Microsoft delegated the ever-energized company chief executive Steve Ballmer to launch 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2003, a 64-bit edition of SQL Server 2000 and Visual Studio.NET 2003.

Looking trimmer, apparently thanks to a recent carbohydrate-free diet, and sporting what looked to be a sharp gray Armani suit with red striped tie, Ballmer bounced onto the San Francisco, California launch event’s stage where he got right down to business.

I’ve been asked by the press ‘is this the right time to introduce a server product? IT budgets are down, Ballmer said.

This is absolutely the right time to bring incredible new innovations to the market place. This is one of the most significant pieces of work we have done… in what it means to IT professionals and the data center.

Ballmer proceeded to justify the operating system in terms of price-performance compared to previous versions of Windows and rival Unix from IBM Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc. It was an operating system, he claimed, that let people do more with less.

Microsoft is offering customers no-less than nine variations of the operating system: Windows Server Datacenter Edition, Enterprise Edition – both available for either 32-bit and 64-bit architectures – Standard Edition and Web Edition launched yesterday.

Windows Small Business Server 2003, expected to be wrapped with versions of SQL Server and Exchange Server, is planned for release this summer.

The 64-bit version of SQL Server 2000 is designed to take advantage of the underlying scaleability features in Windows Server 2003, such as 8 node clustering (see separate story). The database is aimed at high-end data warehouse environments.

Improvements in the operating system for systems administration datacenter operations include NUMA architectures, 8 node clustering, volume shadow copying and shutdown event tracking. Ballmer claimed an eight-fold reduction in downtime for the operating system compared to the lamented Windows NT 4.0.

In terms of security, Ballmer called Windows 2003 Server Microsoft’s highest quality Windows server, ever. Windows Server 2003 is the subject of a $200m security investment that saw many default features in software like Internet Information Services (IIS) shut-off. IIS 6.0, new to Windows Server 2003, is no longer available for scripting while Kerberos version 5.0 has been added.

Ballmer said he couldn’t promise there wouldn’t be new security issues in Windows Server 2003, but there will be fewer issues. We have built better practices to respond.

Other capabilities designed to let users do more with less include support for web services include Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and support for Share Point Portal Services, for collaborative working, due this summer. Integration of Share Point Portal Services is designed to allow users to set-up file sharing without input from IT and easily lost documents, while UDDI will let end-users easily publish documents online in a web services repository.

Changes in Visual Studio.NET 2003, meanwhile, are designed to make programmers more efficient. These include support for the .NET Compact Framework enabling programmers to build for devices with a small footprint, stepping beyond servers and PCs.

Developers can also program applications that can be monitored by a systems management framework, such as IBM’s Tivoli, without the need for hand coding of APIs. There is also greater conformity between Microsoft’s implementation of C/C++ and official standards. Microsoft believes conformity to these standards will enable programmers to use more third-party libraries and tools, making them more creative.

Source: Computerwire