Server 2008: Business Computing Rises to New Levels By Mary Shacklett From the beginning, server-based computing’s “trump card” has been its ability to bring low-cost hardware into enterprises. This hardware could deliver flexible, intuitive business software at lower price points than mainframe-based alternatives.

With Windows Server 2008, Microsoft is crossing the bridge into a province formerly “owned” by mainframes: the ability to deliver enterprise-level security, virtualization, failover, automation and network management—coupled with the server’s natural abilities for Web-based software development.

Server 2008 is designed to power the next-generation of networks, applications, and Web services. With Server 2008, you can develop, deliver, and manage rich user experiences and applications, provide a secure network infrastructure, and increase technological efficiency and value within your organization. Server 2008 also delivers new Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities that save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your IT infrastructure.

Here is where Server 2008 delivers to major projects challenging IT departments in 2008:

Virtualization and Automation

The pressure is on to consolidate the number of servers deployed in businesses for lower costs and fewer hardware assets that IT must manage and coordinate. The more IT can consolidate multiple servers into single, larger servers—and then place these larger servers “under one roof” in a central data center-the more money that can be saved on separate hardware and license purchases, not to mention on travel expenses and IT staff time for installing and trouble-shooting hardware at remote locations.

Server 2008 uses Windows Server Hyper-V technology. This allows you to consolidate multiple servers and operating systems on a single virtual machine. You eliminate separate physical servers in the process, even if they are running on non-Windows OS platforms like Linux. This is accomplished by loading all the multiple server content onto a single Microsoft Windows Server 2008 that supports multiple operating systems. Windows Server 2008 also has Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services RemoteApp, which provide remote access to standard Windows-based programs from anywhere, by running them on a terminal server instead of directly on a client computer.

New Web Initiatives for IPv6 and Componentized Software Development

Next generation Internet in the form of Internet2 will be slowly working its way into the corporate market, making IPv6 a required protocol upgrade for corporate IP networks. The “pinch” of older IPv4 protocol that most businesses are already feeling today, is that we are beginning to run out of available IP addresses under IPv4. This is a limitation that IPv6 overcomes.

Any company whose livelihood depends on securing government contracts already knows this, since government contracts now mandate that all new software runs on IPv6. Complete IPv6 integration and support come with Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

On the application software development side of the Web, over 90% of U.S. businesses now actively engage in Web services development that gives companies the ability to componentize their business software, and then reuse pieces of business logic anywhere they need to in the business. The flexibility of these reusable pieces of code provides consistent business processes throughout the company, and also saves staff development time, since the business software modules can be reused.

Ideally suited for Web services development, Windows Server 2008 comes with Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0), a Web server and security-enhanced platform for developing and hosting Web applications and services. IIS 7.0 includes a componentized architecture for greater flexibility and control-and provides powerful diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities. IIS 7.0 teams with the .NET Framework 3.0 in a comprehensive platform for building Web-based applications.

Enterprise-Strength Security

Self-defending bots, denial of service attacks, viruses and data compromises have all put security on the top of the IT list for businesses—and Windows Server 2008 has solutions.

The Windows Server 2008 operating system has been hardened to help protect against failure, and to prevent unauthorized connections to networks, servers, data, and user accounts.

Sever 2008’s Network Access Protection (NAP) helps ensure that computers that try to connect to your network comply with your organization’s security policy. Technology integration and enhancements also make Server 2008’s Active Directory services a potent unified and integrated Identity and Access (IDA) solution. Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) and BitLocker Drive Encryption allow you to more securely deploy your Active Directory database at branch office locations, and next generation cryptography (CNG) supports standard cryptographic APIs (application program interfaces), as well as business-defined cryptographic algorithms.

Simplified Network Management and Failover

Three important benefits of server virtualization are the ability to automate routine networks and server functions, the ability to centralize management of these functions, and the ability to auto-failover to alternate servers or server partitions when applications fail. All are integral to running a 24/7 business.

In support of these goals, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 has a unified management console that simplifies and streamlines server setup, configuration, and ongoing management. It is complemented by Windows PowerShell, a new command-line shell that enables network administrators to automate routine system administration tasks across multiple servers. Windows Deployment Services provides a simplified, highly secure means of rapidly deploying the operating system via network-based installations, along with Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering wizards with IPv6 support and consolidated management of Network Load Balancing. This makes high availability easier to implement even by IT generalists.

In Conclusion

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 provides a solid foundation for current and future server workload and application requirements. It is relatively easy to deploy and manage.

This server is scalable. At the high end, it can come in the form of the Windows HPC (High Performance Computing) Server 2008. This high performance solution is built on Windows Server 2008, x64-bit technology, and can efficiently scale to thousands of processing cores with out-of-the-box functionality to improve the productivity, and reduce the complexity of high computing.