TLS) 1.3 enabled by default. Customers can also further secure server communications with industry-standard AES-256 encryption, which now supports server message block (SMB) protocol and better controls.

Azure Arc enables customers to manage, secure, and govern Windows Server on-premises, at the edge, or in multi-cloud environments from a single control plane in Azure. Through Azure Arc, customers can easily employ Azure management capabilities such as Azure Policy, Azure Monitor, and Azure Defender for those servers. What's more, a few simple clicks in Windows Admin Center can enable connectivity to Azure Arc.

Windows Server 2022 enhances the seamless connectivity of file servers on-premises to file servers on Azure. Updates to Storage Migration Service allow customers to migrate file servers from certain network access storage (NAS) and Windows File Servers to Windows Servers on Azure. Using Storage Migration Service to migrate data to servers allows customers to maintain low latency while reducing their on-premises storage footprint.