Microsoft
Expands Clustering Capabilities Of Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition
Announces Immediate Availability of Windows NT Load
Balancing Service
REDMOND, Wash. - Jan. 21, 1999 -Microsoft
Corp. today announced the immediate availability of the Windows NT Load
Balancing Service (WLBS), which expands and enhances the scalability and
reliability of TCP/IP-based network services and applications hosted on the
Windows NT® Server operating system version 4.0 Enterprise Edition.
Customers building mission-critical Web-based solutions,
including electronic commerce applications, need cost-effective Web-farm
clustering technology based on industry-standard hardware and communications
protocols. To support their application requirements, customers want incremental
growth, uninterrupted operations and massive scalability - the flexibility and
choice to grow with the demands of the business, without rewrites or large cost
increases. The Windows NT Load Balancing Service provides the infrastructure to
meet these customer requirements in high-volume, mission-critical electronic
commerce sites, corporate intranet server farms, streaming media services,
virtual private networks (VPNs), and Internet service providers (ISPs).
"Customers are using Windows NT clustering services today
to increase the reliability of their internal applications, system services and
databases," said Edmund Muth, group product manager at Microsoft.
"With the new load-balancing features, we are extending clustering to
Web-centric applications and providing the technology to achieve superior
reliability and price performance."
The Windows NT Load Balancing Service allows customers to
cluster their TCP/IP-based network services across up to 32 systems, which then
appear as a single logical TCP/IP address space. The fully distributed design of
the load-balancing algorithm of WLBS enables administrators to provide reliable
services in the face of system maintenance, server upgrades and unplanned
downtime. Incremental, cost-effective, nondisruptive growth is another key
benefit, as administrators can add Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition nodes to
a WLBS cluster while continuing to provide services to customers. Neither
specialized hardware interconnects nor application changes are required. WLBS
significantly improves throughput and availability of a wide range of services
including Microsoft® Internet Information Services (IIS), Windows®
streaming media services, VPN solutions, Microsoft Proxy Server and others. WLBS
complements the Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS), which is also part of Windows
NT Server Enterprise Edition. In fact, when utilized together, these
technologies provide a complete end-to-end solution as was demonstrated publicly
at Networld+Interop in Atlanta in October 1998.
"Since we deployed this TCP/IP load-balancing technology,
we have been extremely pleased with the increase in performance and reliability
we have seen in our busiest Web sites, especially www.multex.com and
www.multexinvestor.com," said Alex Berlin, vice president of technology at
Multex Systems. "Microsoft customers will benefit from the enhancement and
integration of the Windows NT Load Balancing Service into the platform."
Availability is immediate, and rights to use this component
are included in new
Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition licenses. Existing Windows NT Server
Enterprise Edition
customers are also entitled to this upgrade without cost; they
can download it as a system component from http://www.microsoft.com/ntserverenterprise/
(connect-time charges may apply).
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