OS for the corporate sector

Purpose of server operating system is a management of the applications servicing all users of corporate network and external users (DBMS, means of the analysis and management of networks, directory services, means of exchanging messages and group work, Web servers, mail servers, corporate firewalls, application servers, server parts of business applications).

The choice of server operating system and hardware platform for it first of all is defined by a circle of solvable tasks, and what requirements are imposed to its performance, stability and availability. The main players in the market of server operating systems are OS of the Windows and Unix families.

Operating systems of the Windows family

Server versions of the Windows operating system are applied quite widely today — thanks to convenience of administration and low total cost of ownership.

Windows 2000

Treat server operating systems of this family

• Windows 2000 Server is the multi-purpose network operating system supporting up to four processors. It is intended for deployment of print servers and files, Web servers and application servers of initial level in networks of an enterprise scale.
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server is the server operating system supporting up to eight processors. It is focused on support crucial Web and business applications.
• Windows 2000 DataCenter Server is the operating system intended for Wednesdays with the highest requirements to reliability and scalability, has additional potential of a clustering and supports up to 32 processors. It is the most powerful and functionally complete server OS from all previous systems of Microsoft.

Besides, there are limited editions - Windows 2000 Advanced Server Limited Edition and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Limited Edition intended for work on the 64-bit Intel processors Itanium.

Windows Server 2003

The operating system is released in four editions:

• Web Edition. The "facilitated" version of Windows Server 2003 developed first of all for a web hosting and support of XML of web services including the ASP .NET applications in the small organizations and divisions.
• Standard Edition. Represents the edition focused on accomplishment of a server part of business solutions on average and small business. In Standard Edition only those opportunities which, according to Microsoft, are necessary only to large enterprises are not available. Besides, there is a possibility of use up to 4 processors at the same time and also 4 GB of RAM. network operating system for accomplishment of a server part of business solutions and expected application in the small companies and divisions.
• Enterprise Edition. The edition focused on large and medium business. Enterprise Edition allows to use up to 1 terabyte of RAM, supports up to 8 processors at the same time, adding of RAM "on the fly" and a clustering.
• Datacenter Edition. The most powerful of all editions Windows Server 2003, is focused on use in the large organizations. In this edition there are no services which use is reasonable only in the small companies or groups. the operating system which serves for creation of crucial technical solutions with high requirements to scalability and availability. Applications for transaction processing in real time and also the solutions based on integration of several server products belong to such solutions.

Windows Server 2008

New features are added to Windows Server 2008 and also many opportunities of basic Windows Server 2003 OS are improved. Among them it should be noted work with network, expanded safety features, remote access to applications, centralized operation as server roles, monitors of performance and reliability, fault tolerance of clusters, deployment and the file system.

Windows Server 2008 editions:

• Windows Server 2008 Standard: - it is focused on small businesses and. It is intended for fast creation of reliable business solutions, the organization of file servers and print servers, safe collective Internet access, the centralized deployment of applications and web applications.
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise: Focused on large and medium business. It is intended for the servers servicing network applications, databases, corporate systems of instant messaging, a management system for stocks and user supports, e-commerce websites and also for file servers and print servers.
• Windows Server 2008 Datacenter: it is focused on use in the large organizations. Rzrabotana for the solution of the responsible tasks requiring the high level of scalability, availability and reliability, including service of databases of large volume, management of corporate resources, accomplishment of transactions in real time and consolidations of servers.
• Windows Web Server 2008: — it is developed for use generally as the IIS 7.0 Web server and also intended only for development and deployment of such elements as available web pages on the Internet, websites,
• Windows Server 2008 Itanium IA-64: it is optimized for the crucial analytical and corporate applications requiring big computing power.

Operating systems of the UNIX family

UNIX is group of multitasking multi-user operating systems. At present there is a large number of variations of OS in this sphere - as commercial, and with the open code.

The features, general for all versions of UNIX, are the multi-user mode with means of protecting of data from unauthorized access, implementation of multiprogram processing in time partitioned mode, use of mechanisms of a virtual memory and swapping, unification of input-output operations, hierarchical file system, a various handshaking of processes, including internetwork.

Linux

Linux is a non-commercial product of category Open Source for the Intel platform. One of serious advantages of Linux is the low cost of its acquisition / Linux has all properties of modern Unix system, including true multitasking, the developed management subsystem memory and a network subsystem. Basic system the Linux component inherited the most part from the GNU project which purpose is creation of the free micronuclear operating system with the person of Unix. Linux provides the high level of security. A system is steady against computer viruses.

Linux OS is the good choice for the small companies which want to minimize the initial expenses without prejudice to an opportunity to get professional service and support when they need it

FreeBSD

FreeBSD is developed as the complete operating system. The UNIX BSD distribution kit released group of a research of computing systems of the University of California (Berkeley) formed a basis of FreeBSD. This operating system has such features as the integrated cache of a virtual memory and buffers of file systems, shared libraries, modules of compatibility with applications of other versions of UNIX, the core dynamic loadable modules allowing to add during operation support of new types of file systems, network protocols or emulators without regeneration of a core. FreeBSD well proved as a system for creation Internet and the intranet servers. It provides rather reliable network services and effective management of memory. FreeBSD is widely presented in the list of Web servers with the greatest time of continuous work (according to a research of Netcraft company).

Solaris

Solaris is known for the scalability (especially on the SPARC platform) and reliability. A number of important functions, such as system of dynamic trace of tasks DTrace, the 128th bit ZFS file system (Zetta-byte File System) with a possibility of instant rollback and permanent checking of checksums is a part of the operating system. Solaris works on computers of architecture of SPARC and x86. For the vast majority of applications this operating system provides almost linear increase in productivity at increase in number of processors due to symmetric multiprocessor calculations.

Statistics of use of server operating systems

The majority of the Russian servers work under control of these or those clones from Unix. According to the selective research conducted by the RuMetrika portal (data for 2006na the Russian servers certainly Free BSD (53%), on the second place of Linux (32%) is in the lead, the number of servers on which Windows OS is installed was 9%, Solaris - only 5% meets less often.

Statistics of foreign server OS strikingly differs: here first place is won by Linux (44%), the second - Windows (36%), the third - Solaris (12%). The share of the Russian leader, Free BSD, makes only 7%.

Fig. Server OS in Russia and other countries in 2006.

Thus, differences in distribution of server OS in Russia and other countries of the world are obvious. In Russia more than 90% of servers work under control of Unix clones while in other countries more than a third of the market occupies Windows.