Performance Improvements

Microsoft has improved the performance of Windows Server 2003 by enabling it to take advantage of recent hardware advances, redesigning the OS architecture, and enhancing common Windows services. These improvements could play an important role in server consolidation, allowing fewer servers to handle a given processing load. However, taking advantage of some high-performance capabilities may require new hardware or force developers to rewrite or optimize applications.

Improving Performance

Improving the performance of computer systems generally involves maximizing transaction throughput (the number of transactions per second a system can process, sometimes called capacity), reducing resource consumption (for example, the processing power required to complete a transaction), and minimizing the system’s response time (the average amount of time it takes the system to process a transaction). Scalability, often discussed in unison with performance, measures a system’s ability to accommodate additional load beyond the capacity of a single node. The two qualities are not necessarily linked: it is possible for a highly performing system not to be scalable, and vice versa.