Microsoft has announced that WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) will be removed from future versions of Windows Server. The feature will remain available in Windows Server 2025 until 2034, after which organizations will have to switch to DNS permanently. According to Microsoft, DNS is the logical successor. The protocol complies with RFC 1034 and RFC 1035 and offers a distributed, hierarchical structure. WINS, on the other hand, works with a centralized replication model that scales less well.