Microsoft releases Datacenter beta 2

Microsoft has chosen to release the second beta of Windows 2000 Datacenter on the same day as the software giant returns to court to face the judge considering whether to split the company up.

Along with the release of the beta 2 software, Microsoft formally kicked off a Joint Development Programme (JDP) for Datacenter with 20 partners, including Abbey National.

Microsoft said the delivery of beta 2 to qualified Datacenter Server hardware vendors enables them to provide a complete evaluation platform to beta and JDP participants for high-end enterprise computing solutions.

Nick McGrath, Datacenter product marketing manager at Microsoft, described the availability of beta 2 and the launch of the Datacenter JDP as a "key milestone toward completing the validation of all the elements of the Windows Datacenter Programme".

He explained that the objectives of the programme include not only a test of the operating system itself, but also stringent hardware compatibility tests and a validation of the services framework.

Simon Moores, chairman of user group The Microsoft Windows NT Forum, said that with Datacenter, Microsoft was attempting to provide the throughput and availability necessary for deployment in a large environment.

"Microsoft can not afford to get it wrong with Datacenter, which is absolutely imperative to Microsoft's prestige. Its partners, like Unisys, have bet the farm on this," he said. "Users will need to consider whether they want to take the expensive Unix approach or take the untried and untested Microsoft route, which is yet to deliver but attractive."

Datacenter runs on large servers and is aimed at demanding line-of-business and ecommerce environments. It offers all the features found in Windows 2000 Advanced Server and includes 64Gb of memory and support for 32 processors. It also claims to provide reliability features such as four-node clustering, process control and network load balancing.

Beta 2 will be the last beta before Microsoft develops a release candidate for final testing. Microsoft said that Datacenter will be released to manufacturers this summer.