Windows Server 2008: A podcast series about Microsoft Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 podcast #2: key features in Windows Server 2008 for New Zealand market

Thu, 22 May 2008 08:05:00 PDT

You can download this podcast or use the player to listen to it now.

What key features in Windows Server 2008 have you found to be the most compelling for NZ Businesses?
Well, there are a number of technologies but the top three would have to be Virtualisation, Terminal Services and the entire Branch Office scenario (which involves, security, multiple sites and therefore replication) which is what Tonkin & Taylor were all about.

In saying that, there were over 20 new features that we introduced in Windows Server 2008 and whilst all of these would have a positive impact on customers throughout New Zealand, the top three would have to be those I listed earlier.

Can you just take one of those features and elaborate a little on what sort of impact that would have on a New Zealand customer?
OK. Let me talk about Terminal Server because that has the most impact � I believe � on the New Zealand market today � straight out of the box.

Terminal Services is an interesting workload for a couple of reasons and the first is simply that this isn�t anything new. And no we�re not the only vendor to provide this type of functionality.

However, the new features that we�ve made available in Terminal Services for Windows Server 2008 are well worth the mention because they will again impact our customers by helping them to work smarter and not so much harder. So that�s the first thing that makes Terminal Services so interesting.

The second thing is, Terminal Services is part of our wider Virtualisation story. Now, I know that this has become a bit of a buzzword in the IT industry, and if we have time I�ll try and give you a few thoughts on the whole virtualisation picture altogether but Terminal Services is about presentation virtualisation which simply means that if you had say your Word, or Excel running in Terminal Services, what we�re effectively saying is that the Application is being presented virtually on your PC or that it�s terminating point/end point is on your PC but the actual application lives on another computer/server elsewhere.

That�s what Terminal Services is and why it�s so effective and useful in today�s businesses.

Now before you fall asleep, let me quickly give you a couple of examples behind Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008. We don�t have time to go through this in detail but the twp I�ll cover off will give you a bit of a taste for what�s in the package.

First Remote App. The Terminal Services application feel has become more like the local application rather than a remote application. So resizeable windows, desktop icon... and all of these things are important because, the more user friendly they are, the more they work like everyday applications, the less training required, therefore less downtime to get people up to speed.

Second Application Gateway. This is when someone sends you the email, saying really important and you look at it and it�s got an internal link... get your smart card, or dial into the network... confirm username password then click on the link only to find that it was a photo from their fishing trip... we�ve changed that...

So, we�ve covered off customers but what about Partners?
Partners will have Terminal Services and a whole number of other reasons to get their customers up to Windows Server 2008 � not forgetting Security...

Is this technology, �Virtualisation� going to be a game changer for the industry?
Yes, but it�s not the silver bullet that people keep making it out to be.

If a customer was looking to take advantage of virtualisation what advice would you give them?
Don't virtualise unless you have a full management scenario. If you are going to virtualise make sure you have the operations framework.

Where can a customer go to find out more information?
They can go to a number of sites: www.zerovirus.org.nz and www.microsoft.com/virtualization.

Windows Server 2008 podcast #1: Tonkin & Taylor Windows Server 2008 deployment

Sun, 18 May 2008 03:39:00 PDT

You can download this podcast or use the player to listen to it now.

What was the need for Tonkin & Taylor to choose Windows Server 2008? What issues were they facing?

Good question. First let me just give you some background on Tonkin & Taylor as that might help to give some idea on what they do and how technology plays into their organisation.

Tonkin & Taylor are an Engineering firm with approximately 600 employees. They have offices throughout New Zealand, and are also in Australia and the Philippines. Their original infrastructure was using Windows Server 2003 which those mainly in the IT industry are aware of became the previous version in late February when we released Windows Server 2008.

The two main challenges Tonkin & Taylor had were around Data and People.

Let me explain the two issues in a little bit of detail. Firstly, with regards to data, the challenge of backups is something most if not all Security conscious organisations are faced with.

For Tonkin & Taylor, backups were happening once a night and tape backups once a week which is standard across a lot of organisations but they have such huge amounts of data being added every day - throughout the day that any loss would be substantial...

Secondly, people: as a result of having multiple sites distributed in three countries and requiring manual operational tasks to deal with this stuff, the amount of time required again would be considerable.

How did Windows Server 2008 improve T&T�s productivity?

Catherine who leads the infrastructure team for Tonkin & Taylor told me a great story about one of their staff (an engineer I believe) who had to go a few hours up North to take photos of a new project site. On his return, he transferred the photos onto the network and deleted these from the camera. Problem was, when he went to look for it on the network � he realised that he had accidentally deleted them.

Out of desperation and expecting the worst, he called IT to try and see if they could do anything.

Fortunately, because they had now moved to ongoing replication throughout the day, they were able to go back to previous backup state and recover his photos.

In the past, that would have cost him time, effort, piece of mind and worst of all � another lonely trip a few hours North.

Did Tonkin & Taylor see a big shift in the security and reliability of their network?

With the implementation of Windows Server 2008, Tonkin & Taylor were able to change the frequency of their backups from being once a day to ongoing throughout the day.

This was a result of the changes brought on through our Distributed File System Replication (DFSR). This simply meant that they would now only be replicating increments of data if existing files were being changed rather than having to replicate the entire file all over again. This is a new development which allows the customer to see more security built to reduce the risk of data loss and/or corruption.

Imagine the peace of mind knowing that you had a more efficient approach to back up.

How did Tonkin & Taylor save time?

With the fact that backup is now happening throughout the day and has been centralized to the main data centre, the team no longer have to spend all their time doing tape backups at each centre.

Where did they see the biggest saving?

I think the biggest savings would be in both people, I think Catherine was saying it was in the whereabouts of 100 hrs per month by way of savings from each site and then dollars which equates to about $120K per year across the project and that doesn�t take into account what you would have to pay for full replication of documents instead of increments

What feedback have you had from IT staff at Tonkin & Taylor?

Well, I think Catherine has been one of a great many advocates to date with regards to the capability that WS08 provides to businesses. I haven�t even mentioned the efficiencies available through WSUS and the automated updates which removes another manual task for the IT administrator.

However, I think specifically with regards to Tonkin & Taylor, the DFSR improvements have been enough to provide tangible value up front for this Server deployment and especially with stories like the one I share before about the photos and the engineer.

If I can just say, that Tonkin & Taylor, like any organisation � should and does care about Security and the smooth running of the business through IT. Windows Server 2008 allows the IT team that extra bit of freedom to move away from doing the manual, reactive tasks (which are often unseen by the business) and work on the business delivery pieces (which drives the business forward and in turn helps the organisation to see the importance of IT).

Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008

Sun, 11 May 2008 02:00:00 PDT

Microsoft Windows Server 2008, with built-in Web and virtualization technologies, enables businesses to increase the reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructure.

New virtualization tools, Web resources, and security enhancements help save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimized datacenter. Powerful new tools like Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 and Server Manager provide more control over servers and streamline Web, configuration, and management tasks.

Advanced security and reliability enhancements, such as Network Access Protection and the Read-Only Domain Controller, harden the operating system and help protect the server environment to ensure a solid foundation on which to build businesses.

So we decided to help you decide, by listing the top ten reasons to upgrade to Windows Server 2008:

#1 Server Consolidation and Resource Optimization — Hyper-V
Most servers operate at far below their capacities, with as much as 80-90% of their processing power unused, on average.

With Hyper-V, the Windows Server 2008 virtualization solution, a single physical server can host the workloads of multiple Line of Business servers. Hyper-V helps organizations to achieve optimal use of their hardware resources and provides the agility needed to adapt to changing IT needs. New management tools simplify the deployment process, and allow IT departments to manage virtual servers with the same familiar tools that they use to manage the physical servers in the network.

#2 Flexible Application Access for Remote Users - TS RemoteApp
Windows Server 2008 provides improvements and innovations to Terminal Services, with solutions like Terminal Services RemoteApp that allow users to access individual applications, instead of a the computer desktop in a Terminal Server session. These applications run on the host computer and send only the application windows to the user, requiring fewer resources on the client side and reducing administration and deployment costs.

#3 Modular, Minimal Installation -- Server Core
Many network servers perform specific dedicated and mission-critical roles within the network. The new Server Core installation option provides a minimal environment for running specific server roles. This helps improve reliability and efficiency, giving the IT department the ability to better utilize existing hardware. It also simplifies ongoing administration and patch management requirements by reducing the need to update unneeded files and functionality.

For network servers that perform specific network infrastructure roles, the new Server Core installation option offers a highly reliable and efficient platform. Because Server Core loads the fewest operating system components required to run core infrastructure roles, patch requirements are reduced. This provides higher reliability and security for core network infrastructure roles.

#4 Delivering Rich Web Content and Applications -- IIS 7.0
As Web content gets richer and the Web becomes a viable platform for delivering business applications, the Web server is moving to the center of many networks. IIS7 delivers solutions for today's demanding content, including streaming media and Web applications in Active Server Pages and PHP. With an updated interface that makes administration easier, the new modular design of IIS7 enables administrators to minimize the attack surface of the Web server by installing only the needed components.

#5 Improved Network Performance and Control -- New TCP/IP Stack
The efficient use of bandwidth has a direct impact on the productivity of users working in remote locations that rely on WAN connections to the organization’s central servers. The redesigned “next generation” TCP/IP included in Windows Server 2008 provides vastly improved performance in a remote location scenario, offering faster throughput and more efficient routing of network traffic. Using the combination of Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista in a branch office scenario can provide as much as a threefold improvement in throughput over the WAN connection.

#6 Preventing Unhealthy Devices from Connecting to the Network -- NAP
With the increasing number of mobile users and corporate partners that must connect to an organization’s network, protecting the security of that network from outside threats is an ongoing challenge. Network Access Protection (NAP) in Windows Server 2008 helps prevent non-compliant computers from accessing an organization’s network. NAP can verify the health of connecting computers and enforce compliance with an organization’s security standards.

#7 Supporting Business Continuity for Demanding Workloads -- High Availability Features
Windows Server 2008 provides increased scalability for the most demanding business solutions, and helps keep businesses operating through unplanned downtime with high availability features. With support for failover clusters, Network Load Balancing, dynamic hardware partitioning, robust storage options, and advanced machine-check architecture, Windows Server 2008 helps safeguard against single-point-of-failure problems. Simplified deployment and management helps organizations of all sizes take advantage of these features to improve availability and reliability.

#8 Enabling Secure Collaboration -- Active Directory Federated Rights Management
Companies need to share information with partners and clients without losing control over that information. Rights Management Services enables organizations to control how documents are used—including who can view them, whether they can be printed, even whether they can be forwarded or deleted—both internally and externally.

#9 Connecting Heterogeneous Environments
Windows Server 2008 includes Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA), a multi-user UNIX environment that supports more than 300 UNIX commands, utilities, and shell scripts. Users can maintain one user name and password for Windows domains and UNIX systems, synchronizing the credentials automatically when one changes. SUA runs on Windows-based servers without any emulation, providing for native UNIX performance and enabling UNIX applications to leverage Windows APIs and components.

#10 Easing Administration, Management and Automation—Server Manager and PowerShell
The Server Manager Console provides a single, unified console for managing a server’s configuration and system information, displaying server status, identifying problems with server role configuration, and managing all roles installed on the server.

Built on the Service Modeling Language (SML) platform, Server Manager allows administrators to complete tasks with fewer clicks without having to navigate between multiple tools and interfaces. Server Manager also interfaces directly with PowerShell, the command-line shell and scripting language for automation. All Server Manager functions that can be used in the interface are available to PowerShell scripts.

The interface even helps write those scripts, showing administrators exactly what commands are behind each button and control, and allowing administrators to record actions in the UI and save a script based off of those actions.

Windows Server 2008 is here!

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:00:00 PDT

Windows Server 2008 is here!

After more than five years of development effort, Microsoft has produced a server OS that offers both performance gains and greater flexibility compared to Windows Server 2003. Although, it’s been a long time coming, it’s crammed with important new features and enhancements.

Advanced security is a key strength that will change the future for viruses. New virtualisation technologies, web resources and improved security, help save time, reduce costs and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimised datacentre.

Powerful new tools like Internet information Services (IIS) 7 and Server Manager provide more control over servers and streamline Web, configuration, and management tasks.

Some compare WS08 to the likes of Linux rather than its predecessor; however the advances are the result of Microsoft listening carefully to its customers and delivering an operating system that Windows shops want.

To see a case study from a business that has implemented WS08 and already seen a huge increase in the reliability of their security as well as dramatic savings in time and money, visit www.zeroviruses.org.nz.

This blog will bring you updated information on Windows Server 2008 through a series of articles and podcasts for the IT professional. Make suire to come back and to subscribe to our RSS feed.