Windows Server for Mission-Critical Enterprise Workloads
Even with the proliferation and success of Windows Server I have seen in our Enterprise customers, I still run into the occasional Information Technology Professional who believes Windows does not have a place in the Enterprise datacenter. If you are a Windows proponent in your company, and run into pushback about putting mission-critical enterprise workloads on Windows Server, you may find the following questions that I have often asked useful:
<soapbox>
Do you consider SAP a mission-critical, enterprise application?
FACT: Windows Server is the most widely used platform for enterprise SAP deployments: Over 57% of all installations are on Windows Server worldwide, and 64% of new SAP installations are on Windows Server (Q3/2006).
Do you think Linux is more secure than Windows?
FACT: Windows has the fewest vulnerabilities of the five leading operating systems in the market (Windows, RedHat, Mac OS X, HP HP/UX and Sun), and we fix our vulnerabilities faster. You don’t have to believe me, you can ask Symantec, who monitors this sort of thing for a living:
https://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3667201
A common complaint I hear about Windows Server is how often you need to patch it. We release patches monthly – which means 12 patch cycles a year. I’ve had people tell me that they have had Linux servers running for over a year without patching – if you look at the number of security hotfixes on RedHat, you’ll see that if a Linux server is not patched, it is because the administrators choose not to patch it, not because it didn’t need to be patched. You could just as easily choose not to patch a Windows Server, but I wouldn’t call it a best practice, and its probably not on Linux either…
Do you think Apache on Linux outperforms IIS on Windows?
FACT: Veritest testing found significant performance advantage of Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 versus Apache and Red Hat Linux in all configurations:
https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/facts/analyses/webbench.mspx
Do you think Windows is more expensive to own and operate than Linux?
FACT: An independent Forester study showed that total Linux costs are higher than Windows by 5-20%
https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/facts/analyses/opencost.mspx
In addition, to make other server operating systems perform useful functions (such as an application server) you often have to purchase 3rd party products to layer on top of it. The following is a list of some of the more commonly used components we ship in the box with Windows Server at no additional cost.
· Collaboration
· Team Sites (WSS)
· Workflow (WWF)
· Directory Services
· Active Directory
· LDAP (ADAM)
· Federation (ADFS)
· Synchronization (IIFP)
· Unix interoperability (NIS)
· File Services
· File Replication Service (FRS)
· Folder Redirection of My Documents
· SAN Support
· Volume Shadow Copy Service
· Networking and Communications
· DHCP
· DNS
· Email (SMTP)
· Network Address Translation (NAT)
· Routing & Remote Access (RRAS)
· VPN
· Print Services
· Security Services
· Certificate Services
· Encrypted File System (EFS)
· Firewall
· IP Sec
· RADIUS (IAS)
· Rights Management Services (RMS)
· Storage
· Distributed File System Replication
· File Server Resource Manager
· Open File Backup
· Remote Differential Compression
· Terminal Services
· Web & Application Services
· Web Server (IIS)
· Message Queueing (MSMQ)
· Transaction Services
· Web Services (WCF)
· .NET Framework
· ASP.NET
· UDDI
· Windows Media Services
</soapbox>
My point here is this: if you have not used Windows Server since NT 4.0, you need to look again :)