February 2008 - Posts
I've already seen several questions floating around following the announcement today about SBS 2008 and some of the product details. SBS 2008 will include a one year trial subscription for both the Forefront Security for Exchange (anti-virus, anti-spam protection for e-mail) and Windows Live One Care for Server. Does that mean you have to use these products to protect your SBS 2008 deployments?
The answer is NO. Just because they're included in a "trial" version does not mean that you're locked into using these products. You will be able to remove both Forefront and One Care if you choose and use your own preferred protection software. For businesses who will be "upgrading" from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008, this will likely be the case.
But for new businesses, or businesses who are deploying SBS 2008 as their first server, the inclusion of both Forefront and One Care gives that business, or the consultant who deploys for that business, the opportunity to have protection right out of the box, either while making the decision about an appropriate product for the client, or while waiting for the preferred vendor to release a version of the protection suite that is compatible with SBS 2008, and those may not be ready at the time the product ships.
Bottom line, if you're not comfortable or familiar with Forefront or One Care and want to use your own protection tools, you will be able to.
50? or 75? Which is it?
In reviewing the product propeganda about SBS 2008 from the Essentials site at Microsoft, there's a pretty consistent theme in the way the SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 products are positioned - 50 users. Specifically, on the Choose Solutions page, SBS 2008 supports "up to 50 users or devices." Same message in the official press release from February 20, 2008: SBS 2008 is "ideal for organizations with up to 50 PCs." However, on the SBS Blog Post announcing the Essential family, the limit is 75 users. Specifically, SBS 2008 is "designed for organizations with up to 50 users, but will support organizations with up to 75 users."
So which is it? In SBS 2003, Microsoft increased the user/device license from 50 users in SBS 2000 to 75 users/devices. Is this a step backwards?
Not really. The likelihood of a 75 user/device organization realistically running everything to do with their operation on a single box with SBS 2003 was pretty slim, but it did depend on the type of activity in the organization. Microsoft marketing is clearly trying to make the differentiation that SBS 2008 is geared for 50 users and fewer, while EBS 2008 is geared for 50 users and greater. In practice, we know that there will be smaller organizations (15-20 users) where EBS will be a better fit than SBS, and there will be larger organizations (50-60 users) where SBS will be a better fit than EBS.
So if you're concerned that MS has reduced the licensing limit with SBS 2008, don't be. You still can have up to 75 users/devices connected to an SBS network. But the reality is that if you have more than 50 users/devices, you really probably should be looking at EBS and not SBS as a solution.
Yep, it's now official. Microsoft has released some additional information about the next version of the Small Business Server product line, and we can finally start sharing some infomation about it.
SBS 2008, what we had lovingly called Cougar up until now, is part of a larger family of products known as the Windows Essential Server Solutions, which includes Cougar (SBS 2008) and Centro (Essential Business Server 2008) as the first two members of the family. The Official SBS Blog has information about the product lines, and Microsoft has posted a page for the product family as well.
The most significant change in SBS 2008 from previous releases of SBS is the inclusion of a second server in the Premium edition, moving SBS from a single-server solution to a two-server solution. SQL 2008 is included in the Premium edition along with a license for Windows Server 2008 to put SQL on the second server.
There are still a number of questions that we don't have answers for yet. The release date has not been announced. Full details about the technologies that will be bundled with SBS have not been published yet. I'm sure some of this information will be made available from Microsoft through the remainder of the development cycle, but I'm also sure that there are a few things we won't know until we get actual shipping media in our hands.
In addition, I'm also glad to officially announce that I'm working with a team of authors to bring you Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed, which is expected to hit the bookstores around the same time the product is actually available in the marketplace. The authoring team remains under strict NDA about the product, so we won't be able to share any NDA information until the product, and the book, are finally released.
I woke up to a bit of a surprise this morning. I had a voicemail from Nordstrom's on my business and cell phone. Now, I don't normally shop Nordstrom's, but it is in the area and I am familiar with them and their offerings. But their call was to let me know that they thought a charge on my American Express card was suspicious, and they wanted to confirm the order before they completed the order process.
What was the order? A $700 handbag. Metallic brass in color. To be shipped to an address in Redmond. Obviously not mine.
At this point, I have no problem endorsing Nordstrom's as a company I would gladly do business with. They alerted me to the fraudulent charge even before American Express did (and AMEX did contact me immediately after Nordstrom's did, and since I was able to contact AMEX back first, that's where I finalized the cancellation of the order) and put the order on hold waiting my confirmation. That's a level of customer care that I can identify with as a business owner, and as a consumer as well.
Thank you, Nordstrom's, for making this an amusing story instead of a billing nightmare.