Storage Management Using Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003 Virtual Disk Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service

Managing storage complexity is no longer a problem restricted to enterprise-sized organizations; increasingly, midsize and even relatively small businesses have undergone dramatic data growth and consequently require greater sophistication in storage resource provisioning and management. As storage administrators look to complement direct attached storage with networked storage solutions, CEOs and business managers look to their storage administrators to provide solutions that deliver lower IT costs, improved operational efficiency, and increased business competition. Effective storage management is key to ensuring these solutions.

Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003 provide two new storage infrastructures—the Virtual Disk service (VDS) and Volume Shadow Copy service (VSS). These services allow the storage administrator to manage complex storage configurations (including multivendor configurations) more effectively, thus helping to realize the business goal of highly available data at lower cost.