W2K gets first UK deployment

1999-09-10

Microsoft announced at the end of last week that the University of Leicester had begun a deployment of Windows 2000, to replace its Novell Netware installation. Although clearly a showcase piece, it should still be watched with interest.

The network is to be rolled out this week to an initial 500 PCs. By Autumn next year, this number will be increased to 2,000 PCs and up to 7,000 remote sessions. 7 Compaq servers will be used, with 4 main servers, an SMS server, an Exchange server and an SQL server. The version of Windows 2000 to be rolled out will be Release Candidate 1. Our advice to all comers has been to pilot the operating system before rolling out, and to watch what others are doing: the Leicester project, while still not enterprise-scale, will doubtless provide some useful insights (not least the merits of rolling out pre-release software). Of particular note is the new security functionality – we would expect the student population to test this to the full.

For the monthly update, see The University of Leicester Windows 2000 web site.

(First published 10 September 1999)