Tom Franken - Network Management

My personal network, which is used for testing, training, teaching, and demonstration, is based on Windows 2000. With the introduction of the W2K applications (Exchange 2000, ISA 2000, SQL 2000, etc.) an entire network infrastructure can be built using the same operating system. The firewall, servers, workstations, applications, and routers can all share a common OS and interface.

Follow this link to a diagram of my network...

The primary advantage of a W2K-centric network is the reduced burden of maintaining expertise in multiple OS's. Simply keeping up with security patches and hot fixes is a fundamental and time consuming part of managing servers and workstations. All of the errors and warnings generated by W2K should also be investigated and resolved. Monitoring systems need to be implemented and managed. I have come to the conclusion that an administrator of a Microsoft network will be too busy keeping up on Microsoft technology to spend much time on any other operating system.

The secondary advantage to a W2K-centric network is almost all of the network can be run on the same OS and use applications from the same vendor. Some fundamental parts of the network (such as virus protection and backup) require more sophisticated software than what is offered by Microsoft. (Fortunately, several well-tested and easy to understand alternatives exist.) The only part left is your business applications (ERP programs, design programs, etc.). A network administrator in a smaller organization needs to know how to manage these applications on the network, but should not be expected to be an expert in them.

Microsoft might or might not make the best product for a particular need. However, after reading the reviews and working with the products, I feel they are quite capable. I don't worry about what is the "best" solution, as long as the solution I have is reasonable and works. With a Microsoft network, I can get a solution which is usually sufficient and reasonable to maintain.