re: The SBS Myth

Matthew Clapham — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:19:12 GMT

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.

re: The SBS Myth

VBJackson — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:06:20 GMT

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.