April 24, 2003 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Software giant Microsoft Corporation today announced the official release of Windows Server 2003, the latest version of its integrated server platform. In conjunction with the flagship server platform, Microsoft also announced the availability of Visual Studio .NET 2003 and SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit).
Speaking at the Windows Server 2003 launch event in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer declared that "it is the right time" for a new server platform. This was especially true, Ballmer emphasized, in an economy where enterprises are demanding more return for their IT dollar in light of the drastically reduced IT spending budgets that pervade the industry.
Economic conditions have created the need to "do more with less," said Ballmer. Designed to meet enterprise workloads, Microsoft said Windows 2003 boasts greater reliability, improved IT efficiency, superior manageability, robust security and scalability that it leverages to deliver significantly higher levels of overall performance. After extensive case testing, Microsoft reports that the new server platform enables customers to run their server infrastructure 30 percent faster than the Windows NT 4.0 system.
At the launch event, Ballmer stressed that security was a major focal point of the new product. "Security has been a job one issue with our customers," he said. "It has really been an area of focus."
The increased security and efficiency of Microsoft's latest operating system will have a strong impact on Web hosting service providers that require high levels of performance to manage large server farms and run multiple applications simultaneously, Pascal Martin, General Manager, platform and application hosting for the Network Service Provider Group at Microsoft, told The Web Host Industry Review.
According to Martin, Windows Server 2003 helps optimize performance and efficiency in all facets of the hosting process. And this will help hosting service providers "move forward in quality and reliability of services offered to end users," he said.
Increased efficiency and performance also translates into savings in management costs that hosting providers can ultimately pass on to end users, explained Martin. "That's what we are trying to help them with."
Microsoft partners and vendors within the Web hosting industry were well prepared for the launch. Several companies both large and small announced support for the new platform today, including Intel, F5 Networks, myhosting.com, Invotion and complex Web hosting firm Digex, which unveiled several hosting services based on a two-year co-engineering effort with Microsoft's Joint Development Program (JDP). "In 1996, Digex was the first to announce a dedicated hosting offering for Windows NT Server 4.0," said Joe Crawford, assistant vice president for engineering at Digex, in a statement. "We have worked closely with Microsoft to understand the new architecture and features and to identify how these changes will impact customers in Digex's enterprise hosting environment."
Meanwhile, hardware giant Dell said it had deployed over 9,000 of its PowerEdge servers running Windows Server 2003 at customer sites around the world, including at Intensive Hosting, the enterprise hosting division of Texas-based Rackspace Managed Hosting.
Intensive, a Windows-only Web hosting firm, was given early access to the platform as part of Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 Rapid Adoption Program. The company was able to beta test the product in a full production environment for six months prior to its general release, and now relies on it to run the division's entire internal Windows infrastructure, including its Active Directory and monitoring infrastructure.
"With Windows Server 2003 in a production environment, we’ve developed a real life testing ground where we’ve installed, upgraded, patched and developed applications on the new operating system and the .Net framework," said Graham Weston, president of Intensive Hosting. "The early access granted by the Rapid Adoption Program enabled us to gain a wealth of experience with the product before it was generally available. And that is experience we pass along to our customers."
Prior to today's launch, Microsoft reported that over one million customers had downloaded the Windows Server 2003 preview code made available through its Corporate Preview Program. For more information on Microsoft Server 2003, visit www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/default.mspx.
