Microsoft officially unveils Windows Server 2003

By Alun Williams

Posted on 23 Apr 2003 at 17:24

Long-awaited and extensively beta tested, the next generation of Microsoft server software is officially unveiled today.

It's a triumvirate of releases. Along with Visual Studio .Net 2003 and a 64-bit version of SQL Server 2000, there is a new version of Windows Server 2003.

The major significance of this release is the advance Microsoft is making into the enterprise market. The Server 2003 product family addresses the business needs of large-scale corporations, as opposed to the traditional desktop-based consumer of yore.

The server-side responsibilities include providing file and print servers, Web servers, streaming media servers, terminal servers and VPN (virtual private network) servers, as well as DNS (Domain Name System) and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) services.

The main headline features for Windows Server 2003 are improved Active Directory support, Windows Rights Management Services, support for the 'Greenwich'-based real-time enterprise messaging system, 'out of the box' wireless networking (802.11b), and support for the .Net framework (the basis for Microsoft's use of Web services).

In terms of Active Directory (AD), the UI has been beefed up with drag and drop support and there's greater flexibility for general AD management, including the ability to backtrack on actions. 'There is nothing in Active Directory that is not undo-able,' Dave Sayers, a Microsoft Senior Consultant, told us.

The Windows Rights Management Services can attach privileges to documents that remain with them no matter where they end up. It means authors can predetermine whether documents can be printed, edited or emailed, for example.

Other features in Server 2003 include the ability to export from test environments to production environments, volume shadow copying and some element of health detection, such as the automatic restarting of defined processes.

The Web Edition of Windows Server 2003 includes the latest version of Microsoft's Web Server, IIS 6 (Internet Information Services). Version 6.0 sees a re-architecting of IIS - including improved management features and support for the .Net framework - and you can read the technical details here.

In the server family there are Standard, Enterprise, DataCenter and Web editions. You can read Microsoft's overview at microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/.

A 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 for AMD's new Opteron processor is going into beta. Both Windows Server 2003 64-bit and SQL Server 64-bit are expected to be available for the Opteron by the end of the year.

The release sees the introduction of a 'Windows Server System' brand. According to Paul Flessner, senior VP of the Microsoft Server Platform Division: 'By aligning the new brand with the server platform, we are clarifying that our long-term server business and technology strategy starts with Windows Server at the foundation. With this new brand, we are emphasizing to our customers and industry partners the business value of a top-to-bottom integrated server infrastructure.'

Some stats released by Microsoft concerning Windows Server 2003, as of today's launch. Beta code has been distributed to a million people, and 9,493 servers have already been deployed using the software. How many people have worked on the system? It involved 5,000 developers working over three years to produce and 2,500 people were involved in its testing. The software itself contains around 50 million lines of code.