Microsoft used its Professional Developers Conference
earlier this month to outline details of the forthcoming Windows
Server 'Longhorn' product, designed for high-end business
use.
Key features will include centralised deployment and management of
applications, self-healing capabilities, and network protection
against rogue handhelds.
Bob Muglia, Microsoft's senior vice-president for the Windows
Server Division, said security would be a key feature for Longhorn
Server.
"A new secure-at-install feature means that when an IT
administrator installs a new server role, the system will
dynamically check for security updates for that particular role and
make sure that the latest vulnerabilities are patched during
installation," he said.
In addition, the system will fix itself on the fly, if, for
example, there is a bad sector on a disk or a CPU that is
exhibiting a high rate of self correcting errors. IT professionals
can also perform registry and file system operations in a
transactional manner - meaning errors that occur in the system can
be rolled back to a known good state - a feature found in the
Windows XP operating system.
Windows Server Longhorn will feature centralised deployment and
management of applications, so users get the latest version of an
application dynamically delivered to their desktop when they
connect.
Another new feature called Network Access Protection prevents
unhealthy devices from accessing the network. "Any time a machine
connects to the network, locally or remotely, Windows Server
Longhorn can do a health check to make sure that a particular
desktop or laptop has the proper security patches, virus
signatures, firewall and so on," said Muglia.
For the first time, Windows Server Longhorn will offer a unified
Web platform integrating Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0,
ASP.NET, Windows Communications Platform and Windows SharePoint
Services.
The changes in Windows Server
Microsoft's Bob Muglia said the firm will make strategic changes
to the Windows Server platform over the next five to 10 years, to
help its users and their partners.
- It will reorganise the server product range so that each
edition is targeted better at particular "workloads".
- Develop Windows Server as an application platform so businesses
can use distributed applications. It will use message queuing,
transactions, and web services.
- Develop its storage management technology to enable customers
to use "intelligent distributed storage".
- Create a system to allow users to gain access to information
securely regardless of their location. This will be "policy-based"
so branch offices and remote workers can get the same level of
service as headquarters.
- Windows servers will address the cost of management by using
"self-managing dynamic systems". Few details are yet available on
this.