Monday, May 5, 2003		Feature

Spicing up the server scenario
Roopinder Singh

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, announces the general availability of Windows Server 2003, in San Francisco. Ballmer is standing next to an HP server that will utilise Server 2003. — Reuters

Servers that serve computers are actually more powerful than the computers that they serve, an interesting paradox. When we talk about a server, we are referring to a powerful computer connected over a network to a large number of computers. It shares data and/or applications with them. Servers in office environments have practically been monopolised by the Windows operating system (OS). However, Windows has not been able to find a foothold in the high-end server market, which is dominated by UNIX. Such computers run on RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processors as opposed to the Intel versions that power most Windows machines.

Obviously, Microsoft wants to change the situation and in its most serious effort so far, it launched Windows Server 2003 last fortnight, with which it wants to make inroads into the high-end server market. This has been made easier with the usual help from Intel, this time in the form of Itanium 2 processor. With the release of the operating system came a demonstration of a $6.4 million HP Superdome server that has 64 Itanium processors.

Grandson of NT 4

Of course, system administrators will have to look beyond the hype and assess their needs, but this is billed as a "comprehensive, integrated and secure infrastructure designed to help customers reduce costs and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of IT operations," and is an extension of the Windows 2000 family. It is expected to be robust and secure, which accounts for its name and release dates being changed four times. It was originally scheduled to be released in 2001. Millions of computers run the Windows NT 4 OS, which may be said to be the grandfather of the new baby, and it is expected that many will want to upgrade to Windows Server 2003.

Log in...Tribune asked Rajiv Kaul, MD, Microsoft India, about the marketing strategies being adopted for the latest OS. Yasir Yousuff, Senior Marketing Manager, Microsoft India, responded to the product-related queries. The following are excerpts from their responses:

Windows Server 2003 includes new features and improvements that make it the most reliable, enterprise-ready server OS that Microsoft has created to date.

IT professionals know that device drivers are the leading cause of unplanned downtime, so we’ve made a number of changes in how Windows Server 2003 handles device driver checking and support, including blocking drivers that are known to hang on a majority of systems. Other innovations include enabling applications to run in process isolation, COM+ and IIS 6.0 application recycling, memory mirroring for fault tolerance, new clustering capabilities, and side-by-side DLL installs.

The trustworthy computing initiative is an investment that will demonstrate returns in the long term. With Windows Server 2003, we have made significant strides in making our product more secure for all audiences. Microsoft spent nearly $200 million in training 13,000 Windows developers on new security-focused development techniques, implementing new engineering processes, and completing a security review of Windows Server 2003.

Secure by design and default

Besides fixing bugs, developers also found a number of other ways to tighten security by design in Windows Server 2003. For example, the team removed the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) feature from Windows Server 2003 because you need UPnP on your desktop or home PC to find other devices, but it’s not something you need on a server.

In the past, product features were typically enabled by default. Today, Microsoft has turned that policy around and is much more likely to choose the most secure option as the default setting. With Windows Server 2003, Microsoft disabled or reduced the privileges of more than 20 different services by default, including Internet Information Services 6.0.

Secure by deployment

One of the things we found in working with customers and other industry security experts is that 95 per cent of all security problems were caused by misconfiguration.

Microsoft has built a knowledge base of best practices related to how servers should be deployed according to role, and created a wizard that asks the person deploying the server a few simple questions about their environment. The wizard then configures the server for the optimal secure state.

The launch of Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2000 64 bit, Visual Studio .NET is the cornerstone of Microsoft’s enterprise strategy of delivering unmatched business value, enabling customers to achieve greater efficiencies at lower costs. With this new range we will consolidate our position in the enterprise space and grow our existing market share.

Microsoft will work closely with its hardware and ISV partners to ensure customer support.

IT administrators are challenged to build secure and manageable infrastructures, while reducing downtime and operational costs. Windows Server 2003 has been designed to support the demands of today’s businesses by delivering consistently high levels of reliability, scalability and manageability while consistently delivering breakthroughs in cost reduction and accelerated return on investment.