Microsoft Beta Tests Windows iSCSI Support
Microsoft on Wednesday announced plans to support Internet SCSI, a new standard for storage area networks that provides improved performance at a lower cost. An iSCSI driver for Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003 will be available in June for download via Windows Update.
Working with industry leaders such as is Adaptec, Cisco and IBM, Microsoft is currently beta testing Windows support for iSCSI. Over 60 software and hardware vendors are developing iSCSI-based solutions and analysts believe it will become the dominant server storage technology by 2006.
"Microsoft's support of the IETF-ratified iSCSI protocol signals the company's continued focus on making Windows a stronger platform for storage," said Zane Adam, director of product development and marketing for the Enterprise Storage Division at Microsoft. "We're pleased at the level of industry excitement for iSCSI and are working together with our associates to make enterprise storage operations more accessible to a broader spectrum of customers."
The second beta version of Microsoft's iSCSI driver will be broadly available later this month. The driver will support IPsec data encryption, Internet Storage Name Server, as well as integration with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Redmond plans to develop "an architecture that aggregates the different hardware initiators into a common framework."
Customers and developers can sign up to download beta 2 of Microsoft's iSCSI support by logging into BetaPlace with the guest ID: iSCSI.