The Microsoft IT Department this month posted a public account of its efforts in deploying Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 -- a sure sign the release of the service pack is imminent. Microsoft IT, which defines one of its primary functions as being "Microsoft's first customer," regularly releases a report on its rollout experience near or just before the Release to Manufacturing of a major Microsoft product or update. Windows Server 2003 SP1 is a major service pack for the server operating system, bringing new security enhancements such as the Security Configuration Wizard and Windows Firewall on top of the usual service pack bug fixes. Microsoft has said SP1 will be available in the first half of 2005, and the service pack is in Release Candidate 2 testing. The 26-page report, called "Microsoft IT SP1 Deployment Case Study," was posted on Friday. It outlines the methods and problems Microsoft ran across in deploying SP1 on its massive network, which consists of nearly 10,000 servers spanning 15 domains, with about 250 domain controllers managing the authentication of nearly 100,000 users.