[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] It's been a few days - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Sat, Jul 7 2012 11:23 bradley

It's been a few days

Planting Joey and Gomphrena today in the Garden.

Well it's been a few days since the announcement and we're still waiting for the official beta.  If I were in charge of the universe I would have opened up the beta concurrently so that people would see that it's really close to SBS Essentials and there are potentials for an on premise Exchange. 

To all of those people thinking that if you yell loud enough Microsoft will change their minds, trust me.  They won't.  We've been saying that bandwidth is limited, the cloud is not always the option just like you are. 

Let's be honest, SBS 2011 standard HAD to change.  SharePoint and it's psconfig stuff either had to go or get on another server that didn't blow up the box.  Exchange especially in vNext appears to be getting bigger not smaller.  Microsoft is not building smaller versions of their products to fit as well as they did in the 2003 era.

Let's be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that while this is hard and rough, we've seen this coming.

So.. okay... now what?

For those in non profit you still have the techsoup licenses you can buy and now with Windows 2012 allowing two virtualization rights, not just one, it is feasible to build a SBS like thing with Exchange on a separate server or on a second virtualized instance.

For those not in non profit, and not with big cash wads, this decision of Microsoft is actually more of a bad thing FOR Microsoft.  It removes the stickiness of the Microsoft platform.  There's less of a demand to upgrade, less of a demand  for Microsoft.

The Tubb blog talks about this -- http://www.tubblog.co.uk/blog/2012/07/06/goodbye-sbs-hello-to-a-world-of-alternatives/

Don't forget our webinar next week - http://www.thirdtier.net/2012/07/webinar-future-of-small-business-it/

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# re: It's been a few days

Saturday, July 07, 2012 5:55 PM by Michael Jenkin

Whilst Microsoft will not likely listen, people still need to vent. At the very least the community needs to be heard and acknowledged. Most of my Australian clients can not use cloud products. We have actually migrated people off Office365.

Our Internet is too slow. Our laws prohibit many types of businesses from saving data overseas and many clients are just not happy with the idea.

We have no choice but to start looking at third party on premise solutions.

Speaking with many of my competitors, they agree and have come to the same conclusions.

Looks like Microsoft is about to loose some international business.

I know they do not care. But at least we can vent.

They should have charged a little more and made SBS a 2 server solution. It would have been more stable and hardware these days would not make it cost prohibitive.

All I can think is shame on Microsoft. An opportunity for another vendor to step up !!

# re: It's been a few days

Saturday, July 07, 2012 5:56 PM by Michael Jenkin

Whilst Microsoft will not likely listen, people still need to vent. At the very least the community needs to be heard and acknowledged. Most of my Australian clients can not use cloud products. We have actually migrated people off Office365.

Our Internet is too slow. Our laws prohibit many types of businesses from saving data overseas and many clients are just not happy with the idea.

We have no choice but to start looking at third party on premise solutions.

Speaking with many of my competitors, they agree and have come to the same conclusions.

Looks like Microsoft is about to loose some international business.

I know they do not care. But at least we can vent.

They should have charged a little more and made SBS a 2 server solution. It would have been more stable and hardware these days would not make it cost prohibitive.

All I can think is shame on Microsoft. An opportunity for another vendor to step up !!

# re: It's been a few days

Saturday, July 07, 2012 7:16 PM by bradley

I hear ya.  I think the other shoe will drop with Exchange vnext.  I don't think it will be a reasonable on premise solution.  I may be wrong, dunno,  Exchange is under nda so I don't know details.

# re: It's been a few days

Monday, July 09, 2012 3:22 PM by Sandeep

They can still rectify the situation without having to modify the existing lineup. What about a Small Business On-Site Pack/Add-On or something? Has Exchange and SharePoint along with Virtualization rights that can be used in conjunction with Server 2012 Essentials. Priced between $400-600.

# re: It's been a few days

Thursday, July 12, 2012 3:19 AM by Jay

>>To all of those people thinking that if you yell loud enough Microsoft will change their minds, trust me.  They won't.  We've been saying that bandwidth is limited, the cloud is not always the option just like you are. <<

Microsoft is just another company that has grown too big and, thanks to poor/confused management, has lost touch with its customers.

A great example of this was the failure to include USB sync to the desktop in Windows 7.  Some guy or gal in a suit said "NO - they MUST use the cloud, just ignore any whines about privacy".

The phone didn't sell... but instead of reassessing the situation, and saying "OK, let's allow the little people to use USB sync if they want to - but make the cloud experience so great and stable that they will want to transition".... they stand still and do nothing.

# re: It's been a few days

Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:45 PM by EricE

Ugh - time to start looking at Kerio.  Or heck, I may go back and see if IBM has charity/non-profit pricing for Domino.  Yup, it's a beast on the back end but it's a beast I know and Outlook integrates seamlessly with it so my users won't know the difference.  Heck, now I wonder why I ever stuck with Exchange now that I think about it - oh yeah - SBS Standard made it point and click simple to do so.  Way to go Microsoft!