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The launch of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 on April 24, 2003 was done with little fanfare, compared to the release of Windows XP or 2000. Nonetheless, this was another push by the dominant desktop player to gain more of a foothold in a number of different market segments that Microsoft has lost ground in recent years.
With the release of four different editions or incarnations, it was to spearhead more direct attacks onto areas that were traditional strongholds of UNIX and its variants including web servers, networking and high-end mission-critical services.
The new editions all contain the updated Internet Information Server (IIS) 6.0, a competitor to the Apache web server. Due to the history of exploits committed against IIS in the past, Microsoft decided to redevelop the web serving application from the ground up to improve not only security, but also performance and stability.
In the past year, viruses such as Code Red and Nimda have caused havoc on the Internet by exploiting IIS vulnerabilities, and adding to Microsoft public relation woes.
Windows Server 2003 also implemented some components of Microsoft’s much hyped .NET platform by including the .NET framework that takes advantage of the new development technology. Such inclusion allows developers to create web applications and services that been dominated by JAVA in the last half decade.
To accommodate the dynamics of the marketplace, the company released four editions of Windows Server 2003: Web, Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter. Each is developed to target particular segments of the enterprise from web serving to networking. The editions are characterized by the type of hardware they support from 2-512GB of RAM, 1-64 Way SMP support, and price. The Web edition retails at a recommended price of $399.
Low-end hosting markets have traditional been strongholds of UNIX, and the Web edition was a way to address this imbalance, and take back some of the initiative. Web hosting vendors including Digex and Ev1Servers (formerly known as Rack Shack) were offering Windows 2003 Web edition packages within months of the launch. These major players were a coup for Microsoft as Ev1Servers is a well-known low-end player.
Although the new editions offer a number of new features and subtle changes, the have been some hesitation by businesses to adopt the new operating system. Some older versions of the company’s SQL Server (version 6.5 and 7) and Exchange 2000 and older versions are not supported. In some cases, like the Web edition, there is no support SQL Servers.
Clearly areas, such as, databases and mail are sensitive to any business, and without it, it is difficult to press businesses to update.
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