28 July 2008
Windows Small Business Server 2008 is an all-in-one server solution designed to help you keep your data more secure and your company more productive.
It provides many of the features used by larger companies, such as e-mail, Internet connectivity, internal Web sites, remote access, support for mobile devices, file and printer sharing, backup, and restore—all at one affordable price.
The latest small-business implementation of Windows Server, Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008), is now available for public testing, with an official release date of 12 November. However, customers expecting the usual revamp of the old Windows and Exchange Server bundle are in for a shock, as there are big changes in both the content and the packaging of the new small-business product.
The company said trial versions of both products are now available for download through a Microsoft site called MultiplyYourPower.com.
Superficially it looks like the standard Microsoft makeover. As with previous versions, SBS 2008 is aimed at companies with up to 75 users and comes with the popular Exchange Server messaging product as standard. It also majors on ease of use, with custom tools to simplify both installation and day-to-day management tasks. Unlike previous releases, however, SBS 2008 can only run on 64-bit hardware — principally because of the inclusion of the latest Exchange Server 2007 product, which is 64-bit only.
Windows Essential Business Server 2008, which Microsoft developed under the code name Centro, is designed for mid-sized businesses with more sophisticated IT needs, and offers a range of additional messaging, management, and security tools.
The 64-bit requirement shouldn't deter new buyers as it's almost impossible to buy a 32-bit server these days, but companies wanting to upgrade will need to replace their hardware first. Minimum requirements are a single- or multi-core x64 processor plus 4GB of memory and at least 60GB of free disk space. In-place upgrades aren't an option — at least not in the release candidate: only migrations of users, settings and data from an existing server to a new SBS 2008 setup are supported.
As before, two editions — Standard and Premium — will be available, both designed to run on a single host system deployed as an Active Directory domain controller. A full implementation of Exchange Server 2007 is included in both versions, along with SharePoint Services 3.0 collaboration and productivity software. However, there are big changes for Premium buyers, who get the latest SQL Server 2008 product (also being released on November 12th) together with a second copy of Windows Server 2008 so that a separate database server can be configured.
The small- and mid-sized business markets represent lucrative growth markets for Microsoft and other tech vendors. IDC predicts that worldwide IT spending by SMBs will grow at a rate of 7% annually through 2012, compared to a 5.2% growth rate for the IT market overall during the same period.
SME Solutions has the software already available, it will come installed on servers upon orders.
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