Overview of Windows Storage Solutions
Learn how the Windows Server 2003 integrated storage and productivity platform can reduce the complexities and cost of managing your storage infrastructure while increasing user productivity by bringing a new level of file sharing to your organization.
Business Continuity
IT professionals know that the key to keeping their organization's data protected and highly available is to expect the unexpected. They also know that to adequately prepare for the unexpected—whether natural disaster, equipment malfunction, or software crashes—a single strategy is vulnerable in an environment with a multiplicity of risks.
The Windows Server family provides the system administrator with the flexibility and tools to tailor robust, cost–effective strategies that help to ensure business continuance, whether the threat to operations is as far reaching as the outage of an entire branch office or as localized as the loss of a single user file.
Overview
Ensure Business Continuity with the Windows Server 2003 Platform
Learn how Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003 can help ensure business continuity.
Solutions for Branch Offices
Discover ways to reduce management and wide-area networking costs through Microsoft's branch office approach—highlighted by the Branch Office Infrastructure Solution, a set of prescriptive architectural guidance for remote office infrastructure.
Partner Solutions
Microsoft, in alliance with industry partners, can help your organization ensure business continuity.
Branch Office Data Consolidation
Register to download this whitepaper from Legato that highlights critical challenges in managing Exchange for branch office and SME business which can be solved with replication technologies.
Explore the Power of Real-Time Replication
Running NSI Software's Double-Take on Windows Storage Server 2003 arms businesses with a cost-effective solution to ensure continuity of highly available data and quick recovery from disasters.
Server Consolidation
Fueled by demands of the Internet, e–commerce, and automation, we have seen IT infrastructure, costs, and management complexity continue to grow at a rapid pace. A significant proportion of enterprise server infrastructure is typically dedicated to file serving. Controlling the proliferation of file servers through consolidation can help organizations do the following: Reduce Costs Implementing a dedicated file serving infrastructure reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) by lowering equipment acquisition and management costs.
Simplify Management Consolidating servers helps to streamline management processes, reduce overhead, and enable organizations to more effectively focus on business strategy and customer needs.
Deliver Business Agility Deploying reliable, scalable server solutions helps your enterprise to more effectively meet current business needs and to respond quickly to changing business requirements.
Events
A Shop Talk Discussion On How Microsoft IT Does Server Consolidation
Recently, Microsoft IT used new management techniques, technologies and product features to consolidate nearly 30% of its infrastructure server base. Join us as we review in detail our Model Enterprise Infrastructure (MEI) initiative, discussing the overall projects and technical specifics on how we made these significant strides in infrastructure server consolidation.
Overview
Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003 introduce new and enhanced features for storage management that improve reliability while also making it easier to manage and maintain disks and volumes, to back up and restore data, and to connect to storage area networks.
Windows Server Family New Features and Benefits
The multipurpose nature of Windows Server 2003 makes it a robust platform for consolidation of print, file, web, or domain servers. Windows Storage Server 2003, a dedicated file and print server, can be used to consolidate file and print servers, as well as to provide highly scalable storage capacity.
Partner Solutions
Microsoft, in alliance with industry partners, can help your organization ensure business continuity.
Quest Software
Explore how the Quest solutions can help you with:
| • | Storage Suite for Windows. Quest Storage Suite for Windows, including Storage Manager for Windows and Storage Consolidator for Windows, empowers an organization to optimize its Windows-based storage network by performing storage assessment, managing data consolidation, and automating ongoing data management tasks. |
| • | Storage Optimization Offering. Use the Quest Consolidator to determine potential TCO of consolidating to Windows Storage Server 2003 tools. |
Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit
File Server Migration Toolkit (FSMT) provides several tools that simplify the migration of file servers and minimize the impact of migration on end users and line-of-business applications.
Consolidating NAS Pays Off
Storage Magazine (March 2004): Registration required "108th Division faced a massive consolidation challenge, moving the workload of 23 Windows servers at 23 locations to eight data centers. Instead, it opted for a set of network-attached storage (NAS) appliances running Microsoft Corp.'s latest storage operating system, Windows Storage Server 2003."
Support for SAN
Enhancements to the Windows Server 2003 platform of products have increased the platform's ability to integrate with storage area networks (SANs).
Overview
Enhanced built-in support for SAN hardware from multiple vendors allows easier, more reliable access to organizational data, without the need for third–party tools.
Windows Support for SAN
The multipurpose nature of Windows Server 2003 makes it a robust platform for consolidation of print, file, web, or domain servers. Windows Storage Server 2003, a dedicated file and print server, can be used to consolidate file and print servers, as well as to provide highly scalable storage capacity.
More Information
White Paper: Brocade SAN Security Framework in a Microsoft Windows Enterprise Environment
Until recently, security was not considered a major issue in storage networks. Dedicated storage was assumed secure by nature, and storage networks were mostly installed within the bounds of physically secure data centers. However, with the rapid growth of storage networks, security concerns and threats have grown accordingly.
White Paper: Windows Servers in a Storage Area Network Environment
Storage area network (SAN) technology, once restricted to large organizations and mainframe environments, is becoming more common in mid-sized organizations that need to store and share access to large amounts of data. With the development of Internet SCSI (iSCSI) technologies, the benefits of SAN technologies are likely to extend even to small organizations.
White Paper: Boot from SAN in Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server
This white paper describes boot from SAN technology in a Windows environment, the advantages and complexities of the technology, and a number of key SAN boot deployment scenarios.
Knowledge Base Article: Support for Booting from a Storage Area Network
This article describes the supportability of having a Windows server boot from a SAN.
Windows Meets the SAN, Part 1 Webcast
Register to watch this webcast and learn how Microsoft and its partners are able to offer solutions for any storage configuration, making high-end resilient storage solutions easy for all businesses. Participating Partners: HP, EqualLogic, QLogic, Xiotech.
Data Protection
The Windows Server 2003 operating systems deliver the flexible, high performance server capacity that is the foundation of your IT infrastructure, as well as the dependability to ensure that your stored data is accessible and secure at all times.
Whether your infrastructure includes multipurpose servers with direct attached storage or dedicated network attached storage servers, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003 are designed to deliver dependable, highly protected storage.
Overview
Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003 introduce new and enhanced features for storage management that improve reliability while making it easier to manage and maintain disks and volumes, to back up and restore data, and to connect to storage area networks. Microsoft Windows Data Protection Manager, a product introduced in 2005, builds upon the capabilities of Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003.
Data Protection and Dependable Storage with Windows Server 2003 Operating Systems
Companies of all sizes can benefit from the dependable management and protection of information available in the Windows Server 2003 operating systems.
System Center Data Protection Manager 2005
See how enterprises of all sizes can reduce costs and improve their agility by protecting their business critical data more efficiently. Data Protection Manager helps accomplish this goal by providing nearly continuous data protection and rapid, reliable data recovery at a lower total cost of ownership.
Additional Resources
Dependable Storage Datasheet
Whether your IT infrastructure is global or just a few local workgroups, you can benefit from Windows Storage Server 2003's effective, reliable means of sharing files and storage.