[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] The SBS Myth - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"
Mon, Mar 10 2008 19:30 bradley

The SBS Myth

I'm a little bit conflicted and I'll honestly tell you why.

The Windows Server blog has the details:  Windows Server Division WebLog : SBS myths dispelled...by "Tom":
http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/03/07/sbs-myths-dispelled-by-tom.aspx

Okay so it appears that there are a bunch of old geezer IT pros that were around when SBS 4.0 was released.  And apparently they are worse than women that hold a grudge.  Because supposedly these IT "professionals" have hated SBS 4.0 since when it first was launched and caused them some heartache.  And apparently these geezers hate SBS so much that to this day they refuse to install it.  So Microsoft has put together a 'tongue in cheek' blog site to help educate these "Professionals" and help them see that SBS has changed.  That the wizard is there to help them.  And while I'll be the first to say "Hi" and "Welcome" to someone coming into a newsgroup or community and saying "This is my first SBS that I've seen" I hope by now the people that are saying that are demented DIYers.  As if they are an IT Professional that either has taken this long to see the light, or still needs a 'blog' site to convince them, I would say to a small business that hired one of these "Professionals" to fire them on the spot as they are behind the times. 

If an "IT professional" in this day and age isn't using some sort of tool, device, script, powershell, wizard whatever you want to call it to make his life easier, he or her needs their head examined. If you are declining on installing SBS or the upcoming Essential Business Server because you "hate the wizards", show me your tool bag of scripts, montoriting servers, and all the things you use to be more efficient at servicing your clients.  You may not call them "wizards" but they are nothing more than the SBS wizards.  Little scripts that make a deployment dependable.  If you can't see that these wizards are making your life easier and that you've held a grudge agains the SBS product for this long, I think you need to reevaluate your business model if you are consulting to small firms.  Because I'll bet you that you are using methodologies to make your life easier.  And guess what?  That's exactly what SBS has been doing well for years.

If an IT "Professional" is installing standalone servers because it's the way they've always done it and multi-role servers just aren't somethign they do, they probably aren't savvy about virtualization or any of the other changes in the industry over the last few years.  Bottom line if this "IT Professional" (and I'm using the phrase loosely) is so stuck on his or her ways that he (or she) hasn't been hearing the buzz about SBS over the last few years, that IT pro won't be in business much longer. 

If a person who hold him or herself out to be a small business savvy partner doesn't know that

  • SBS can scale
  • SBS can add additional servers
  • SBS can have additional domain controllers
  • SBS can have up to 75gigs of mail store

Then that consultant probably isn't hooked into what he or she needs to know going forward.  He or she probably isn't aware of Essential Business Server (three or four servers going up to 250 seats), probably isn't aware of Windows Home Server, and better still, probably isn't hooked into being aware of how Hosted services, Macintosh, Linux and Open source can cooperate in a small business network.  Bottom line SBS is very flexible.

Okay, so in fairness I think I came in around the 4.0a days or 4.5.  And I came in from the Novell camp and started reading up on SBS.  And when my "professional" at the time demonstrated to me that he didn't read, thought he knew better, and all around did everything he could to go around the wizards because "he knew NT", I went around him. He didn't read.  He didn't use the SBS magic disk.  And I'll bet he is one of the ones this "blog" campaign isn targeting. 

But in my opinion, if a consultant holds a grudge that long, if they can't see flexibility, then they are the ones being inflexible and hurting their customers.  "Tom" they aren't worth your trouble to try to change their minds.  Stick with what you do best, designing solutions for those that have seen the light a LONG time ago.

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# re: The SBS Myth

Friday, March 14, 2008 7:06 PM by VBJackson

To a certain extent, I can agree with this "Rant".

A support pro that doesn't use scripts, etc is losing productivity.

On the other hand, I came from a mid-sized environment when I started working with SBS 2000.

And, yes, I had my tools. And NO, I wasn't all that fond of the wizards at first.

Partly, that was because I had been setting up Windows 2000 (and NT 4, for that matter) for a long time.

I knew exactly WHAT my tools would do, and exactly the configuration I would end up with.

As an MCSE, I had worked with other versions for a long time, and I knew what worked in the 2000 world. I didn't kknow what configuration the wizards actually produced, only that it set things up the MS liked it.

In fact, using the wizards broke a number of the standard setups that I used.

After working with a test-bed system in my office for a while, and going thru a decent study guide I got off of SMB-Nation, I found out more about the SBS configurations and have since started using  the wizards.

But I can guarentee you that anybody that started their career in the larger IT world, particularly if they went up the traditional ladder to earn and MCSE, will probably agree that they not onl;y expect but require that the configurations they use have to be exactly crafted to fit the network.

A fairly generic configuration wizard like that used in SBS just will not cut it in that environement, and the IT people that started with that mindset have a very hard time using wizards that are, generally, perfect fine for the SBS environement.

So I say, throw the information out there. Just because someone isn't in the same IT camp as you doesn't mean they don't want to learn. And while they may not agree with you on the SBS wizards, that may be because they are taking care of a network with 20 to 50 SERVERs, rather than users. Someone in a medium to large shop may not know much about Essential Business Server and Home Serve, because they are running trying to keep up with DPM, BizTalk Server, and System Comtrol Center and only have a few spare moments to browse thru the "smaller" versions that don't meet the requirements of their network. In that case, they probably know MORE about virtualization, SANS, Clustering, and all the other high-availability resource intensive systems then the majority of those working in the Small Bus arena. And if you think they don't know about Macs, Linux, and Hosted Services (which they are as likely to be providing as receiving), then I think you may be the one that needs to open your eyes.

# re: The SBS Myth

Saturday, March 15, 2008 1:19 PM by Matthew Clapham

I've seen that type of attitude for a LONG time now with all sorts of products.  Even late last year I heard someone bad-talk Windows Vista because Windows 9x wasn't the most robust time in Microsoft's computing history.  

I think part of it is human nature.  We hold grudges.  If a technology bit you hard when it was younger and less than as robust as you might expect then it makes you less likely to try it again (lest you end-up pulling another all-weekend environment re-build).  

That just shows why doing your own testing (e.g. running SBS at home) is so important as an IT Pro so that product problems don't become enterprise problems.