Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Scalability

Related Links • Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition Home Page • Enterprise Edition Product Overview • Enterprise Edition Reliability • Enterprise Edition Security • Running Mission-Critical Applications • Selecting a Platform for Your ERP System • The Business Value of Migrating from UNIX to Windows Server System Download EEScalability.doc 1135 KB Microsoft Word file

Summary

Server scalability is a key requirement to meet changing business needs. Not only must today’s IT solutions deliver adequate levels of throughput to meet current peak processing requirements, but they must also offer a cost-effective path for scaling to support greater workloads in the future. Growth in customer transactions, supporting new sales channels, keeping in compliance with regulatory issues, integrating with new partners, and mining volumes of information to turn raw data into actionable business intelligence are just a few of the business requirements that can drive the need for additional processing power.

With Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Microsoft has raised the bar on server scalability and performance. Optimizations at all levels of the operating system deliver increased throughput for all common server workloads, especially on systems with more than eight processors.

This white paper examines performance- and scalability-related changes in the Windows Server 2003 operating system. It begins with the core operating system enhancements that affect all major server workloads, followed by an examination of workload-specific changes and throughput gains for several common server workloads: database, Web, file, Active Directory, Terminal Services, and Windows Media Services.

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