Microsoft Corp.'s release next week of Windows 2000 Datacenter will mark the software giant's most ambitious attempt to penetrate the corporate glass house.

Whether Datacenter has the weight to break through remains anyone's guess. But the attempt will undoubtedly mark a major change in the way Microsoft and its partners deliver software and hardware.

The development may also eventually let IT executives re-evaluate network operating system choices and server deployments. That reevaluation process, however, won't come without painstaking tests to prove Datacenter is worthy to host core enterprise systems.

Datacenter is Microsoft's attempt to compete with long-established, midrange Unix and minicomputer systems that run mission-critical enterprise applications.

"There is very little competition between Unix and [Windows] NT once you go beyond four processors," says Ed Martinez, senior systems architect with Prudential Insurance Company of America Inc. in Newark, N.J. "With Datacenter, we hope to get some flexibility to keep some systems on the Intel platform."

Encouraged by results

Martinez is encouraged after four months of testing Datacenter and hopes to eventually use it to host databases, consolidate servers, and save on rack space, ports and peripherals.

"We're looking at high-end SQL [database] applications and see some advantage in leveraging more processors and memory per box. Instead of managing lots of servers, we can manage fewer high-end boxes," he says.

Datacenter may be an alternative to Unix in situations when Martinez wants eight or more processors per box, although he has no intention of replacing any of his Unix systems.

The Datacenter operating system, the last piece of the Windows 2000 line to be rolled out, is targeted at high-end databases, server consolidations and hosting environments. Its defining characteristics are support for up to 32 processors, 64G bytes of memory and four-node failover clustering.

Unlike Microsoft's other Windows and NT software, Datacenter will only be available from OEMs, which will configure and test their hardware and the operating system as a single unit as well as offer 24-7 support and guarantees such as 99.9% uptime.

Prudential's Martinez and others, however, are having a hard time evaluating Datacenter because there are no certified applications. "That makes it hard to push it through its paces," Martinez says.

The testing process for validated Datacenter applications began just last month, and not even Microsoft's SQL Server is certified -- although it will run on Datacenter.

Given that and the important roles Datacenter would be taking on, Martinez says it will be early next year before Prudential even evaluates when and where to introduce the operating system.

"If you don't have the right application, you could be wasting your money on Datacenter," he says.

Others are also taking measured approaches.

"You can count on Unix staying in our Phoenix data center," says Fred Wettling, infrastructure architect for Bechtel Corp., an engineering and construction company in San Francisco. But Wettling says the company may consolidate up to 120 NT servers used for front-end applications, such as those from SAP AG, and Datacenter could be a candidate for that project. The evaluation process, however, will be long and exhaustive.

It's a process sure to be repeated

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