0208red_Cover.v9 1/17/08 3:37 PM Page C1 Foley: Is Silverlight the White Elephant in the Room? 64 FEBRUARY 2008 REDMONDMAG.COM TakeTake aa CloseClose LookLook atat WindowsWindows ServerServer 20082008 Will it be your next-generation platform? 26 > $5.95 02 • FEBRUARY +Beta Man Looks at Microsoft Search Server 1212 Get Ready for SQL Server 2008 37 25274 867 27 71 Searching for Enterprise Search Engines 45 Project2 1/14/08 12:46 PM Page 1 UB_CatchPhrase_Redmond.ai 1/11/08 12:03:14 PM ™ Reliability — Catch phrase or reality? Hot backups. Business continuity. Continuous data protection. These and other buzzwords have been generated by the technology industry to get your attention. But what do these terms mean to you? To UltraBac Software, they are another way of explaining the goal at the center of our business: perfect uptime. We invest the time and resources to offer solutions that ensure you have the fastest, most reliable access to your stored data, avoiding costly downtime waiting for failed machines to recover. Introducing Continuous Image Protection (CIP). UltraBac Software is so excited about our new technology that aids in this goal, we’re announcing CIP before its planned release. CIP is a form of continuous data protection (CDP) with a new innovation: it automatically backs up each sector on a disk as it is changed, unlike standard image backups which run only on a periodic basis. With CIP, your image backup never stops – so a system can be brought back to a point-in-time, rather than restoring a static image that could be up to 23 hours old. UltraBac Software’s sole mission is data protection. So when we advertize product reliability, innovative features and functions, and top-notch support they are not simply catch phrases we use, but rather our commitment to you and your business. UltraBac – Innovative software from a reliable company. BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY SOFTWARE FOR PEOPLE WHO MEAN BUSINESS WWW.ULTRABAC.COM © 2008 UltraBac Software. All rights reserved. UltraBac Software, UltraBac, UltraBac Software logo, UBDR Gold, UBDR Pro, Continuous Image Protection, and Backup and Disaster Recovery Software for People Who Mean Business are trademarks of UltraBac Software. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarked and are property of their respective companies. 0208red_TOC1.v6 1/17/08 12:30 PM Page 1 2007 Winner for Best Single Issue Computers/Software, Training & Program Development/Trade Redmond FEBRUARY 2008 The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community Contents COVER STORY REDMOND REPORT 9 Longhorn’s File Services Role Windows Formalizing a formerly Server 2008: subjective functionality. 10 Gates Begins His Long Goodbye Taking a Microsoft’s chairman wraps up the first Closer Look ‘digital decade’ with his last CES keynote. Virtualization and configurability in Microsoft’s new server OS present enterprise IT shops with both challenges and opportunities. 12 Beta Man Microsoft Search Server Page 26 2008 Express COLUMNS 4 Barney’s Rubble: FEATURES Page 45 Doug Barney 37 Laying the Groundwork: Dear Steve: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Think Enterprise Redmond’s new database server is a complex product often running mission-critical apps. You can’t afford to not get it right. 45 Searching for an Answer in the Enterprise PHOTO BY IRA WYMAN As the clamor from IT shops for better internal search grows louder, competition among vendors both large and small gets hotter. REVIEWS 53 Mr. Roboto: Product Reviews Roundup Jeffery Hicks Get Answers to Your 15 Keep Your Disk 20 Build an IT Structure Storage Questions Drives Healthy for Compliance 55 Windows Insider: Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier attacks a Any of these solutions can help Greg Shields hidden problem with a comprehensive ensure that you’re following A NAP Is Good for performance management solution. organizational policies or Your Health regulatory requirements. Reader Review 57 Security Advisor: 17 Windows Server 2008: Joern Wettern So Far, So Good Virtualization Done Differently Enhanced administration, security, IIS updates and virtualization promise 64 Foley on Microsoft: to make moving to Microsoft’s new Mary Jo Foley server OS worthwhile. The White Elephant in the Room? ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 2 Redmondmag.com | 6 [email protected] | 63 Ad and Editorial Indexes COVER ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT KAYGANICH 0208red_OnlineTOC2.v5 1/17/08 9:30 AM Page 2 Redmondmag.comFEBRUARY 2008 VisualStudioMagazine.com Questions with ... Visual Studio 2008 Kicks Off Scott Bekker Scott Bekker is editor PHOTO BY KATHERINE LAMBERT PHOTO BY KATHERINE here’s so much new stuff in in chief of Redmond TVisual Studio 2008 that our Channel Partner. Read sister publication, Visual Studio RCP’s coverage of the Magazine, devoted an entire managed services issue to it. Find out about all the provider (MSP) market in new features in Visual Studio the February issue. 2008—plus what got left out—and read up on a primer on Visual Basic Scott Bekker 2008, the lowdown on bugs, what to expect in future versions and much, In a nutshell, what’s a much more. Read it all online now on VisualStudioMagazine.com. managed services provider? FindIT code: VSMVS2008 It’s a company that remotely monitors your infrastructure and keeps your servers running. ESJ.com While Microsoft partners might get the MSP concept, why should What’s in Store for customers care? On an MSP model you pay the same Storage in 2008 monthly fee whether the system is online or offline, with penalties to the hen it comes to storage in 2008, it’s the “beginning Jon Toigo MSP if a service level agreement isn’t Wof the end of Fibre Channel [FC],” according to met. To succeed, an MSP needs to ESJ.com columnist Jon William Toigo. keep your systems running. “Frankly, FC never delivered the goods,” he writes. “It didn’t provide the any-to-any connectivity between servers and storage that those who Is there a legitimate fear that MSPs thought up a SAN back in the late 1990s had promised. Pounding the nail in will replace IT services at some point? the coffin of FC was a survey conducted last year that showed that FC Theoretically, having an outsider fabrics were the third leading cause of IT downtime in companies.” handle infrastructure uptime lets IT Find out what Toigo thinks will replace FC, and learn about his other departments concentrate on storage predictions for 2008. FindIT code: ESJST2008 implementing new applications that are strategic to the business. REDMONDMAG.COM RESOURCES What are FindIT codes? Resources Enter FindIT Code Throughout Redmond, you’ll >> Daily News News discover some stories contain FindIT >> E-Mail Newsletters Newsletters codes. Key in those codes at >> Free PDFs and Webcasts TechLibrary Redmondmag.com to quickly >> Subscribe/Renew Subscribe access expanded content. FindIT >> Your Turn Editor Queries YourTurn codes are not case sensitive. Redmondmag.com • RCPmag.com • RedDevNews.com • VisualStudioMagazine.com MCPmag.com • CertCities.com • TCPmag.com • ENTmag.com • RedmondEvents.com • ADTmag.com • ESJ.com 2 | February 2008 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Project5 10/8/07 11:07 AM Page 1 :067&/&7&34&&/"3&1035%05)*4#&'03& %&':5)&-"840'3&1035*/( 1VUOFXQPXFSJOUIFIBOETPGCVTJOFTTVTFST &NQPXFSUIFNUPNBLFNVMUJQMFEFDJTJPOTGSPNPOF SFQPSU SVOUIFJSPXO²XIBUJG³TDFOBSJPTBOEHFUNPSF SFQPSUWJFXT JOTUBOUMZ4PZPVµSFGSFFGSPNXSJUJOH OVNFSPVTSFQPSUTBOEVQEBUFT±UBTLTUIBUDBOIBWF SFBMJNQBDUPOZPVSEFQBSUNFOUµTQSPEVDUJWJUZ 1VUOFXQPXFSJOZPVSPXOIBOET8SJUFSFQPSUTXJUI TUVOOJOHOFXWJTVBMTMJLFFNCFEEFEWJEFPBOE FOSJDIFEHSBQIJDT$SFBUFDPNQFMMJOHBOEFOHBHJOH JOUFSBDUJWFFYQFSJFODFTGSPNBOZEBUB BOZXIFSF %JTDPWFSUIFOFXMBXTPGSFQPSUJOHGSPN$SZTUBM3FQPSUT±UIFUSVTUFEJOEVTUSZTUBOEBSE 7JTJUCVTJOFTTPCKFDUTDPNEFGZUIFMBXTPSDBMM $PQZSJHIU#VTJOFTT0CKFDUT4""MMSJHIUTSFTFSWFE 0208red_Rubble4.v7 1/17/08 9:33 AM Page 4 Barney’sRubble by Doug Barney RedmondTHE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF THE MICROSOFT IT COMMUNITY REDMONDMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2008 ■ VOL. 14 ■ NO. 2 Editorial Staff Editor in Chief Doug Barney Dear Steve: Think Enterprise Editor Ed Scannell Executive Editor, Features Lafe Low Executive Editor, Reviews Peter Varhol Managing Editor Wendy Gonchar ’ve always thought open letters to major executives were Associate Managing Editor Katrina Carrasco Contributing Editors Mary Jo Foley Jeffery Hicks more pompous than a Dennis Miller monologue, but in Greg Shields Joern Wettern this case, it’s worth being a bit pretentious. So here it is: Art Staff I Art Director Brad Zerbel My first-ever open letter. Senior Graphic Designer Alan Tao Online/Digital Media Steve, your company is doing a remark- on Parallels and BootCamp for Windows Editor, Redmondmag.com Becky Nagel able job in digital music and mobile interoperability isn’t enough. You need to Executive Editor, New Media Michael Domingo Executive Editor, Web Initiatives Becky Nagel phones, and the Mac is doing swell in the improve native Mac OS interoperability. Online News Editor Keith Ward graphics and home markets. After seeing • Connect with Linux desktop ven- Associate Editor, Web Gladys Rama the death of OS/2, the Amiga, the Atari dors. Linux on the Mac, if heavily mar- Director, Web Development Rita Zurcher ST and a long line of wacky com- keted, would rally the geek troops. puters from Radio Shack/ • Get aggressive on pricing. Tandy, I’m stunned that your The cheapest MacBook is President Henry Allain Mac is even still alive. For the around $1,100, and its hard- Vice President, Publishing Matt N. Morollo record, I predicted the death of ware is the rough equivalent Vice President, Editorial Director Doug Barney Director, Marketing Michele Imgrund the Mac—one of many times of a $450 Dell. You shouldn’t Senior Marketing Manager Tracy S. Cook I’ve been more wrong than an have to be a brie-eating, Marketing Programs Manager Videssa Djucich intelligence report on Iraq. For Volvo-driving, Merlot-drinking that I apologize. yuppie to afford a Mac. With Apple’s image at an all- • Communicate with the time high (your stock IT press and IT customers. President & CEO Neal Vitale isn’t too shabby, Although skeptical, the CFO Richard Vitale either), it does seem IT press would love to Executive Vice President Michael J. Valenti Managing Director, Events Dick Blouin arrogant for me to hear from Apple.