As with the Windows client, Microsoft has created a number of specialized editions of Windows Server to exploit new market niches, particularly niches where the standard Windows Server product’s price or footprint would impede its competitiveness. Licenses for these products are sold exclusively to PC and device manufacturers through specialized channels. However, software updates for some of these products are available through the company’s regular channels to enable organizations and individuals to update systems already in the field. Updates for some of these editions ship on their own timetable, separate from updates for the core Windows OS.

Major specialized Windows Server editions include the following:

Windows Storage Server. This is an edition of Windows Server 2003 specialized for network-attached storage (NAS) devices, which are scalable, high-availability file servers with additional features to simplify backup, reorganization of disk space, and other management tasks. NAS devices running Windows Storage Server (called Windows-Powered NAS devices) have proven attractive, particularly at the low end of the market, because of relatively low hardware costs and high compatibility with Windows services such as Active Directory. The latest version, Windows Storage Server 2003, is based on Windows Server 2003 and inherits a number of new features from that product, such as the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which lets customers quickly make shadow copies of disk volumes being used by applications while only briefly pausing the applications. The latest version also supports the iSCSI protocol, which enables servers and NAS devices to communicate with disk arrays and other storage devices over standard Internet protocols and high-speed Ethernet, rather than over expensive specialized storage network technologies such as Fibre Channel.

As with Windows client, Microsoft has created a number of specialized editions of Windows Server to exploit new market niches, particularly niches where the standard Windows Server product’s price or footprint would impede its competitiveness. Licenses for these products are sold exclusively to PC and device manufacturers through specialized channels. However, software updates for some of these products are available through the company’s regular channels to enable organizations and individuals to update systems already in the field. Updates for some of these editions ship on their own timetable, separate from updates for the core Windows OS.

Major specialized Windows Server editions include the following:

Windows Storage Server. This is an edition of Windows Server 2003 specialized for network-attached storage (NAS) devices, which are scalable, high-availability file servers with additional features to simplify backup, reorganization of disk space, and other management tasks. NAS devices running Windows Storage Server (called Windows Powered NAS devices) have proven attractive, particularly at the low end of the market, because of relatively low hardware costs and high compatibility with Windows services such as Active Directory. The latest version, Windows Storage Server 2003, is based on Windows Server 2003 and inherits a number of new features from that product, such as the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which lets customers quickly make shadow copies of disk volumes being used by applications while only briefly pausing the applications. The latest version also supports the iSCSI protocol, which enables servers and NAS devices to communicate with disk arrays and other storage devices over standard Internet protocols and high-speed Ethernet, rather than over expensive specialized storage network technologies such as Fibre Channel.

As with the Windows client, Microsoft has created a number of specialized editions of Windows Server to address new market niches, particularly niches where the standard Windows Server product’s price or footprint would impede its competitiveness. These include Windows Storage Server and the Compute Cluster Server.

Windows Storage Server and Unified Data Storage Server

Windows Storage Server is a special OEM-only edition of Windows Server, specially tuned and licensed for the file-sharing and print-serving role. Storage Server has some unique features to support storage devices, such as single-instance storage, which reduces storage requirements by storing only one copy of duplicate files. Storage Server lacks Windows services not directly related to file- and print-sharing functions, such as Active Directory domain controller support, which can simplify software maintenance.

OEMs ship Storage Server on devices ranging from low-end file servers to storage area network (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) devices. Compared to conventional Windows file and print servers built by customers, Storage Server devices can offer simpler configuration and management thanks to OEM preconfiguration and the smaller number of components it includes.

As with the Windows client, Microsoft has created a number of specialized editions of Windows Server to exploit new market niches, particularly niches where the standard Windows Server product’s price or footprint would impede its competitiveness. These include the following:

Windows Storage Server is an edition of Windows Server 2003 specialized for network-attached storage (NAS) devices, which are scalable, high-availability file servers with additional features to simplify backup, reorganization of disk space, and other management tasks. The latest version, Windows Storage Server 2003 inherited a number of Windows Server 2003 features including the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which lets customers quickly make copies of disk volumes while only briefly pausing the applications; and updated support for the iSCSI protocol, which enables communication with storage area network (SAN) devices over standard Internet protocols and high-speed Ethernet, rather than over expensive specialized networks such as Fibre Channel. The Windows Server 2003 R2 technologies that simplify the setup and management of storage will likely be incorporated into an R2 release of this product. Licenses for this product are sold exclusively to PC and device manufacturers through specialized channels. However, software updates are available through the company’s regular channels to enable organizations and individuals to update systems already in the field.

As with the Windows client, Microsoft has created a number of specialized editions of Windows Server to exploit new market niches, particularly niches where the standard Windows Server product’s price or footprint would impede its competitiveness. These include Windows Storage Server and the Compute Cluster Server.

Windows Storage Server and Unified Data Storage Server

Windows Storage Server is a special OEM-only edition of Windows Server, specially tuned and licensed for the file-sharing and print-serving role. Storage Server has some unique features to support storage devices, such as single-instance storage, which reduces storage requirements by storing only one copy of duplicate files. Storage Server lacks Windows services not directly related to file- and print-sharing functions, such as Active Directory domain controller support, which can simplify software maintenance.

OEMs ship Storage Server on devices ranging from low-end file servers to storage area network (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) devices. Compared to conventional Windows file and print servers built by customers, Storage Server devices can offer simpler configuration and management thanks to OEM preconfiguration and the smaller number of components it includes.

As with the Windows client, Microsoft has created a number of specialized editions of Windows Server to exploit new market niches, particularly niches where the standard Windows Server product’s price or footprint would impede its competitiveness. These include Windows Storage Server and the Compute Cluster Server.

Windows Storage Server

Windows Storage Server is a special OEM-only edition of Windows Server, specially tuned and licensed for the file-sharing and print-serving role. Storage Server has some unique features to support storage devices, such as single-instance storage, which reduces storage requirements by storing only one copy of duplicate files. Storage Server lacks Windows services not directly related to file- and print-sharing functions, such as Active Directory (AD) domain controller support, which can simplify software maintenance.

OEMs ship Storage Server on devices ranging from low-end file servers to storage area network (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) devices. Compared to conventional Windows file and print servers built by customers, Storage Server devices can offer simpler configuration and management thanks to OEM pre-configuration and the smaller number of components it includes.

As with the Windows client, Microsoft has created a number of specialized editions of Windows Server to address market niches, particularly niches where the standard Windows Server product’s price or footprint would impede its competitiveness. These include Windows Storage Server and the Compute Cluster Server (to be replaced by the Windows High-Performance Computing Server in 2008).

Windows Storage Server and Unified Data Storage Server are OEM-only editions of Windows Server for storage, file, and print servers. OEMs ship Storage Server on devices ranging from low-end file servers to storage area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. Storage Server has some unique features, such as single-instance storage, which eliminates duplicate files to reduce storage requirements. Storage Server also excludes many Windows services to simplify software maintenance. Although Storage Server is supported exclusively by OEMs, it follows Microsoft’s normal support life cycle for enterprise products; a given version of Windows Storage Server will be fully supported for at least five years, with an additional five years of paid support available after that.