Windows 2000's successor has been through three names—Windows 2002, Windows .NET (Win.NET) Server, and the current Windows Server 2003. Amid the confusion of changing nomenclature and last-minute feature additions and subtractions, you might be wondering whether an upgrade to Windows 2003 is worth the effort. Some experts call Windows 2003 merely an "incremental step" forward; others call it "the next generation." How do you know what to believe?
If you're about to begin a Win2K rollout, should you forge ahead or should you regroup and take a look at Windows 2003? In an ideal world, you would be able to determine the suitability of Windows 2003 in your environment with minimal effort. Sure, Windows 2003 is full of great features, such as support for 1 billion Active Directory (AD) objects, tighter security, and many new command-line utilities. But what about the improvements to the OS's main features, such as Microsoft IIS, clustering support, and Terminal Services? Considering how you run your network today, will you actually use these improved features?
Know Your Score
To help you determine whether you should upgrade, I'm going to walk you through my Windows Decision Point quiz. You're going to need a pen, some paper, and a calculator or spreadsheet. To find an answer that's specific to your environment, let's start with three essential questions:
- What's the size of your business?
- Which Win2K features are you using today?
- Which Windows 2003 features can you imagine using in the near future?
After you assemble this basic information about your business, you'll have the foundation for taking this quiz, the goal of which is to determine whether you'll use enough Windows 2003 features to take a much closer look at the new OS.
The impact of Windows 2003 will be different depending on the size of your organization. So, the most important preliminary step is to examine your organization's size by placing it into one of three categories:
- small—fewer than 100 clients, with 1 to 4 servers
- midsized—100 to 599 clients, with 5 to 14 servers
- large—600 or more clients, with 15 or more servers