Technology Services - Windows 2003 / Active Directory

CCO's consultants have been working with Microsoft networking technologies for almost 20-years and have literally written the book on Windows 2003 Active Directory by authoring several best seller books on the technology (including "Windows 2003 Unleashed" and "Windows 2003 Insider Solutions".

Some of the services provided by Convergent Computing relative to Windows 2003 and Active Directory include:

• assisting with the design of a Windows 2003 Active Directory environment

• providing guidance on how to successfully migrate to Windows 2003 Active Directory (from Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Novell NetWare, and other network operating systems)

• prototype testing of Windows 2003 features and functionality

• helping organizations successfully migrate and implement Windows 2003

• providing recommendations and hands-on assistance at extending Windows to include encrypted file storage (EFS), distributed file management (DFS), encrypted communications transport (IPSec)

• architecting and implementing Windows environment disaster recovery

• debugging, problem solving, and supporting Windows problems

The following are sample services provided by Convergent Computing on Windows:

Windows 2003 Active Directory Planning and Design

CCO was one of a handful of organizations on the Windows 2003 Joint Development Program (JDP) that helped organizations migrate from NT4 to Windows 2003 and from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 2-years prior to the product's formal launch on April 24, 2003. By the launch event, CCO migrated hundreds of servers (in production environments) to Windows Server 2003.

CCO's President, Rand Morimoto, along with CCO consultants Michael Noel, and Kenton Gardinier wrote and published (though Sams Publishing) a 1200-page book "Windows Server 2003 Unleashed" that released 2-weeks before the Windows 2003 product launch. The book was built on over 2-years of beta implementations of the Windows Server 2003 product.

CCO's helps organizations understand what's new in Windows Server 2003 to either migrate a single server, or an entire Active Directory to the new operating system.

Netware NDS / Windows Server 2003 Migration support, and  Integration and Co-existence Planning

CCO is a Novell Gold authorized integrator and as a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, CCO has expertise in both networking environments. This allows clients to receive expert assistance at integrating or migrating from Novell eDirectory / NDS to a Microsoft Windows Active Directory environment, or to fully integrate the two directories together.

CCO helps organizations plan, prepare, and integrate directories and operating systems to provide cross-platform services.

Active Directory Group Policy Review, Planning, and Design

One of the most valuable technologies built in to Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 Active Directory is Group Policies. Group Policies allows the administrators of a network to centrally manage user and desktop configurations such as allowing users to drop to a DOS prompt or load software, the ability to modify system parameters, or the ability to push software and updates to systems.

However to successfully design and implement an effective Group Policy structure is an art that someone with prior experience with Group Policies can provide significant value to anyone working with Group Policies for the first time. CCO has found best practices on what works and how the most common structure can be designed and implemented.

Server Consolidation and System "Rightsizing" Planning

Over the years many organizations have repeatedly added more servers to their network to serve the needs of specific departments, or to satisfy the performance demands of the growing organization.  However as server technology has improved that allows a single server to host a significantly larger base of users, plus organizations consolidating information access requirements with organizational servers instead of departmental servers, the ability to consolidate or "rightsize" server allocation can drastically lower the overall cost of operations for an organization.

CCO authored the 100+ page "rightsizing" guide for Microsoft that helps organizations understand methods of minimizing the number of servers used in a file/print or messaging environment utilizing technologies like Distributed File System (DFS), Network Load Balancing (NLB), and by adding multiple databases to a system

AD / WINS / DNS Database Recovery Assistance

All databases requirement maintenance routines to be periodically conducted on the systems to keep them in full operational condition.  Microsoft Active Directory, WINS, and DNS are nothing more than specialized databases that provide specific networking services. Organizations should be conducting maintenance on the database to keep them in full operational condition.

CCO can help organizations implement plans to conduct regular maintenance on the database and share best practices on how to enact maintenance on the systems.

Windows NT4 to Windows 2003 or Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 Migration Assistance

CCO was one of a handful of organizations on the Windows 2003 Joint Development Program (JDP) that helped organizations migrate from NT4 to Windows 2003 and from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 2-years prior to the product's formal launch on April 24, 2003. By the launch event, CCO migrated hundreds of servers (in production environments) to Windows Server 2003.

CCO's President, Rand Morimoto, along with CCO consultants Michael Noel, and Kenton Gardinier wrote and published (though Sams Publishing) a 1200-page book "Windows Server 2003 Unleashed" that released 2-weeks before the Windows 2003 product launch. The book was built on over 2-years of beta implementations of the Windows Server 2003 product.

Today, CCO is recognized worldwide for having best practices, tips, and tricks to help organizations successfully complete their migration. CCO's migration assistance services can be as simple as 2-3 hours of migration plan review with verbal comments, 2-3 days of migration planning brainstorming, or several days (or weeks dependent on the size of the organization) on migration planning assistance and hands-on migration support.

The following are books written by CCO consultants on Windows and Active Directory technologies:

Title: "Windows Server 2003 Unleashed 2nd Edition"

Abstract: Because of the phenomenal success of the first edition of the Windows Server 2003 Unleashed book, a 2nd edition was released early Summer 2004.  The 2nd edition covers Windows 2003 Service Pack 1, new Feature Packs added to Windows 2003, resource kit tools, and tips, tricks, best practices, and lessons learned from over a year of implementations in full production environments in addition to the 3+ years of beta experience the authors had with early adopter implementations.

Title: "Windows Server 2003 Insider Solutions"

Abstract: IT Professionals that have been working with the Windows network operating system for years can shortcut the reading and understanding process of the new Windows 2003 operating system by getting this Experts guide.  Rather than hashing through the basic definitions and introductions, this book jumps right in to best practices, tips, and tricks information spanning security, migration, administration, and support of a Windows 2003 environment.  Based on over 3 years of lessons learned from beta and real world implementations, this book starts where other books leave off.  (note: suggested audience is advanced or expert level for this book)

Title: "Windows 2000 Design and Migration"

Abstract: This book was written by CCO President, Rand Morimoto with the assistance of 6 CCO consultants and technical specialists. The book released 3 months before the Windows 2000 operating system was launched and was based on over 3-1/2 years of experience CCO had at migrating organizations from Windows NT4 to Windows 2000 in beta and early release migrations.  CCO had so much experience with Windows 2000 Active Directory designs and migrations prior to the product launch that it received an award from Bill Gates at the Feb 17, 2000 launch event as "Most Valuable Partner - Windows 2000 RDP Beta Program"

Title: "Windows 2000 Performance Tuning and Optimization"

Abstract: Installing technologies is one thing, but keeping them running in tip-top shape is an ongoing requirements for all organizations. Written from years of Windows networking performance tuning and optimization experience, CCO consultant Chris Amaris -authored this book to help organizations improve system performance and operations.  This book is a hands-on resource that details how organizations can properly design and scale system hardware, memory, disk, and network functions to meet the specific needs of your environment. The book also provides advice for optimizing key Windows 2000 subsystems including security, Active Directory, SQL Server 2000, IIS5, Exchange 2000, and more

Title: "Windows Server 2003 Unleashed"

Abstract: Because CCO was 1 of 12 companies in the world on the Microsoft Joint Development Program (JDP) that helped Fortune 500 companies plan and prototype / test their migration to the next generation Windows 2000 operating system for 2-1/2 years prior to the product release, 3 CCO consultants wrote this 1200+ page book based on the installation, migration, configuration, and troubleshooting of Windows Server 2003 environments “soup-to-nuts”. Advanced topics on Volume Copy Services, DFS, ASR, GPMC, Directory Integration with Novell, Unix, Oracle, and NT4/Windows 2000, Security, Server Management and Maintenance Practices, and Recovering from a Disaster.

Title: "Windows NT Performance Tuning and Optimization"

Abstract: While most organizations are migrating to Windows 2000 technologies, many business units still have Windows NT4 / Exchange v5.5 in their environments that need to be maintained and supported.  In this book, contributing writer Rand Morimoto (CCO's President) assisted in the development of detailed step-by-step methods to tune and optimize an NT4-based networking operation.  There are chapters in this book on capacity planning, details on how to forecast a network's growth, and recommendations on several helpful tools readily available to help organizations support their networks.

Title: "Windows 2000 Design and Migration"

Abstract: Many of the books written by CCO have been translated to other languages.  CCO President Rand Morimoto's book on Windows 2000 Design and Migration has been translated to Mandarin Chinese, German, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese.

Title: "Windows Server 2003 Unleashed"

Abstract: Many of the books written by CCO authors have been translated to other languages.  The Windows Server 2003 Unleashed book has been translated to Polish, Italian, Farsi, Chinese, Japanese, and several other languages.

Title: "Windows Server 2003 Unleashed"

Abstract: Many of the books written by CCO authors have been translated to other languages.  The Windows Server 2003 Unleashed book has been translated to Polish, Italian, Farsi, Chinese, Japanese, and several other languages.