|
|
When you are designing a scalable solution, it is essential that you choose the right platform for running each of the application tiers on. If you make a mistake during design, it might be hard or costly to correct later on.
Not that long ago very few companies would ever consider a Microsoft operating system to run their business applications on. The Microsoft reputation was not good. But as Microsoft has developed its operating systems over the last couple of years, more and more enterprises, even large ones, have reevaluated their opinion on this matter. In our work as consultants, we have seen a steady increase in requests for Microsoft-based solutions even in such areas as banking. This has to do not only with the enhanced stability of the operating system, but also with security and standards-based technology playing a larger role. Microsoft has put a lot of effort into building better, more scalable, more available, and more secure platforms. Microsoft has also developed server operating systems that come in different flavors, depending on which use is intended for the system.
The first step came with the release of Windows 2000 some years ago. With this edition, it was possible to have a platform that covered everything from the small, centralized organization to the large, distributed enterprise. Suddenly it was possible to deliver a Microsoft-based solution that could offer 99.999 percent uptime (the five nines).
Windows 2000 Server came in three editions: Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. Each of these was designed for different uses in the enterprise.
As of this writing, Microsoft has just released the second release candidate of its next generation operating system, called the Windows Server 2003 family. In this version, many things have been improved compared to the Windows 2000 Server. The Windows Server 2003 family comes in even more editions than Windows 2000 Server. Here you find Windows Server 2003 Web Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition. Two of these also come in 64-bit editions, so the total number of siblings in this family is six.
With all these versions available, it is obvious that in the design phase you must make the best choice for your platforms. A wrong choice might affect performance and scalability, and you could face a time- and cost-consuming process of putting it all together in the end. It would also be bad if you choose the Datacenter Edition for a simple Web server, not because performance would be degraded, but for the higher cost of this edition.
This chapter will focus on the different server platforms Microsoft offers. We will discuss the differences between the various operating systems and show you where they are appropriate to use.
Furthermore, we will also take a quick glance at the other servers in the Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server family. The operating system is just the platform to build your applications on, and many of these other servers are very useful in building a Microsoft solution. So if you are to make the correct design choice, you must have knowledge of these as well.
But let us start by looking at the operating system. Since this book focuses on scalability, we will not cover the Windows 2000 features that do not enhance scalability, performance, and security.
|
|