Windows R2 Beta Comes Through

The upgrade includes Service Pack 1 and its security capabilities as well as new branch-office management; identity and access management; storage management; and Unix interoperability perks, said Samm DiStasio, director of the Windows Server Product Management Group, at WinHEC in Seattle.

DiStasio said while some view R2 as simply a wrap-up of technologies that otherwise would have been released in individual service packs, the release is actually an integrated upgrade with new technology that adds real value to Windows Server 2003.

"It's not a roll-up," he said. "There are some significant [new] scenarios here. While we did roll in some of the feature packs, we also brought new value to [the product]."

For example, branch-office enhancements include new centralized file replication and printer management technologies for easier duplication and printing of files between different locations, he said.

R2 integrates a set of Unix interoperability technologies previously available as separate add-on Unix services. "We've incorporated most of that technology into the core operating system—things like NFS, name services in Unix so you can do single sign-on," DiStasio said.

The upgrade also includes Active Directory Federation Services, a set of Web services that makes it easier for a company and its trusted partners to share and add users to applications.

"When people want to extend access to folks out- side the company today, you build an extranet, try to put stuff outside the firewall and are encumbered by managing a whole new set of IDs," DiStasio said. "With [this technology], my directory service is going to trust your directory service, and you get a really nice collaborative infrastructure."

Brad Tuffendsam, practice director for infrastructure services at Ascentium, a Bellevue, Wash., partner, said extending the security model is a big plus. "There's a lot of stuff in [R2] about expanding Kerberos and rights management," he said. "R2 addresses applications that can be accessed outside the normal corporate boundaries."

Solution providers said anything Microsoft can do to ease customer concerns about security is a plus. "Security is the issue du jour, even in small and medium-sized companies," said Bob Whiton, CEO of Net Solutions, Tustin, Calif.

At the same time, several partners said Microsoft has confused the market with an array of patches, service packs and new product versions, and has made it difficult to distinguish between them.

Said one: "[Windows Server 2003] SP1 should have been a roll-up of security [tweaks], but it is a feature pack. SP1 had a lot of implications people weren't prepared for."

By Microsoft's own definition, service packs should not break existing applications, but that has not been the case with either Windows 2003 SP1 or Windows XP SP2, several partners said.

But Ascentium's Tuffendsam praised Microsoft for bringing forward some expected Longhorn functionality now. "It's fine for major architectural changes to take five years or more, but security can't wait. The sooner they push those improvements out in different releases, the better," he said.

Richard Warren, enterprise solution architect for Microlink LLC, a Vienna, Va.-based solution provider, said this aspect of R2 has benefits for certain use-case scenarios. "R2 matters if you are trying to run a lot of desktops and manage your head count doing it. And it matters if you're running multiple identities on one box vs. a single-use box," Warren said.

Warren added that some of R2's technologies were expected in the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, which is not scheduled for release until the end of next year. "They were pulled forward [into Windows 2003], and God knows Microsoft's had enough time to do that," he said.