Windows' Datacenter Server edition is the most powerful version of the operating system. Like the Enterprise Server edition, Datacenter Server builds upon the standard Windows Server 2003 edition and adds the following features and capabilities:
Windows Server Datacenter Edition is developed specially for satisfaction of needs of business in high scalability, availability and reliability and allows to create extraordinary decisions for databases, the software for planning resources at the enterprise, to carry out high-speed interactive processing transactions and consolidation of servers.
Features And Capabilities :
Support for up to 32 processors* in a single server
Support for up to 64GB* of memory
Support for clusters of up to four* servers
* Specifications For Windows Server 2008, It may vary for other newer versions.
Microsoft designed Datacenter Server to be the most stable, reliable, and powerful version of Windows Server 2003. As such, it is also one of the most expensive. Also, Datacenter Server is the only version of Windows Server that you cannot purchase and install yourself.
Read further about where to get Datacenter...
Datacenter Server is targeted to large businesses that need the most powerful servers possible, and who also require extremely reliable servers that rarely crash and rarely need to be rebooted (aside from scheduled maintenance operations).
Where To Get Datacenter?
One major concern that Windows administrators have is reliability. Windows NT and, to a lesser extent, Windows 2000, have a reputation for occasionally crashing, needing to be frequently rebooted, and so forth. Microsoft has conducted numerous studies over the years to discover the reasons behind these reliability problems. Those studies determined that most operating system failures were due to hardware and device driver problems.
A device driver is a small software program that allows Windows to interact with a server's hardware, including its disk drives, video display circuits, modems, and so forth. Because the operating system must work closely with device drivers, they must be programmed very carefully. A small bug in a device driver can easily crash the entire operating system.
When Microsoft decided to create Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, they decided to try to eliminate all hardware and device driver problems. To do so, they created a special certification program with the industry's major manufacturers of server hardware. As a result of that program, Datacenter Server can be purchased only along with a hardware server that has been certified by Microsoft as being compatible with the operating system. So the only way to purchase Datacenter Server is to buy it preloaded on a Compaq, IBM, Dell, or other brand of server.
Datacenter Server is only available on specific server models that have been rigorously tested to ensure hardware and device driver compatibility.
What's more, any future upgrades to a server running Datacenter Server must be performed by the original server manufacturer, to ensure continued operating system compatibility. If you perform your own unauthorized upgrades to a Datacenter Server, Microsoft's Product Support Services will not help you with any problems that may arise.
