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There has been a lot of media for the last 2 years surrounding Windows Vista®, Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system. Vista was released early 2007 and has five versions; three of which work in business environments. Unfortunately, despite months of anticipation, Vista has not been widely adopted, and in some cases, even downgraded to the previous Microsoft desktop system, Windows XP.
Microsoft has recently released Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and it focuses on fixing problems and not implementing new features that could break applications. The service pack provides needed hotfixes and some noticeable OS enhancements that should help with user confidence. Yet, tests show Windows XP still out performs Vista, regardless of the hardware they are running on.
For these reasons, the majority of businesses have not begun adopting and deploying Microsoft Windows Vista, as there is no strong business case to justify the migration to Vista. This paired with the complexity and cost of deploying a new OS throughout the entire organization, has many businesses holding off on migrating at this time.
What will create the business justification for Vista deployments?
Microsoft’s recently released Windows Server 2008® is the key to business adoption. Windows Server 2008 is the next-generation server platform that provides new features, added stability, increased functionality, and security enhancements when used in conjunction with Vista. Server 2008 also brings an array of new and enhanced technologies; including virtualization services, network protection, communications, and greater network management.
Since Windows NT, Microsoft has sold a workstation client to compliment their server products. Microsoft Windows Vista editions: Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise versions are clients of the Windows Server 2008 operating system. As Windows 2008 is deployed and with the release of Vista Service Pack 1, the integration will greatly increase the functionality, usability, and stability of Vista’s core features, networking services, and security. Most of the features within Vista could not be utilized within Windows 2000 and 2003 networks.
One of the advantages of Windows Server 2008 paired with Vista is that they share the same software code; this allows for simultaneous security updates and hotfixes for both products. Also, redesigned networking support provides IPv6 support, when the internet is currently IPv4. Another advantage is Microsoft has introduced Server Message Block 2.0 protocol which will speed communications between Vista and 2008 servers, and allow for better centralized management for IT Administrators. IT departments will need to run Vista on their workstations in order to manage all of the features of Server 2008.
One other major feature of Vista is the long awaited Network Access Protection (NAP) service. NAP is Microsoft’s version of Network Access Control offered by other vendors. This will prevent unauthorized and unhealthy clients, e.g. no anti-virus installed, from accessing a business’ networks and files. This feature is currently built into Vista, but it could not be used until Windows Server 2008 arrived.
Windows Server 2008 is a drastic change in Microsoft’s server product line. It has been five years since the last Windows server product, Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has taken a lot of customer and industry input in to account for Server 2008. Some notable features are:
- Server Core: Server 2008 can be installed in a scaled-back, basic install without the Windows Explorer GUI. This will allow for slim installation and specialty servers. This is similar to how Linux servers can be deployed, which made them attractive to IT professionals.
- Active Directory Roles: Microsoft is introducing new Active Directory (AD) roles intended to improved infrastructure services. IT Administrators can split and separate AD to improve domain robustness and reliability.
- Terminal Services: New to Windows 2008 is improved Terminal Services functions. Windows 2008 now has the ability to share a single application over a Remote Desktop connection. This was previously only available through 3rd-Party companies, like Citrix.
- Self-Healing NTFS: In earlier versions, if a drive or partition became corrupted, Windows would mark the corrupt area as ‘dirty’. To correct these errors, the server would have to be taken offline to be repaired. New in Server 2008, is self-healing capabilities, which repair the system while online.
- Hyper-V: Virtualization, the big buzz word for the past several years. Now businesses can partition a single server into multiple Virtual Servers to run several OS simultaneously and independent of each other.
Once IT administrators have a chance to deploy Vista on their machines and start experiencing the added features and stability, I think businesses will then deploy throughout the enterprise. With Windows Server 2008’s new features and improved functions, along-side Vista with Service Pack 1, businesses have the opportunity to increase security, reliability, and build on features that will help make their IT investment grow.
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Tareef Allah-Khalid is Vice President and CTO of IT Solutions, Inc., an Indianapolis-based IT consulting and services firm. Tareef has spent 15 years in the IT field as an infrastructure consultant. IT Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Partner provides companies services and solutions to effectively manage and implement all their infrastructure and technology needs. His site can be found at IT Solutions. He can be reached by email HERE
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