Exclusive interview: Windows .Net Server

By Alun Williams

Posted on 30 Sep 2002 at 15:20

Windows .Net Server is on the horizon - Microsoft's next-generation server software. When Microsoft released details of Release Candidate 2 (RC2), we caught up with Mark Tennant, Windows Server Product Manager.

We began by sorting out the details of the roadmap...

Windows .Net Server (RC1) was released this summer?

Mark Tennant: Yes, we released Candidate One in August and we are looking at RC2, which will be the final one, next month. The product is still on schedule to reach manufacturing before the end of the year, so sometime in December. And then to get RTM (Release To Manufacturing code) out on the street to customers can take eight weeks... We are looking to launch the product early 2003.

Early in the year rather than mid-2003?

Tennant: Yes, Q1

How will RC2 be made available?

Tennant: RC1 was made widely available so customers could get it through the Web site and through the customer preview program. RC2 probably won't be distributed so widely, there won't be any new features as such. There's not going to be a huge difference between that and RC1.

It'll be available through MSDN?

Tennant: Yes, and through the Web (www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/preview/evaluation.asp) which will be the best means, with access to newsgroups and forums and other resources. It's best to go there.

Is it correct to describe Windows .Net Server as the unification of the various Microsoft's Server products, e.g. the upgrade path for NT Server and Windows 2000 Server users?

Tennant: Yes, we've been talking to a number of customers about it. The thing is that there are a number of customers still on NT4 and the general feedback we got is that they're waiting to see what happens with Windows 2000 and beyond. And the majority of those customers are saying 'Yes, we'll go to Windows.Net Server'. And if you look at the development of the product itself, about 50 per of the development cycle for Windows .Net server was in the area of enhancements and tweaks for Windows 2000, improving the existing Windows 2000 platform... An 'evolution not revolution' for W2K customers to move to Windows .Net. Another thing we wanted to make sure was that if you were a Windows NT customer it would be as easy as possible to move to Windows .Net Server.

How, in practice, will that transition be made easy?

Tennant: There are a number of areas. I guess one of the biggest area involves Active Directories. We have seen that a lot of customers using W2K are now in the process of planning or deploying Active Directory. And the feedback we got was that, basically, 'you have to make Active Directory exactly right before we deploy'. So we have made Active Directory within Windows .Net a lot more flexible with extra features, in terms of merging company domains, support for rollback, UI privileges...

In terms of the roadmap - with .Net due early next year - what evolutions are planned in the meantime for the likes of Windows 200 Server and NT Server? Will they be 'frozen'?

Tennant: The way we look at it is that we do have some new products coming out - such as System Management Server 2003. That will be out before Windows .Net because you can use that to help you with .Net deployments. And a number of new products will be coming out, the new SQL Server for instance, and 64-bit versions of products...