FREMONT, CA: Microsoft announces the release of Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5, a test build that includes Nano Server as an option while installing Windows Server 2016. Nano Server is similar to Windows Server in Server Core mode but considerably smaller in size and only supports 64-bit applications, tools and agents.

Nano Server is a remotely administered server operating system optimized for private clouds and datacenters. It is container friendly and distributes services with the Graphical User Interface (GUI). Nano Server does nothave local logon capabilities, occupies lesser disk space and sets up significantly faster. It also requires far fewer updates and restarts than Windows Server. When it restarts, it does at a much faster speed. According to Microsoft's estimates, Nano Server's image is 25 times smaller than that of a full Windows Server image with the desktop functionality.

The Nano Server installation option is available for the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2016.

Use case scenarios ideal for the Nano Server include:

 Nano Server can be used as a “compute” host for Hyper-V virtual machines, either in clusters or not; Nano Server used as a storage host for Scale-Out File Server; Nano Server used as a DNS server; as a web server running Internet Information Services (IIS); and Nano Server used as a host for applications that are developed using cloud application patterns and run in a container or virtual machine guest operating system.