Microsoft Puts Branch Offices in the Spotlight

Published: February 8, 2006

by Alex Woodie

New software from Microsoft became generally available last week that, among other things, should help midsize companies with branch offices to get a better handle on their storage and networking environments. The release of Windows Server 2003 Release 2 and Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Service Pack 2 bring improvements in the area of remote server management, security, and bandwidth utilization, and should help midsize companies with sparsely staffed remote offices get more IT bang for their buck.

Branch offices represent a big management challenge in terms of securing the environments and safely moving information among branches, says Jeff Price, a senior director in the Windows Server group, in a Q&A posted last week to Microsoft's Web site.

"We know that 75 percent of mid size organizations in the U.S. have branch offices, and the average number of locations per company is six," Price says. "It's critical for these customers to have better manageability and efficiency, as most midsize organizations have limited IT staff." By incorporating features like better file sharing using the distributed file system and increases in the efficiency of data replication over WANs in its software, Microsoft says it's trying to help midsize businesses save money in their branch offices.

In terms of storage management, Windows Server 2003 R2 brings better monitoring of disk space usage, the capability to control the use of disk space through directory quotas, new file screening capabilities to prevent certain types of files from being stored on R2, and easier configuration of storage area networks (SANs). "We have seen a large increase in the deployment of what is called a 'storage area network,' which is hardware to provide storage for multiple servers," Price says. "What we've done in Windows Server 2003 R2 is make it much easier to deploy and manage storage on a SAN using Windows Server."

The R2 release also brings new single sign-on (SSO) capabilities through new features called Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM), and Identity Management for UNIX. Faster file replication through new compression algorithms is expected to benefit R2 users by decreasing their bandwidth usage, while support for Network File System (NFS) will provide emulation of Unix file systems under R2 and better interoperability with Unix data and applications.

Windows Server 2003 R2 was released to manufacturing (RTM) in early December (see "Microsoft Gets Windows Server 2003 R2 Out the Door"), but it took Microsoft and its partners, including Dell, HP, and IBM about two months before it became generally available, which is the usual delay for these types of products.

The new release of Microsoft's security-focused ISA Server 2004, which provides users with a firewall, Virtual Private Networking (VPN), and content caching technologies, should also make it easier for branch offices to connect to the network, particularly those with limited bandwidth and high latency, Microsoft says.

Specifically, ISA Server 2004 SP2 incorporates several new technologies aimed at the branch office, including Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), HTTP compression, and traffic prioritization capabilities.

With BITS, Microsoft is making it faster and easier to upgrade and patch Windows operating systems using Microsoft's Windows Update service. Instead of having each computer in a branch office individually download an update, patch, or service pack from Windows Update, BITS enables those patches or updates to be downloaded a single time, cached on the ISA Server, and then distributed through the branch office.

Web applications--particularly Outlook Web Access (OWA)--will benefit from the addition of HTTP compression to ISA Server, Microsoft says. With HTTP compression, ISA Server requests compressed content and then serves compressed content from its Web cache to clients.

Administrators have more power to increase or decrease the quality of service (QoS) of network applications as a result of the new traffic prioritization capabilities in ISA Server. This QoS capability is enabled by accessing the "DiffServ" field on IP packets, which acts to increase or decrease the bandwidth allotted to specific URL requests.

Other new features in ISA Server 2004 SP2 include support for Windows Server 2003 R2 and all "R2-related' releases, including SQL Server 2005, Microsoft says. The software also includes all hotfixes through November 1, 2005.

Improving the branch office computing environment was a priority with both ISA Server 2004 SP2 and Windows Server 2003 R2, Price says. "ISA Server 2004 with SP2 complements Windows Server 2003 R2 to provide customers with advanced policy-based protection for branch office servers and clients, more efficient branch office connectivity, and better protection internally and externally for their application infrastructure, services and data," he says.

Microsoft also announced changes to its "midsize business promotion" this week, the less-than-thrilling name given to the Small Business Server for midsize folk (see "Microsoft Makes its Mid Size Business Move"). Instead of the Windows Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition, Microsoft will be including R2 Standard Edition with its midsize business promotion bundle, which also includes Exchange Server and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). The midsize business promotion is slated to be rebranded "Centro" following the release of Windows "Longhorn" Server next year.