Windows Storage Server 2003 Introduced at TechEd

At its annual TechEd developer training conference in Dallas, Microsoft announced a new addition to its Windows Server System dubbed Windows Storage Server 2003. Formerly known as Windows Powered NAS, the new server functions as a dedicated file server and will ship in storage devices from a variety of OEMs.

Windows Storage Server 2003 is slated to go gold later this month with products expected to reach the market by September. Redmond partners such as Dell, EMC and Fujitsu have already signed on to work with Windows Storage Server 2003.

"In tandem with our valued partners, Windows Storage Server 2003 will directly address customer concerns by offering a dependable and scalable storage solution that lowers their total cost of ownership," said Charles Stevens, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Enterprise Storage Division.

Storage solutions based on Windows Storage Server 2003 will range from 160GB to multiple terabytes, according to Microsoft. The server will utilize features such as Volume Shadow Copy Service found in Windows Server 2003, as well as support clustering and the DFS distributed file system. Internet SCSI, which Microsoft began testing earlier this year, will also be supported in Windows Storage Server 2003.