REDMOND, Wash., March 18, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the beta release of Automated Deployment Services (ADS) for Windows® Server 2003, a powerful new server provisioning and administration tool that delivers key technology for the company’s new Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI). This initiative unifies hardware, software and service vendors around a software architecture, which enables customers to harness the power of industry-standard hardware and brings simplicity, automation and flexibility to IT operations. ADS helps customers reduce the complexity and high cost associated with managing today’s modern datacenter by uniquely employing a subset of the System Definition Model (SDM) specifically for server provisioning (see related release). It enables customers to rapidly and automatically deploy hundreds of highly customized Microsoft®
Windows Server system images across their environments in a matter of minutes, instead of days or weeks as is currently required.
“ADS delivers rapid deployment and centralized administration of large, scale-out systems,”
said Bill Veghte, corporate vice president of the Windows Server Group at Microsoft.
“Customers are clearly saying they require solutions to improve IT infrastructure productivity and reduce costs associated with server deployments. We are excited about delivering a solution that significantly automates and simplifies customers’ IT operations.”
Customers such as Cable and Wireless plc, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Co. and Rackspace Managed Hosting are already pilot-testing ADS deployments.
“As we continue to look for ways to deliver more value to our customers, using automation technology to improve efficiency at our data centers is critical,”
said Mark Neumann, vice president of Product Development at Cable and Wireless.
“As an early evaluation customer of Automated Deployment Services, we have been impressed with Microsoft’s ability to bring a new level of flexibility and automation to our server deployment process and look forward to realizing this kind of benefit across our data centers.”
Addressing Real Challenges With Real Solutions
Enterprise datacenter administrators face significant challenges as they scale their infrastructures and deploy or redeploy large numbers of servers in their environments. Windows Automated Deployment Services is a new technology in Windows Server 2003 that helps customers address those challenges while providing greater simplicity, automation and lower total cost of ownership associated with managing today’s datacenter environment. Key features of Automated Deployment Services include these:
-
Rapid, highly scalable automated server deployment
-
Encoding of operational practices and standards
-
Flexible image creation, editing and scripting tools
-
Reliable script-based administration framework
“Since we manage more than 3,000 Windows servers, automating server provisioning and administration is critically important to our hosting operations,”
said Graham Weston, CEO of Rackspace Managed Hosting.
“Simplifying this process and creating cost efficiencies enables us to deliver more value to our customers. As an early adopter of Automated Deployment Services we have been impressed with Microsoft’s innovations in this space and see great potential for ADS to impact our Windows Server infrastructure.”
The ADS beta is available this week to early adopter customers, and final code is expected to be broadly available in the second quarter of 2003. More information about Automated Deployment Services is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/news/bulletins/ads.mspx.
About Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 is a comprehensive, integrated and secure infrastructure designed to help customers reduce costs and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of IT operations. Building on Windows 2000 family strengths, the new server platform helps customers extend existing resources while laying the foundation for building a new generation of connected applications that improve business productivity. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/.
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.
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp.
