Windows Embedded & IoT Server

Latest generation with:

• Modern security & performance
• Hybrid integration with Azure Arc
• Next-gen Active Directory
• Easier upgrades & hot-patching
• AI workload support

• Windows Server IoT 2025 Standard
• Windows Server IoT 2025 Datacenter
• Windows Server IoT 2025 – Storage Standard
• Windows Server IoT 2025 – Storage Workgroup
• Windows Server IoT 2025 – Telecommunications

A dedicated CAL-less edition is available as a separate SKU for Windows Server IoT 2025. It provides the full server functionality without requiring Client Access Licenses — ideal for NAS, SAN gateway, storage, and telecom appliance scenarios where CAL-based licensing does not apply.

See the dedicated CAL-less page for full use case coverage, qualification rules, edition comparison (2019 / 2022 / 2025), and ordering information.

Standard Windows Server requires a Client Access License (CAL) for every user or device connecting to it. For embedded appliances — NAS devices, telecom gateways, retail servers, kiosk backends — counting anonymous clients is impractical or impossible. The CAL-less edition removes this requirement entirely: unlimited, anonymous client access is included in the single per-appliance license.

CAL-less editions exist for all current Server IoT generations:

• Windows Server IoT 2025 CAL-less — extended support October 2034
• Windows Server IoT 2022 CAL-less — extended support December 2031
• Windows Server IoT 2019 CAL-less — extended support January 2029

• NAS / SAN gateway appliances
• Telecom & network infrastructure (routers, IPTV, UC gateways)
• Retail & hospitality back-office servers
• Industrial & medical appliance servers
• Digital signage content servers
• Edge compute & IoT gateway servers

Edition comparison, qualification rules, and ordering information on the dedicated page.

SQL Server 2025 is the first relational database with native AI capabilities designed for the edge:

• Native vector data type and vector distance functions (cosine, Euclidean, dot product)
• Built-in RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipeline support
• Call AI inference endpoints directly from T-SQL
• Execute ONNX models inside the database engine with PREDICT()
• DiskANN vector index for high-performance approximate nearest neighbor search
• Native JSON data type for structured AI response handling

All available with predictable per-device IoT licensing — no CALs, no subscriptions.

• Microsoft SQL Server 2025 IoT Enterprise
• Microsoft SQL Server 2025 IoT Standard

Detailed feature breakdown, edition comparison, AI use cases, and ordering information.

Enhanced security features:

• Secured-Core Server protection
• SMB network encryption by default
• Automatic Windows Admin Center updates
• Customizable VM management
• Automated extension lifecycle

• Windows Server IoT 2022 Standard
• Windows Server IoT 2022 Datacenter
• Windows Server IoT 2022 – Storage Standard
• Windows Server IoT 2022 – Storage Workgroup
• Windows Server IoT 2022 – Telecommunications

• Microsoft SQL Server 2022 IoT Enterprise
• Microsoft SQL Server 2022 IoT Standard

Cloud-inspired technologies for embedded:

• First server or data center
• Manage IT infrastructure challenges
• Proven & highly available platform

• Windows Server IoT 2019 Standard
• Windows Server IoT 2019 Datacenter
• Windows Server IoT 2019 – Essentials
• Windows Server IoT 2019 – Telecommunications

• Microsoft SQL Server 2019 IoT Enterprise
• Microsoft SQL Server 2019 IoT Standard

• Microsoft SQL Server 2017 IoT Enterprise
• Microsoft SQL Server 2017 IoT Standard

• Windows Server 2016 for Embedded Systems Standard
• Windows Server 2016 for Embedded Systems – Essentials
• Windows Server 2016 for Embedded Systems – Telecommunications
• Windows Server 2016 for Embedded Systems Datacenter
• Windows Server 2016 Remote Desktop Services CAL for Embedded Systems
• Windows Server 2016 for Embedded Systems Client Access License
• Windows Storage Server 2016 Standard
• Windows Storage Server 2016 Workgroup

Advanced NAS solution:

• New levels of performance & reliability
• Network Attached Storage platform
• Reduce storage costs
• Industry standard hardware

• Windows Server IoT 2019 for Storage Standard
• Windows Storage Server 2016 Standard
• Windows Storage Server 2016 Workgroup
• Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 – Workgroup Edition
• Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 – Standard Edition
• Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 – Essentials
• Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 – Enterprise Edition
• Windows Storage Server 2008 – Basic/Standard/Workgroup/Enterprise

Proven & robust platform:

• Binary identical to Windows Server
• Highly available & reliable
• Long-term product availability
• Increase hardware utilization
• Optimize data storage efficiency

• Windows Server 2012 – Standard Edition
• Windows Server 2012 – Essentials
• Windows Server 2012 – Telecommunications – Standard Edition
• Windows Server 2012 – Datacenter Edition
• Windows Server 2012 Client Access License
• Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services CAL

• Windows Server 2008 R2 – Standard/Enterprise/Essentials Editions
• Windows Server 2008 R2 – Telecommunications Standard/Enterprise
• Windows Server 2008 – Client Access License

Available in Standard, Enterprise, Essentials, and Telecommunications editions, with and without Hyper-V variants.

• SQL Server 2014 – Business Intelligence
• SQL Server 2014 – Client Access License
• SQL Server 2014 – Enterprise/Standard Edition

Mission Critical Confidence:

• Greater uptime
• Blazing-fast performance
• Enhanced security
• Managed self-service data exploration
• Cloud on your own terms

Available in Workgroup, Standard, and Enterprise editions with corresponding Client Access Licenses.

More than NAS:

• Manage digital media across PCs
• Protect & organize photography
• Music, video & documents management