In case you haven’t heard, in addition to recently announcing a new NVMe native driver for Windows Server 2025 back in December 2025, Microsoft has now introduced a new Windows NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF, aka NVMe-oF) Initiator Preview in the latest Windows Server Insiders Builds.
With the preview of this new NVMeoF initiator, Microsoft is moving closer to delivering enhanced server storage I/O performance by embracing NVMe as both a native storage target and a native NVMe host server initiator. While the new NVMe native storage stack driver was released for production back in December 2025, this new host initiator capability is available as a preview in the latest Windows Server insider build.
By adding a native NVMeoF initiator, Microsoft is enabling organizations to use shared networked block software-defined and SAN storage using the faster NVMe protocol, rather than traditional SCSI/iSCSI/SCSI_FCP(FC) protocol-based interfaces. In addition to supporting native direct-attached NVMe storage, Microsoft Windows servers (insider build) now support the streamlined NVMe server storage I/O stack over networks, including Ethernet and RDMA fabrics.
Announcing Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025 (Microsoft Post)
Introducing the Windows NVMe-oF Initiator Preview in Windows Server Insiders Builds (Microsoft Post)
Windows Server Insider Builds (Microsoft Downloads)
TheNVMeplace.com (Various NVMe resources)
Azure Cloud Storage here (Microsoft Post)
Microsoft Azure Data Box (Blog Post)
Azure Elastic SAN from Cloud to On-Prem here (Blog Post)
Cloud and Software Defined Data Infrastructure topics here
Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers) pertaining to Cloud, Hardware, Software, Services, techniques, server, storage, I/O networking, data protection among other topics are found in my Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.
While this new Windows Server host NVMe over Fabric (NVMeoF aka NVMe-oF) initiator for block storage is currently available as part of a Windows Server insiders build, it provides a means for organizations to begin testing native NVMe connectivity via Windows Servers to their existing SAN and other networked software defined storage servers via fabrics including Ethernet along with RDMA based. Learn more about this new initiator, along with how to try it out for yourself via this Microsoft blog post that includes instructions on how to setup your own NVMeoF storage target if you dont have one.
Ok, nuff said.
Cheers Gs
Greg Schulz – Ten time Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management and Azure Storage, along with previous ten-time VMware vExpert. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.
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