Last Update: Sep 17, 2024 | Published: Jan 07, 2009
Designed for small organizations and departmental use, Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, delivers intelligent file and printer sharing, secure Internet connectivity, centralized desktop policy management, and Web solutions that connect employees, partners, and customers. Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, provides high levels of dependability, scalability, and security.
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, takes the best of Windows 2000 Server technology and makes it easier to deploy, manage, and use. The result is a highly productive operating system that is secure, reliable, highly available, and scalable.
At a high level, Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, provides support for:
Customers seeking the highest availability and scalability should consider Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition.
Run Your Business on the Most Solid Server Operating System Microsoft Has Ever Released Today’s organizations expect technology to be a consistent enabler of business value. They want systems that are always up and always responsive, and they demand a level of security able to meet today’s challenges. Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, includes new features and improvements that make it the most dependable small business and departmental server operating system Microsoft has ever created.
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, improves on many technologies introduced in Windows 2000 Server, such as support for smart cards, bandwidth throttling, and Plug and Play support. New technologies, such as the common language runtime, strengthen security to help safeguard networks from malicious or poorly designed code. In addition, improvements to Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, public key infrastructure (PKI), and Kerberos make it easier to secure Windows Server 2003.
The Active Directory® service is now faster and more robust over unreliable wide area network (WAN) connections, thanks to more efficient synchronization, replication, and credential caching in branch office domain controllers.
Key Dependability Features Here are some of the key features responsible for the increased dependability of Windows Server 2003:
Improve Employee Communication and Collaboration Across Your Business Organizations look to computing technology to improve productivity across their businesses—not just for system administrators, who want flexible services that are quicker to deploy and easier to manage, but also for employees, who need powerful tools that are easier to use.
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, and other members of the Windows Server 2003 family share many features that help make your organization and employees more productive. Windows Server 2003 enables greater productivity for both administrators and users through enhanced capabilities in system management and storage.
Microsoft has made great strides in evolving manageability. The new, task-based design in Windows Server 2003 makes it easier to find and carry out common tasks. Improvements to the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and Active Directory boost performance and make management easier.
In addition, the Windows Server 2003 family contains several important new automated management tools including Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS) and server configuration wizards to help automate deployment. Managing Group Policy is made easier with the new Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), enabling more organizations to better use Active Directory and take advantage of its powerful management features. Further, command-line tools let administrators perform most tasks from the command console, should they prefer that method.
New and improved file and print services in Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, also make storage and backup easier while significantly reducing the demands on system administrators. For example, the Volume Copy Shadow Service provides point-in-time backups of networked shares. This unique technology extends to users who can now retrieve old copies of files or deleted files right from their Windows desktop. In addition, file and print services are improved with the addition of the Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) remote document sharing technology. Enhancements to the Distributed File System (DFS) and Encrypting File System (EFS) allow for powerful, flexible file sharing and storage as well.
Key Productivity Features Here are some of the key features that enhance productivity:
Securely Connect with Your Customers Today’s networks are connecting intranets, extranets, and the Web. More and more companies are using the Internet to communicate with their customers and partners everyday. Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, and other members of the Windows Server 2003 family share many features that help your organization and employees stay connected.
Networking improvements and new features in the Windows Server 2003 family extend the versatility, manageability, and dependability of network infrastructures. Windows Server 2003 makes it easier than ever for users to stay connected to their centralized systems from anywhere and on any device. Microsoft has built significant networking enhancements in Windows Server 2003, including Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPoE), and Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) over network address translation (NAT).
Perhaps most important, though, is the optimized, native support of Microsoft .NET and XML. Windows Server 2003 represents a revolutionary step forward as the ideal platform to develop, distribute, and host XML Web services created with .NET.
Key Features for Connecting Here are some of the key features for connecting people, partners, systems, and customers:
Maximize Business Value by Leveraging the Largest Partner Solution Ecosystem PC technology provides the most cost-effective chip platform, a considerable economic incentive for adopting Windows Server 2003. But that is only the beginning of the story. Windows Server 2003 is a cost-efficient choice for both scale-up or scale-out purposes. With multiple essential services and components already included in Windows Server 2003, organizations can quickly benefit from an integrated platform that is easy to deploy, manage, and use.
When you adopt Windows Server 2003, you become a part of the global network that has helped make the Windows platform so productive.
This network of global services and support provides the following benefits:
This ecosystem of products and services reduces total cost of ownership (TCO), helping your organization be more productive and efficient.
Microsoft .NET is deeply integrated into the Windows Server 2003 family. It enables an unprecedented level of software integration using XML Web services, those discrete, building-block applications that connect to each other—as well as to other, larger applications—via the Internet.
Integral to the Microsoft platform, the .NET Framework provides the ability to build, host, deploy, and use secure and connected solutions quickly and reliably through XML Web services. The Microsoft platform provides a suite of developer tools, client applications, XML Web services, and servers necessary to participate in this connected world.
These XML Web services provide reusable components built on industry standards that invoke capabilities from other applications independent of the way the applications were built, their operating system or platform, or the devices used to access them.
With XML Web services, developers can integrate applications inside enterprises and across network boundaries with partners and customers. This advance in computing—opening the door to federated collaboration and more efficient business-to-business and business-to-consumer services—can have a significant potential impact on revenue. Millions of others can use these components in varied combinations to produce highly personal, intelligent computing experiences.
Other .NET benefits in the Windows Server 2003 family help application developers to:
All of these benefits are in the improved Windows Server 2003 application platform.
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, provides a comprehensive server platform that is easy to deploy, manage, and use—and helps businesses to lower TCO. Thanks in part to the support of many Microsoft third-party hardware and software partners, Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, helps organizations achieve the greatest return on their server investments.
Windows 2003 Homepage
Overview of Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition