In Windows Server 2012 R2, the Windows Server Essentials user experience is integrated as a Windows Server role, referred to as Windows Server Essentials Experience. The server role integration enables the following technical capabilities:
- Standard deployment approach with other server roles & features, including offline imaging.
- Remote & batch deployment via Server Manager, which is optimized for hosting environment.
- Support for domain join & deployment on an existing domain controller, which offers more deployment flexibility including 2nd server deployments & branch office deployments. Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard is ideal for physical computing or lightly virtualized environments. This provides customers with an additional virtual instance for a total of 2 virtual instances & all of the features, just like Datacenter edition.