Five superpowered Windows Server 2012 R2 features

Another Windows Server sidekick that exists in the cloud and acts as a defend-Microsoft-Azure Active Directory.

Azure Active Directory is a cloud service that enables administrators to manage end user identities and access privileges. The Azure service allows identity management preferences to be replicated from on-premises servers to Microsoft Azure.

Beyond the free Azure Active Directory, Active Directory Premium provides additional features including user self-service password reset, group-based application access, additional security reports and a corporate branding option.

Azure Active Directory can help admins migrate away from an on-premises Exchange deployment to Office 365. In fact, Office 365 was the test bed for Azure Active Directory before it had a wider release.

More resources on Windows Server 2012 R2 features

Learn about how Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 can boost performance
Read about the Hyper-V features in Windows Server 2012
Discover how the Storage Qos feature in Windows Server 2012 R2 works