Microsoft Readies Sonar, Ultrasound Add-Ons For Windows 2003 Replication

The tools, code-named Sonar and Ultrasound, are designed to improve the Windows servers' file replication services and their operation in mixed environments and will be made available in a la carte fashion by the end of the year, said Michael Goulde, senior product planner at Microsoft.

During his discussion on the Windows Server road map at Momentum over the weekend, the Microsoft executive detailed the roster of add-on feature packs due this quarter, including the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), Security Configuration Wizard and an iSCSI Initiator for supporting iSCSI devices to the OS.

"We're really ramping these up," said Goulde, who was joined on stage by an executive at systems integration partner Convergent Computing, Oakland, Calif. "We need to provide partners with add-on tools between [major server releases]."

The WSS add-on for team Web sites has been released to manufacturing and is available for download. The Security Configuration Wizard, due by year's end, will allow customers to easily disable unwanted server services based on the role of the servers, Goulde said. The iSCSI add-on will help organization support iSCSI devices and is now in Release Candidate 1 status, he said.

And those are just some of the appetizers Microsoft is planning. During the first half of 2004, the company will release Rights Management Services and Software Update Server (SUS) 2.0, said Goulde.

The Rights Management Services, due in the first half of 2004 for the enterprise and data center editions of Windows Server 2003, will securely distribute and protect digital information though usage rights. A client has already been made available for download.

The SUS 2.0 corporate batch management services, touted heavily at Momentum, will help customers better deploy security fixes as they become available.

Microsoft is increasingly moving to a model of whereby it releases Windows client and server features, functions and fixes to the Internet incrementally as they become ready, rather than holding them back for the next major upgrade, Goulde said.

The incremental approach enables partners and customers to choose from a menu which add-on services they want to deploy for each Windows server, rather than being force-fed a bunch of code in a service pack that may be difficult to digest or undesirable for certain uses of the server OS.

"Instead of holding them up, we will make them available. %85 Some we'll charge for, and some will be [free and] downloadable, Goulde said, noting that the feature packs that will be trickling out over the next few years will benefit Windows Server 2003 customers immediately.

Rich Dorfman, partner and vice president of client and professional services at Convergent Computing, said customers like Microsoft's a la carte menu approach. He also said ISVs can benefit by getting early glimpses of features planned for the Windows servers.

"In the past, Microsoft bundled bug fixes with enhancements, but our client like that they're unbundled and the choices they have. You can take feature by feature and choose feature by [each Windows server] and they're happy about it," Dorfman said. "The enhancements are also a warning to ISVs. They're in touch with their ISV [partner account managers], so they know what Microsoft is doing."

Several add-ons have been released since the Windows Server 2003 shipped in April, including Automated Deployment Services (ADS), Group Policy Management Console and the Identity Integration Feature Pack.

Microsoft has also announced other add-ons aimed at application developers. These include Microsoft's Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) services and a Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) add-on.

ADAM is an LDAP directory service that runs as a user service, rather than as a system service, and allows developers to better exploit the Active Directory in their applications. The DSML add-on is an XML service designed to provide developers with access to the Active Directory using SOAP over HTTP, Goulde added.

While he focused on the near-future add-ons, Goulde did touch upon next major upgrade of the Windows Server, Longhorn Server, scheduled for 2006. The software is being designed to support 64-way systems, distributed applications and Web services, collaboration and mobility, and to ease deployment and operations, Goulde said.