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 and features, including offline imaging.
- Remote and batch deployment via Server Manager, which is optimized for hosting environment.
- Support for domain join and deployment on an existing domain controller, which offers more deployment flexibility including 2nd server deployments and branch office deployments.

Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter is the ideal edition for highly virtualized private and hybrid cloud environments. It provides customers with unlimited virtualization rights and all of the features of the product. The licensing for Datacenter will continue to follow a processor plus CAL model, however now, each license will cover up to two physical processors on a server.