In-Depth

Briefs: EMC's Metered Storage Appliance, Windows Server 2003 Migration ROI

OpenScale Automated Billing lets you install storage and network bandwidth and pay only for what you use; re-examining ROI arguments for Windows Server 2003

• By Stephen Swoyer
• 07/22/2003

EMC Corp. last week announced OpenScale Automated Billing, a new remote storage-monitoring appliance that allows customers to install additional storage --along with extra network bandwidth—while paying only for the resources that they use.

The OpenScale Automated Billing appliance will be offered under the auspices of EMC’s OpenScale storage asset management program.

The EMC appliance is based on a server installed at a customer’s site and that detects and monitors the use of storage devices and applications on a SAN. OpenScale Automated Billing can meter storage and network capacity, switch ports, and storage software licenses.

Under the terms of OpenScale Automated Billing, customers can populate EMC Symmetrix servers with excess—or “standby”—capacity. EMC says that it won’t charge customers for standby capacity. Customers pay only when they engage excess capacity to meet their demands.

See http://www.emc.com for more information.

Long-range ROI with Windows Server 2003 Migrations by Scott Bekker(Courtesy of ENTMag.com)

When it comes to long-term return on investment, many of the arguments that held sway for the Windows 2000 generation of servers apply to the Windows Server 2003 group.

In most respects, Windows Server 2003 is like a point release upgrade of Windows 2000. Windows Server 2003 is a relatively minor upgrade with more enhancements of functionality than brand new features.

So the base-level cases for return on investment that Microsoft set three years ago in urging Windows NT 4.0 users to move on up to Windows 2000 are even stronger now for making a double jump from NT to Windows Server 2003. The basics are server consolidation, elimination of complex domains in favor of an Active Directory forest, and better system management capabilities.

Core improvements have been made in all these arguments for Windows Server 2003, and a few of them apply to users who have upgraded all or part of their infrastructure to Windows 2000 in the interim.

Read the full story here: http://www.entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=5871