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Chapter 1
What’s New in Microsoft SharePoint 2010
access to almost unlimited virtual memory, as well as physical memory. Database servers
are extremely resource intensive, and any database administrator will immediately see the
advantages.
Although the set of features available in 64-bit Windows Server 2008 is not appre-
ciably different from its 32-bit counterpart, there are some important security consid-
erations. 64-bit Windows Server 2008 offers greater buffer overflow protection because
the first parameters of a procedure call are passed in registers. Since the correct values
have to be assigned in the registers and both addresses and variables have to be aligned
on the stack, the data buffer is less likely to become congested and thus present a secu-
rity concern.
64-bit processors made by AMD and Intel include hardware support for data execu-
tion prevention (DEP) to prevent any malicious executables from running, even in the
unlikely event of a buffer overflow. Also, Microsoft Patch Guard prevents any kernel
mode drivers in third-party applications from extending or replacing kernel services in
Windows Server 2008.
It’s intuitively obvious that more processing power and more physical and virtual mem-
ory support equals “better,” but in terms of scalability, having access to so much more
memory than is supported on 32-bit platforms means that both Windows Server 2008 and
SQL Server can load large amounts of working data entirely in memory. Users and admin-
istrators should notice no apparent performance lags as workload demands increase over
time, even if the demands increase dramatically. This also results in decreasing the need
for as many application servers, since larger loads can be handled by fewer servers.
Considerations of 32-Bit and 64-Bit
It’s certainly possible to install some 64-bit applications on a 32-bit platform, but you won’t
see any of the advantages offered by the software. The software environment won’t have
the necessary hardware to execute all of its potential, much like putting high-test fuel in a
1970s vintage Volkswagen beetle. Performance may be improved somewhat, but you really
need to join elements together that provide the most advantage, which means running
64-bit applications on 64-bit hardware.
64-bit Windows Server 2008 does include the Windows on Windows 64-bit (WOW64)
translation layer, which emulates a 32-bit operating system, so running a mixed 32-bit and
64-bit environment is possible. Although this may seem like an advantage if you need to run
a legacy application on a 64-bit platform, in fact this doesn’t work with any of the 64-bit
SharePoint applications and services. This means you cannot run a mixed 32-bit/64-bit
environment, such as 64-bit SharePoint Server 2010 using 32-bit SQL Server 2005. The dis-
advantage from an up-front cost view is the requirement to upgrade all of your software and
hardware platforms if you want to run SharePoint Server 2010.
Although this may seem terribly unfair of Microsoft, its analysis of SharePoint test data
and feedback from customers running MOSS 2007 has indicated that the performance and
scalability advantages far outweigh the initial cost of upgrading. Whether you agree with
this decision or not, the reality of 64-bit is here, and it’s here to stay.
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