Another segment to watch in 2003 is the blade server market. These tightly packed multiserver devices aim to consolidate many small servers or single purpose servers into a small, more easily managed chassis. Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and a couple of smaller blade vendors are all crowding this court. As yet, there is no clear sweet spot in the blade server market in regard to raw horsepower. IBM is going for heavy computing power, Hewlett-Packard for the lower-end of computing power per blade, and Dell is shooting for somewhere in the middle. Companies doing server consolidation projects should keep eyes on blade servers, as there will be multiple new products and announcements next year.
The last area to consider in regard to servers is the card-expansion bus. We have seen our first PCI-X servers and we will see more servers and cards next year. The bandwidth requirements for add-in adapter cards for servers is greater than ever with 2-Gb Fibre Channel equipment and with the 10 Gigabit Ethernet. It's important to make sure that the server you're getting is going to give you the bandwidth you need on the back end, and next year that'll be PCI-X.
Microsoft Casts the .Net
2003 will see the release of Microsoft's much-anticipated .Net Server operating system, the latest refinement of the Windows line. Companies that are still running NT4 and even companies without and immediate need to upgrade server OS should consider getting in a test system loaded with .Net server. Included in .Net Server will be upgraded versions of Internet Information Server, Terminal Services and other familiar Windows Server features.
Microsoft has improved Active Directory with several new features. In the case of remote office verification, Active Directory in .Net Server 2003 will now use cached credentials, instead of requiring a query on the main authorization server. Additionally, Microsoft has improved the speed at which Active Directory updates--replication and synchronization are streamlined by sending only changes rather than whole chunks of the directory. Microsoft has also improved the scalability of Active Directory in .Net Server 2003. The Enterprise and Datacenter versions of .Net Server 2003 will support clustering, including high availability configurations and load-balancing configurations.
On the connectivity front, .Net Server 2003 includes some basic firewall functionality and support for IPv6. Microsoft's implementation of Virtual Disk Service, which simplifies integration with storage products from multiple vendor devices, uses a single management interface. This reflects the storage industry's efforts to standardize. Security is enhanced in .Net Server 2003 with the implementation of EFS (Encrypted File System), which encrypts the NTFS base-file system.
2003 will be a relatively quiet year from Apple. Most of the key applications to the Mac platform have been ported to OS X, and development for classic Mac is drying up. If you are a member of the current Mac base and plan to stay, think about upgrading in 2003 to take advantage of the improvements in OS X. The costs for Mac hardware continue to fall to be more in line with the costs of x86 equipment, though you still pay more for a Mac. Apple will continue its push into the enterprise at the departmental level, but don't expect to see a data center high-end product anytime soon.
Expect a tug of war between Apple and Linux vendors vying for users switching from Windows. Apple's big advantage is its native ports of Internet Explorer and Office, but its disadvantage is that Apple users will need new hardware, which might explain why Apple appeared near the bottom of the list in Gartner's survey describing what vendors can expect to receive the rare IT buck in 2003. In the end, Apple should gain ground in the home market and hold ground in the office market.
The inroad Linux has made in the server OS market is impressive, with no signs that it will divert over the next year. The commitment shown by IBM and Sun to provide compatibility at both an OS and hardware level on high-end iron continues to grow, and ISVs are following their lead by providing support for Linux at first customer ship (FCS), rather than waiting for customer demand. Whereas ISVs had once supported Windows, Solaris and HP-UX at FCS, expect to see increased support for Windows, Solaris and Linux, with HP-UX's mindshare dwindling by the day.
Steven J. Schuchart Jr. covers storage and servers for Network Computing. Previously he worked as a network architect for a general retail firm, a PC and electronics technician, a computer retail store manager, and a freelance disc jockey. Write to him at sschuchart@nwc.com.
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