Introduction

As more business information becomes available in digital form, it can be analyzed creatively, searched faster, updated more easily, and shared more broadly. Building Web functionality into an organization's computing infrastructure lets it better take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Internet. At the same time, the substantially increased volume of information being stored by most organizations�particularly large files such as digital images�also presents significant new management challenges. To address these expanding requirements, support for sophisticated storage management is an increasingly essential service.

To address both traditional and Internet-based data requirements, the Microsoft� Windows� 2000 Server operating system provides a unified file and print infrastructure for sharing, storing, and publishing information. This infrastructure includes key enhancements to the Windows NT� operating system storage architecture and features.

These improvements address enterprise concerns about the escalating storage costs in large environments and the scalability requirements of mission-critical applications, while providing support for third party storage management solutions. Windows 2000 Server provides an enhanced storage subsystem architecture, an improved NTFS file system, and an extensive list of new storage services and tools.

Specifically, Windows 2000 Server lets organizations:

Help users locate and access information.

Today, it can be very difficult to find a file stored on a network because it is hard to keep track of the various naming schemes used to identify shared network drives. The Windows 2000 Server Distributed File System (Dfs) lets administrators assign logical names to the shared drives on a network, rather than requiring users to know the physical name assigned to each server they need to access. This means, for example, that rather than having to enter the detailed network path to a shared drive such as /abc/users/public/1999/marketing; the user can use a simple name such as �Marketing Documents� that identifies the drive. Presenting shared drives in a more unified manner makes it easier to find and access files across ever-expanding networks.

In addition to making it simpler to find shared network drives, Windows 2000 Server also makes it much easier for users to find printers. Just as they had to know the name of the physical path to a network drive, users have also had to know the name of the path to shared network printers. With Windows 2000, print services are integrated with the Windows 2000 Server Active Directory� service, which means employees can search for printers based on where the printer is located or the type of printing it can perform.

Improved indexing services let users perform full-text searches on all file types that are supported by Windows 2000. In addition, users can create arbitrary file properties, such as file description, to be later used as a search criteria.

Improve storage management.

Windows 2000 makes it easier for administrators to manage networked storage and ensure that there is disk space available to store new files as they are created.

Using the logical namespace capabilities of Dfs gives network administrators more flexibility in managing hard disks, since they can change the physical location of a drive and just map the new hardware to an existing name in the logical structure. In the example given above, if the network administrator needs to change the shared drive name from /abc/users/public/1999/marketing to /abc/users/public/2000/marketing, he or she can do so and just map the new physical name to the same Marketing Documents logical name.

With Windows 2000 Server, companies have increased data availability because the operating system includes file replication services that work in conjunction with Dfs. This file replication service lets organizations store replicas of files on more than one server, so that if one server fails another will have a copy of the file available.

Administrators can now perform common administrative tasks, including adding, extending, and mirroring dynamic disks, without rebooting the system or interrupting users because of the Dynamic Volume Management feature. In addition, the built-in disk defragmentation utility can be run while the server is online, which helps increase server availability.

To help ensure users won�t run out of storage, several features help administrators better manage disk space. Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) lets organizations migrate infrequently used files to lower-cost devices, such as tape drives, and then copy it back to faster disk drives when needed, helping companies ensure higher availability of disk space for the data that is accessed most often. Administrators can also set disk quotas to guarantee that no one user will occupy all the disk space available.

Expand printer capabilities.

Windows 2000 Server includes support for more types of printers as well as features that let users find printers across their network and the Internet. In fact, Windows 2000 takes advantage of the Internet to improve printing capabilities in several ways. To expand the flexibility of printing options, users can print across the Internet by designating a printer�s URL. This is particularly helpful in cases where companies set up extranets with partners, as it allows employees working on two different networks to share and print documents on one another�s printer. Users can also view the status of a printer over the Internet from within any browser, and download and install printer drivers over the Internet.

Print quality is improved with Windows 2000 Server as well, through support for Image Color Management technology, which ensures better color accuracy and consistency.

Lastly, Windows 2000 Server makes it easier for administrators to manage printers. Remote port administration lets them remotely manage and configure printer ports, printers, and documents form any Windows 2000-based computer.