I try not to get too geeky and excited about new software releases, but I have to confess to a certain amount of joyous anticipation this week as I look forward to deploying Windows Small Business Server 2008. The main features I think will make this release an improvement for small businesses are
- Built in support for virtualization. These days many small businesses have more than one server for a variety of reasons. Even by consolidating only two servers onto one physical server, I estimate the savings in hardware cost can be as much as 20%.
- Lower administrative overhead, and associated cost savings. For instance: the issue of SBS storage locations has been a problem for me. I have used these instructions on every Windows SBS 2003 installation I manage, and that adds up to a bit of time. Wayne McIntyre at SBS Blog posted a great introduction to the Server Storage Manage tool that greatly simplifies those things in SBS 2008.
- Updated and improved Small Business Server functions such as RWW, sharepoint server, and Exchange with Outlook Web Access.
On the downside, you will need 64 bit hardware for this, and you cannot upgrade an existing SBS domain in place, you have to install SBS 2003 in migration mode and then demote your old SBS server. But then again, upgrades are usually at least a little painful.
And depending on how you look at things, prices have increased. Its hard to compare apples to oranges 5 years later.
Resources
- SBS Blog (mentioned above)
- Technet SBS 2008 Documentation
- The SBS DIVA (Susan Bradley)
- Microsoft Product Web Site
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