Increasing Storage Capacity, Data Backup Gets Easier, More Economical with Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 Feature Pack for Managing Exchange Server Storage
SAN DIEGO—May 24, 2004—Small and medium-sized businesses have a continuing and compelling need to contain and, wherever possible, reduce IT costs. And as e-mail has become a critical communication and collaboration tool for businesses, deploying efficient and economical messaging systems has become a priority for business owners and IT administrators alike.
Of particular concern to small and medium businesses using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003 is cost-effectively building adequate storage capacity into their networks. Large enterprises can rely on storage area networks (SANs) based on fibre channel (FC) technology to provide robust, scalable storage for their users. But SANs are generally cost-prohibitive for deployment in small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), which are as dependent on uninterrupted messaging service as large concerns.
Small and medium businesses now have a low-cost, efficient solution to their messaging system storage needs with today's release of the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 feature pack with support for Exchange Server 2003. This feature pack provides a solution for Exchange Server storage that can be easier to deploy, install and manage than SANs and provides better scalability than direct-attached storage (DAS). Using network-attached storage (NAS) devices for Exchange storage provides relatively low acquisition and maintenance costs.
Small and midsized Microsoft customers have told the software company, "We’re seeking to combine the total cost of ownership (TCO) and management benefits of Windows Storage Server 2003 with the reliability, performance and scalability of Exchange Server 2003." The Windows Storage Server 2003 feature pack extends Exchange and Windows Storage Server to allow storage of Exchange 2003 databases and logs on Windows Storage Server hardware. This approach offers key advantages for Exchange while still delivering the superior TCO, flexibility and ease of deployment of Windows Storage Server 2003. In particular, using Windows Storage Server as an Exchange storage platform delivers key benefits in the areas of flexibility, cost-effectiveness and ease of deployment – without the complexity of SAN solutions.
Pennsylvania School Puts Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 Feature Pack to the Test
The Hill School, a college preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, is already up and running with Exchange 2003, Windows Storage Server 2003 and an NAS solution by HP, one of the industry-leading Microsoft partners supporting the new feature pack release with a wide range of solutions. "E-mail is our most mission-critical application," says Rick Bauer, the Hill School’s chief technology officer. "We rely on it to achieve better educational practices through higher interaction between our faculty and students.
The Hill School has been evaluating and deploying various NAS products for three years. "And we have the scars to prove it!" says Bauer. He tested Windows Storage Server 2003 with support for Exchange Server 2003 for a month, running it hard, moving files back and forth to ensure that the new solution interoperated well with Exchange 2003 and the school’s domain. In fact, the feature pack exceeded his expectations by surpassing a reliability stress test and handling over 100,000 e-mail messages in a 10-minute period.
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Bauer and his engineers found the set-up process and install so easy and comparatively bug-free that they involved some of the school’s tech-savvy students in the deployment process. "We’re always prepared for surprises, but this time there were no surprises," says Bauer. "We’re now benefiting from ease of use, better provisioning, interoperability with the Exchange environment and improved security and business continuity."
The Hill School found that Windows Storage Server 2003 with support for Exchange Server 2003 worked right out of the box and has an intuitive user interface that simplifies storage-specific routines related to Exchange. "For us, there is always more work around the corner," says Bauer, "and this new NAS solution means that there is one less thing to worry about. In our school, everything runs on e-mail, so managing the growth of our e-messaging is a big part of managing our IT services. This product really helps us deliver to our students and faculty."
Windows Storage Server 2003 with support for Exchange Server 2003 delivers on Microsoft’s promise of integrated innovation. SMBs can now do more with less and realize greater value from the Windows platform. This feature pack provides operational efficiency and reduces costs by consolidating storage by as much as 50 percent.
"Customers are telling us that they’ve chosen Windows Storage Server over competing solutions because of the product’s seamless integration with Windows Server System products like Exchange," says Marcus Schmidt, senior product manager, Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003. "More than ever, Windows Storage Server can be a great solution for consolidating and upgrading existing storage environments. There is the strong possibility that a customer will be able to reduce the number of servers, decrease TCO and simplify their backup strategy. This can be a tremendous tool for small or medium businesses supporting up to 1,500 mailboxes."
Windows Storage Server 2003 with support for Exchange Server 2003 allows businesses with branch or regional office locations to reduce on-site IT costs and ensure business continuity in the event of network or system failure. This solution enables the deployment of local e-mail, which eliminates the need to rely on a wide area network (WAN) connection with the central office. By consolidating the storage for file serving and Exchange data stores on a Windows Storage Server device, it’s possible to lower TCO and simplify the maintenance of the server environment.
This feature pack release also helps in strengthening business continuity solutions by providing local failover protection using clustered Exchange servers. Disaster recovery options can be similarly improved by replicating data on the Windows Storage Server to another geographical location using one of the third party replication tools supported on Windows Storage Server 2003.
Partners Step Up to Provide Feature Pack Support
Among the many independent industry-leading companies supporting Windows Storage Server 2003 with support for Exchange Server 2003 are HP, Dell, CommVault Systems, Computer Associates International, Dantz, LEGATO Software, NSI Software and VERITAS Software. With this breadth of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Independent Software Vendor (ISV) support, customers have a wide choice of solutions to meet their specific needs.
"As a provider of management features for Microsoft Exchange, CommVault continues to work with Microsoft to deliver networked storage solutions that offer the highest levels of reliability, performance and data protection to customers and partners," says Randy De Meno, Director of Advanced Applications CommVault Systems, Inc. CommVault Systems, Inc. provides unified enterprise data management solutions to ensure high-performance data protection, universal availability and simplified management of complex storage systems. "The combination of CommVault software with Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 with support for Exchange Server 2003 offers reliability and price-performance for the growing demand for e-mail data consumption and storage."
"Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 feature pack adds important capabilities for Windows NAS and Exchange customers who want to increase their operational efficiency," says Anders Lofgren, vice president of BrightStor storage management for Computer Associates International, Inc. Computer Associates International, Inc., a leading global management software company, delivers software and services across infrastructure, security, storage and life cycle management to optimize the performance, reliability and efficiency of enterprise IT environments. "Computer Associates continues to work with Microsoft to ensure customers achieve these benefits as quickly and effortlessly as possible."
"Storage devices running Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 are popular with SMBs because they can lower their operating costs and more easily manage their data," says Don Chouinard, director of product marketing for Dantz Development Corporation. Founded in 1984, Dantz Development Corporation is a leader in backup and restore software for small and midsize businesses. "Our SMB customers can now move their Exchange data stores onto their Windows-based NAS devices, confident that their e-mails are fully protected."
"HP’s multi-dimensional partnership with Microsoft and strategic decision to standardize its entire StorageWorks NAS portfolio on Windows Storage Server 2003 continues to deliver significant market growth and accelerate the adoption of Windows Storage Server over alternatives," says Harry Baeverstad, director of network attached storage, HP Enterprise Storage and Servers. HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. "HP is excited to be first to market with new NAS solutions that enable SMB customers to consolidate IT resources and more cost-effectively mange the exponential growth of e-mail. In addition to NAS, HP’s standards-based ProLiant servers, PCs and PDAs are also designed to harness the power of Microsoft software allowing compatibility across the network, making IT simple and affordable for SMBs."
"LEGATO Software's support of the Windows Storage Server 2003 Feature Pack further demonstrates its commitment to the Microsoft Windows Platform," says Victoria Grey, LEGATO Software’s vice president, business continuance. LEGATO Software is a global provider of open, enterprise-class software solutions and services for information management. "Customers require data protection solutions that create peace of mind in operational efficiency and overall cost. To that point, LEGATO is working with Microsoft to provide customers with an end-to-end data protection solution for Branch Office Data Consolidation, featuring LEGATO RepliStor and NetWorker. This combination of technologies simplifies the data protection and recovery process, increasing reliability and reducing overall cost for our joint customers."
"Small-to-medium-sized businesses, branch offices and enterprise IT departments alike are increasingly implementing Microsoft Storage Server 2003 and NSI Double-Take data replication software to cost-effectively protect and manage their Exchange Server databases," says Don Beeler, CEO of NSI Software. NSI Software was established in 1991 and is leading developer of data replication technologies and services. "The availability of Microsoft's new feature pack extends the value of this combined solution by further simplifying storage consolidation, protection and availability."
"E-mail is a large, rapidly growing data segment, and is considered mission critical for most businesses," says Brenda Zawatski, vice president of product marketing for VERITAS Software. VERITAS provides products and services for data protection, storage and server management, high availability and application performance management. "Protecting that data is vital to business continuity. VERITAS Backup Exec software support for Exchange data on Windows Storage Server 2003 gives customers a scalable, enterprise-caliber backup and recovery solution that fundamentally reduces operational and computing costs."
Adding Windows Storage Server 2003 servers to an existing Exchange organization can allow for consolidation of Exchange and file server data, further enhancing the cost benefits of feature pack deployment. "The feature pack solved our key problem well," says Rick Bauer of the Hill School. "Deployment and management are easy, and it works well with our existing Exchange environment. For an educator, ‘works well and plays with others cooperatively’ is high praise!"