Overview of Windows 2000

Overview of Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a multipurpose operating system with integrated support for client/server and peer-to-peer networks. It incorporates technologies that reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) and provides for scalability from a small network to a large enterprise network. Total cost of ownership is the total amount of money and time associated with purchasing computer hardware and software, and deploying, configuring, and maintaining the hardware and software. TCO includes hardware and software updates, training, maintenance and administration, and technical support. One other major factor in TCO is lost productivity. Lost productivity can occur because of many factors, including user errors, hardware problems, or software upgrades and retraining.

The Windows 2000 platform consists of the following four versions:


Windows 2000 Professional. This product is a high-performance, secure-network client computer and corporate desktop operating system that includes the best features of Microsoft Windows 98, while significantly extending the manageability, reliability, security, and performance of Windows NT Workstation 4. This product is the main Microsoft desktop operating system for businesses of all sizes.


Windows 2000 Server. This product is a file, print, and applications server, as well as a Web-server platform, that contains all of the features of Windows 2000 Professional plus many new server-specific functions. This product is ideal for small- to medium-sized enterprise application deployments, Web servers, workgroups, and branch offices.


Windows 2000 Advanced Server (formerly Windows NT Server 5 Enterprise Edition). This product is a more powerful departmental and application server, and it will also provides rich network operating system (NOS) and Internet services. This product is beyond the scope of this training kit; features unique to Advanced Server are not covered in this kit.


Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. This new product is the most powerful and functional server operating system ever offered by Microsoft. It is optimized for large data warehouses, econometric analysis, large-scale simulations in science and engineering, and server consolidation projects. This product is outside the scope of this kit; features unique to Datacenter Server are not covered in this kit.