Section 3.8. Practical Implications

   

3.8 Practical Implications

Starting with Windows 2000, Microsoft introduced a new minidriver model for the benefit of vendors wishing to write a network file system. The vendors need only write a minidriver that deals with the specifics of the network file system protocol of their choice. The interactions common to all network file systems (with the Windows operating system and Cache Manager) have been encapsulated into a driver library. Microsoft has built minidrivers for CIFS, NFS, and WebDAV.

CIFS is now a de facto industry standard for Windows clients communicating with a server. Several operating system platforms running a network file server implement CIFS. Microsoft licenses a royalty-free CIFS specification, and so also does the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). Several dialects are available for CIFS. Both of the royalty-free CIFS specifications referred to earlier correspond roughly to the protocol implemented by a Windows NT 4.0 client. Microsoft also implemented a for-royalty licensing program for the SMB client in the post-Windows NT 4.0 time frame.

Microsoft is competing with NAS appliance vendors built on non-Windows platforms by offering a customized Windows product to NAS OEMs. Only time will determine the degree to which this effort will be successful, though it appears that Microsoft has succeeded in grabbing at least a measurable share of the NAS market with this offering.

Microsoft Exchange 2000 does not work with NAS devices. In the longer term , Microsoft is expected to eventually build a version of Microsoft Exchange that will use SQL Server for its storage needs. Given that the new version of SQL itself is not yet commercially available, that day, if indeed it is to come, is way off in the unpredictable future. In the meantime, can or will Microsoft do something to alleviate the problem that Microsoft Exchange 2000 cannot run with NAS devices? Keep in mind the realities of market adoption rates and time lags. Even though Microsoft Exchange 2000 has been available for some time, some customers are still running on Microsoft Exchange 5.5. Probably the situation will be similar when the next version of Microsoft Exchange is released.


   
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Inside Windows Storage
Inside Windows Storage: Server Storage Technologies for Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Beyond
ISBN: 032112698X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 111
Authors: Dilip C. Naik

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