The base installation of Windows Server has a number of services enabled that are not necessarily required for the intended purpose of the server. It is recommended to review the role(s) each server is configured for and optimize the OS accordingly. Especially those servers with high demand such as SQL Servers, RD Session Hosts and RD Gateway servers. Some optimizations must be done locally but it is highly recommended to utilize Group Policy to perform optimizations. Below are some recommendations to consider for your server deployments in the cloud.