Windows .NET Server 2003 Delivers Innovative Storage Services Architecture

ANAHEIM, Calif., Oct. 8, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. today announced innovative new storage technologies in Microsoft® Windows®
.NET Server 2003 and their broad adoption by industry partners. Volume Shadow-Copy Service (VSS) and Virtual Disk Service (VDS) technologies are part of a storage services architecture in Windows .NET Server 2003 that enables heterogeneous interoperation and cooperation between storage hardware, storage software and business applications. Leading enterprise hardware vendors have already committed to developing products that will utilize the new technologies to deliver innovative enterprise storage solutions to their customers.

With Windows .NET Server 2003, customers will have the flexibility to incorporate products from multiple vendors into a single, interoperable storage infrastructure. The architecture provides the ability to coordinate business applications and storage hardware to deliver higher-quality data management functionality such as backup, recovery and data mining. This increases customer choice while improving data availability.

“Our goal is to continually build technologies within the Windows Server platform that provide customers with improved dependability and productive access to their data,”
said David Thompson, corporate vice president of the Windows Server Product Group at Microsoft.
“Windows .NET Server 2003 innovations such as VSS and VDS, combined with partner support, provide customers with a breakthrough capability to manage their data stores in a way not possible before on any platform.”

“This is really overdue in terms of what the industry needs and it’s great to see Microsoft stepping up to support hardware vendors, providing the cross-pollination that’s difficult for individual vendors to accomplish,”
said Bill Moran, research director at D.H. Brown Associates Inc.
“Being able to create storage networks consisting of interoperable hardware from multiple vendors will help to lower TCO for customers and improve their ability to respond quickly to data needs. With this development, Microsoft enhances its position as a leading platform for storage solutions in businesses of any size.”

Industry Rallies to Support Windows .NET Server 2003 Storage Innovations

Leading enterprise storage partners see Windows .NET Server 2003 with VSS and VDS as delivering an enterprise storage platform that removes interoperability barriers and simplifies customer storage environments. Industry partners such as Adaptec Inc., Brocade Communications Systems Inc., Dell Computer Corp., EMC Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., HP, Hitachi Ltd., IBM Corp., LSI Logic Storage Systems Inc., NEC Corp., StorageTek, Unisys Corp. and XIOtech Corp. are using these new platform technologies to enable their hardware to deliver new innovative storage solutions.

“Leveraging VSS and VDS technologies, NEC offers industry-leading SAN and NAS products — NEC Storage series; iStorage series in Japan — for mission-critical enterprise systems,”
said Yoshikazu Maruyama, executive general manager of the Computers Software Operations Unit at NEC.
“Microsoft’s VDS and VSS will dramatically reduce the complexity of storage management and improve TCO, especially with backup and provisioning.”

Windows .NET Server 2003 as a Platform for Enterprise Storage

Microsoft is committed to delivering a broad set of industry partnerships with storage, application and management vendors that deliver a comprehensive and integrated storage ecosystem, resulting in greater innovation and lower overall cost of ownership.

“HP is pleased to be working with Microsoft to enhance the Windows functionality for storage systems,”
said Bob Schultz, vice president of marketing for network storage solutions at HP.
“By collaborating on innovative, standards-based solutions, we ensure that customers will have controllable, resilient and extensible storage networks that can adapt to their business environment.”

Virtual Disk Service and Volume Shadow-Copy Service are two key elements of the improved file system infrastructure in Windows .NET Server 2003. VSS can produce much-higher-quality shadow copies than other technologies because of its ability to integrate with business applications and to coordinate with the storage hardware. As a result, high-fidelity backups and recovery as well as data mining and testing are possible without significantly affecting performance. In addition, VSS’s Shadow Copy Restore feature enables Windows-based clients to seamlessly view and recover previous versions of their files without IT intervention, resulting in greater information worker productivity at lower costs. While VSS enables data management scenarios, VDS provides a service that greatly simplifies the configuration of the disks. From direct attached storage to storage area networks, it provides a standard way to interface with storage devices, giving IT professionals a great deal of flexibility when choosing their storage hardware. Together, VSS and VDS deliver greater flexibility and cost-effective new capabilities for customers.

“EMC and Microsoft have long history in working closely together to make the Windows platform more storage-enabled, and we look forward to working with the VSS and VDS features in Windows .NET Server 2003,”
said Don Swatik, vice president of Alliances and Information Sciences at EMC.
“Through EMC’s WideSky storage management middleware, we plan to utilize these new technologies to help customers exploit the advanced functionality of EMC’s powerful networked storage systems and software. The combination of Microsoft and EMC technology will provide Windows .NET Server 2003 users with the highest levels of information management and protection.”

Additional information on Microsoft Windows .NET Server 2003 storage technologies can be found at http://microsoft.com/windows.netserver/techinfo/default.mspx .

About MEC 2002

MEC 2002 is the essential Microsoft conference for planning, deploying and managing a connected enterprise for IT professionals and technical decision-makers. This year, 5,500 customers, partners and Microsoft technical staff and speakers will gather at MEC 2002 in Anaheim, Calif., to hear more than 200 breakout sessions and to explore 190 exhibitor booths. Platinum sponsors for MEC 2002 include Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

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Supporting Industry Quotes

“VDS and VSS greatly simplify data storage management by providing the industry with standards for managing RAID arrays and bringing greater interoperability between applications, the operating system and storage. Adaptec is excited to be working closely with Microsoft to develop external storage and RAID solutions that leverage these new technologies and help customers streamline storage management.”

  • Mark Delsman


  • Chief Technology Officer
    Adaptec

“As the leading provider of an intelligent platform for networking storage, Brocade is pleased to see Microsoft incorporate functions such as VDS and VSS that help simplify storage management. Through our strategic relationship with Microsoft, we are working closely to ensure product interoperability as Microsoft adds SAN awareness to its operating systems.”

  • Jeffrey Brooks


  • Chief Marketing Officer
    Brocade

“VDS and VSS provide the foundations for greatly simplifying the management of data and storage infrastructure. We are very excited to be working closely with Microsoft to deliver server and storage platforms that leverage these new technologies and enable powerful new customer scenarios.”

  • Rhonda Gass


  • Vice President of Storage Engineering
    Enterprise Systems Group
    Dell Computer Corp.

“EMC and Microsoft have long history in working closely together to make the Windows platform more storage-enabled, and we look forward to working with the VSS and VDS features in Windows .NET Server 2003. Through EMC’s WideSky storage management middleware, we plan to utilize these new technologies to help customers exploit the advanced functionality of EMC’s powerful networked storage systems and software. The combination of Microsoft and EMC technology will provide Windows .NET Server 2003 users with the highest levels of information management and protection.”

  • Don Swatik


  • Vice President of Alliances and Information Sciences
    EMC

“VSS and VDS of Microsoft provide a powerful infrastructure for enterprise customers to manage storage systems more effectively. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Microsoft to provide a common storage management framework on the Windows environment for our ETERNUS storage systems and Softek storage management software. By combining our Softek storage management software, we can remarkably simplify customers’ storage management.”

  • Hitoshi Matsushima


  • General Manager of the Storage Systems Division
    File System Group
    Fujitsu

“HP is pleased to be working with Microsoft to enhance the Windows functionality for storage systems. By collaborating on innovative, standards-based solutions, we ensure that customers will have controllable, resilient and extensible storage networks that can adapt to their business environment.”

  • Bob Schultz


  • Vice President of Marketing
    Network Storage Solutions
    HP

“Hitachi is pleased to integrate our enterprise storage systems with Microsoft’s VSS and VDS to provide customers with more powerful storage management solutions. As interoperability is a key component of our TrueNorth strategy, we are in full support of this announcement. which offers customers of Windows more powerful tools to build and manage their storage infrastructures.”

  • Ikuo Kimura


  • Administrative Officer, COO
    Information and Telecommunication Systems
    Hitachi

“LSI Logic, a leader in open enterprise storage systems and intelligent host bus adapters, is pleased to be working closely with Microsoft on its VDS-VSS storage initiative. Microsoft’s VDS-VSS solution offers a common framework for one of IT’s largest issues — managing storage. Our customers trust us with their most valuable asset, their data, and depend on us to help them develop solutions that leverage the latest storage management technology and reduce the cost of managing that data.”

  • Flavio Santoni


  • Vice President, Sales and Marketing
    LSI Logic Storage Systems

“Leveraging VSS and VDS technologies, NEC offers industry-leading SAN and NAS products — NEC Storage series; iStorage series in Japan — for mission-critical enterprise systems. Microsoft’s VDS and VSS will dramatically reduce the complexity of storage management and improve TCO, especially with backup and provisioning.”

  • Yoshikazu Maruyama


  • Executive General Manager
    Computers Software Operations Unit
    NEC

“Microsoft’s VDS-VSS solution addresses three critical areas of data management: data writers, copy requesters and storage providers. By standardizing the data management interfaces and interactions among these elements, Microsoft makes it possible for StorageTek to play in the managed storage arena as a provider, with interface support from best-of-breed ISVs. Microsoft is taking a strong, positive step toward eliminating the risk and confusion from the data-management process.”

  • Tim Steadman


  • Director of Corporate Alliances
    StorageTek

“These new Windows .NET Server 2003 capabilities are a natural complement of Unisys ES7000 characteristics for simplifying systems administration, particularly Unisys Server Sentinel and Storage Sentinel technologies. Minimizing complexity is a design priority evident in the Unisys Cellular MultiProcessing (CMP) architecture and across the ES7000 feature set. With the introduction of tools such as VDS and VSS, Windows .NET Server 2003 will multiply the ability of ES7000 to make these benefits accessible to enterprises.”

  • Bill Maclean


  • Vice President of Product Management
    Unisys

“By creating VDS and VSS as part of its newest operating system, Microsoft is the first vendor to build storage requirements into applications, giving applications the intelligence to convey their needs to storage. We are very excited to be working with Microsoft to make XIOtech’s MAGNITUDE storage platform one of the first to leverage these new technologies and enable powerful new customer scenarios. Microsoft and XIOtech demonstrated VSS six months ago at SNW, and since then Microsoft has continued this vision, bringing the full potential of storage through the application.”

  • Dan McCormick


  • Vice President of Worldwide Marketing
    XIOtech

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