Microsoft recruited customers as part of an early adopter program, offering an opportunity to try out Windows Server 2003 ahead of its official release. For many businesses this meant working with beta, or testing, code, a process Microsoft also used to sniff out bugs in the software. O'Brien described the program as "seed corn for having the right product for some customers." While Microsoft says Windows Server 2003 is an enterprise-class operating system that will push aside Unix servers and mainframes, some case studies reveal a different picture. The majority of the studies involve existing Microsoft customers interested in expanding performance of existing systems or consolidating servers. In many other circumstances, companies adopted or planned to adopt Windows Server 2003, because they needed the software to run some other Microsoft product. This latter scenario is one many businesses, particularly those using Microsoft software, will encounter, analysts say. Many new products, such as Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Windows Rights Management Services and Exchange Server 2003 require the new Windows Server. At the same time, many companies moving to Windows Server 2003 will find they will need to upgrade existing products, such as Exchange Server 2000, because the software won't run on the new server software. In the case of Analog Devices, planned adoption of Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 contributed to the decision to eventually move some systems to Windows Server 2003. Chicago-based Information Resources (IRI), which provides sales and market research for companies selling consumer goods and pharmaceuticals, is on the slow path to Windows Server 2003. "We have a very small cluster of servers today running Windows Server 2003, as we're beginning to roll out this product," said Marshall Gibb, IRI's chief information officer. "I would expect that we will almost exclusively be on Windows 2003 in our data production environment." Gibbs said that IRI would move off Unix "as the business warrants. We have a significant legacy environment that provides the data access today across a variety of infrastructures. For the foreseeable future Unix will play a role in that." While Microsoft arguably has bulked up Windows Server 2003's enterprise capabilities, particularly the 64-bit version running on Itanium 2 processors, few companies will be moving from Unix for the foreseeable future, Gartner's Bittman said. Still, some existing Windows NT 4 server customers are excited about version 2003 and are planning rapid migrations. The Kentucky Department of Education plans to move from NT 4 to Windows Server 2003 as a way of consolidating servers and centralising systems management. The school system, with about 700,000 staff and student users, plans to switch completely to Windows Server 2003 by the end of the year. Currently, the school system runs about 3,500 Windows NT 4 servers and 50 Windows Server 2003 systems. The existing model puts much of the management burden on local technology managers. "We want the schools to get back to educating kids rather than being technology troubleshooters," said Chuck Austin, senior product manager for Kentucky Education Technology System. Following the consolidation, the Kentucky school system expects to reduce the number of domains to 178 from 320 and domain controllers from about 2,000 to less than 400. Each of the 176 school districts would have two Windows Server 2003 servers. "For the NT 4 customers that haven't moved (to Windows Server 2003), we're focused on showing them the cost savings -- like in server consolidation," O'Brien said. News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.
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