Encryption is an important topic, and Microsoft has been doing a great job improving the security of its products and operating systems over the years. They"re continuing that trend by introducing native SSH support into Windows, although the exact implementation date is currently unknown. For those who may not know, SSH (also known as Secure Shell) is a command line tool used in the UNIX/Linux world to connect to remote servers using encrypted connections.
Not only will users be able to use OpenSSH to connect to remote servers, but according to Angel Calvo, the software engineering manager for the PowerShell team, Windows machines will also be running a service that allows remote machines to connect as well. This functionality will ease management of large deployments of servers.
In addition to adding the functionality, the announcement also made clear that Microsoft will be contributing directly to the OpenSSH project itself. While there may be some concerns that the company will try to put a backdoor into the code to assist in government spying, we suspect that fear would be unfounded since the code will be under a high amount of scrutiny.
Before we get too excited, this is now the third time Microsoft has said they will support SSH within PowerShell, as the first two attempts failed. The difference this time is, according to Calvo, that the company is fully behind this added feature. We"ll have to wait and see how long it takes Microsoft to incorporate the functionality, but we suspect sysadmins around the world will be excited to hear this news.