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| What Is Windows Server System?
At Microsoft, we believe our role is to engineer out complexity and costs and incorporate operating system innovations into a deeply-integrated infrastructure that enables information technology (IT) professionals to focus on meeting business requirements. Windows Server System integrated server infrastructure software gives you the ability to develop, deploy, and operate your IT infrastructure more efficiently so that you can focus on your business challenges and accelerate your delivery of new value to the business.
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IntroductionWindows Server System is integrated server infrastructure software from Microsoft that is designed to support end-to-end solutions built on Windows Server 2003. It creates an infrastructure that is based on the Microsoft concept of integrated innovation: a whole-system design approach that helps you simplify development, deployment, and management by anticipating needs and opportunities. It is intrinsically designed to work together and interact seamlessly with other data and applications across your IT environment so that you can reduce the costs of ongoing operations, deliver high reliability and security in your IT infrastructure, and drive valuable new capabilities for the future growth of your business. Windows Server System truly helps you do more with less. The Windows Server System PlatformThe foundation for Windows Server System is the Windows Server 2003 operating system, which delivers the core infrastructure and common services across the following categories. The server platform provides:
Through deep integration with these core platform services and a common architectural approach, Windows Server System delivers a comprehensive and interoperable infrastructure that helps reduce complexity and costs, and it empowers IT professionals to simplify development, management, and operations and deliver high-value, information-rich business applications. As a result, Windows Server System helps IT organizations increase the strategic impact of the investments they make to support the people, processes, information, and relationships that drive the business. The following figure illustrates the scope of Windows Server System. ![]() Figure 1. Windows Server System includes infrastructure software for operations, applications, and information workers and offers common platform services. Operations InfrastructureBusiness and IT exist in a delicate balance that can just as easily foster innovation as bring it to a grinding halt. IT administrators are challenged to deliver secure and manageable solutions while at the same time minimizing downtime and costs. We understand this challenge and we've made it a core part of our mission to reduce the complexity of operational infrastructure to help simplify and lower the costs of deployment, management, security, and operations. These changes mean more resources for reinvestment in your business. At its foundation, the Windows Server 2003 server platform is designed to deliver simplicity, automation, and flexibility in the data center and across the IT environment. By focusing on server consolidation, increased server utilization, and the automation of core management tasks, the new Windows Server 2003 platform is proven to increase IT efficiency by as much as 30 percent. And by delivering major advancements to simplify management, small businesses with limited IT resources as well as enterprise customers with complex operational needs can take advantage of these efficiencies. The Windows Server System security and management servers build on the Windows Server 2003 server platform to deliver an integrated Operations Infrastructure that promotes operational efficiencies through simplified deployment, management, and security, as well as reduced IT infrastructure costs. Products and capabilities include the following:
Application InfrastructureIn today's highly complex IT environments, no application is an island—every development project needs to consider the implications of interoperability and how to integrate an application within the existing IT environment. And so the key criteria for any decision about application infrastructure—in addition to the benefits it provides—is, how productive is the development environment? How much plumbing does the infrastructure provide so that the developers don't need to build it themselves? What is the long-term impact of that application infrastructure on the IT environment as a whole? Windows Server System is focused on integration and interoperability. Consequently, Windows Server System strives to provide the highest level of dependability, performance, and productivity for application development, while also making it easier to interoperate with line-of-business applications already in place in your IT organization. The Windows Server 2003 server platform delivers the following core elements:
Together, Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Windows Server 2003 provide a unified application platform with a consistent programming model that scales from device to data center. Because the development toolset and the .NET Framework are tuned specifically for the Windows Server operating system, this integrated application platform delivers the highest levels of developer productivity and operating system performance. The Windows Server System database management and e-business servers extend this application platform to provide the integrated and interoperable Application Infrastructure for enterprise application integration, business process automation, through-the-firewall messaging, and customer and partner e-business portals. Through common infrastructure and .NET technology, Windows Server System ensures that these capabilities work well for the line-of-business applications that exist in your IT environment today so that these applications can be extended and connected with other internal applications, as well as with business partners, suppliers, and customers. Products and capabilities include the following:
The Windows Server System Application Infrastructure helps you maximize development productivity and reduce complexity and costs. As a result, you can focus on meeting your business needs. Information Worker InfrastructureWe see a world where information workers—individuals who rely on information to do their jobs—can effortlessly find, access, manage, and share information through an integrated information infrastructure. This infrastructure needs to connect people, information, and processes to optimize business value through communications and collaboration. Windows Server System delivers an integrated and interoperable infrastructure designed to maximize the productivity of information workers. With a focus on integration through common architecture, the Information Worker Infrastructure delivered in Windows Server System helps unlock previously isolated information, increase the speed and effectiveness of collaboration, and empower information workers to make more informed decisions quickly. Windows Server 2003 server platform delivers the core data and collaboration services that help you deliver richer collaboration solutions more easily and help lower support overhead by letting users do more work on their own. Information worker productivity begins with data. The integrated data services in Windows Server 2003 deliver a scalable storage architecture that helps to protect end-user data, ensure data availability and integrity, and reduce the inadvertent loss of data while empowering users to recover their data on their own. Integrated media services deliver streaming media capabilities to support a rich experience for users while enabling IT to more easily manage network bandwidth. In addition, with the integrated team services, information workers can easily create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration, enabling simpler and more effective team collaboration. The Windows Server System communication and collaboration servers extend the capabilities of the Windows Server 2003 server platform for highly productive team collaboration, messaging, and real-time communications. This integrated Information Worker Infrastructure helps companies to seamlessly connect information, people, and systems to drive superior visibility and to foster better, faster decisions across the entire business. Products and capabilities include the following:
Server PlatformWindows Server 2003 is the most secure and reliable server platform Microsoft has ever released. As the foundation for the Windows Server System, the server platform provides a unifying layer of common services across the IT, application, and information worker infrastructures, including the following services:
Windows Server 2003 also makes significant advances in ease of deployment and use, helping to reduce complexity and therefore reduce costs across the IT environment. The Windows Server 2003 family can meet organizational needs ranging from the small business to the data center with the following product versions:
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