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Redefining Windows Storage
Feature improvements in Windows Server 2003 make way for a better storage future.
by Nelson Ruest and Danielle Ruest

For This Solution: Windows Server 2003, SAN hardware, Backup tools

There is a new trend in IT today. More and more organizations are supplementing their server-centric architectures—where you designate each service the network requires and which server will render it—with data-centric architectures (DCAs). To design a DCA, you must identify the information in your network, categorize it, rate it, determine how to protect it, determine who needs access to it and, if your organization is geographically dispersed, determine how to make it available regionally. As you know, information is made of both data and documents, and categorizing it is no easy feat. However, it's an essential step if your organization wants to manage data storage effectively, especially if you want to develop strategies that allow you to implement storage area networks (SANs).

The release of Windows Server 2003 changes this playing field and we expect it will boost the use of DCAs in the years to come. It provides new data and storage management features that have the potential to revolutionize the way you look at storage strategies today. In fact, Windows Server 2003 builds on storage features Microsoft included in Windows 2000 to transcend traditional Windows storage limitations. With their PC origins, Windows servers traditionally demanded exclusive access to attached storage units. In a SAN, this exclusive control is contrary to basic SAN concepts. Therefore, SAN manufacturers had to develop proprietary utilities that circumvented Windows limitations. With Windows Server 2003, this is no longer the case because it boasts several storage enhancements (see Table 1). The combination of these features help map out a new story for Windows Server 2003 storage, but to profit fully from them, you need to review your DCA needs.

Design Your Storage Solution
According to storage guru Val Bercovici, chief technical architect with Network Appliance Canada Ltd., data is the most stable aspect of any architecture. Hardware platforms and operating systems are changing and evolving constantly, but data is constant and will always form the core of information systems. This is one of the main reasons why storage networks make sense—they free data held captive by single application (including middleware and database) servers. Bercovici says that to create a DCA, you need to focus on four pillars:

• Storage Networking and Consolidation
• Data Center Operations
• Business Continuance
• Distributed Enterprise

The first pillar, Storage Networking and Consolidation, focuses on decoupling data from single servers. This helps you liberate data from the traditional one server, one data store view and enables you to consolidate storage into volumes or logical units (LUN) that can scale independently of your computing environment. When designing your storage architecture, look for storage networking platforms that don't bind you to one particular protocol. Fibre Channel and the Common Internet File System (CIFS) are popular SAN protocols you can consider. However, Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), a new IP-based storage-networking standard, has a promising future with Windows Server 2003 as a low-cost alternative to Fibre Channel. Many organizations also require good Network File System (NFS) support for Unix and Linux interoperability.