In case you missed it, the old Microsoft newsgroups are being replaced by the new Microsoft Web Forums. For Small Business Server (SBS), we have a single Small Business Server forum that will be used for SBS2003 and SBS2008 issues. So come on over and check it out!
Microsoft’s Small Business Server (SBS) has been a mainstay of my business for 8 years, and it is what I propose and install for my clients. If you are interested in using SBS for your small business, be sure to read the following blog post entitled: Why Small Businesses Use Windows Small Business Server?
For more than a year I have been promoting the use of Windows Home Server as a local backup solution in a Small Business Server (SBS2003/SBS2008) environment (per these two blogs: blog1 , blog2). I already have WHS installed at most of my SBS customer sites. It now seems as if Microsoft is now willing to say “Yes” — that using WHS to backup your workstations and servers is a viable and supported scenario! Read more on Microsoft’s Technet site.
I hear it all the time … my customer wants an SBS server, but they don’t want to use Exchange. I don’t know about you, but the only reason I can think of why either the customer or the IT consultant would suggest not using Exchange is because they’ve never used it themselves, and therefore are scared that it’s too difficult to install or manage. I have installed SBS servers for almost 9 years. I barely know how to spell Exchange, yet I find Exchange very easy to manage. But, if you still need convincing, here is a short list of … Continue reading SBS without Exchange?
Are you planning to go to SMB Nation in Las Vegas this year? If so, and you’ve attended a past SMB Nation conference, the special “Alumni” registration fee of $499 ends on July 31, 2009. That’s a 50% discount off the regular $999 registration fee. Conference dates are Oct 2-4, 2009. See you in Vegas!
If you are a Microsoft Partner, there will be a 5W/50 webinar entitled “Business Opportunities with Windows Home Server – Updated with PowerPack 2 Content” today at noon (EDT) given by Grey Lancaster and Kevin Royalty. If you think WHS is only for homes, then you’re still thinking within the box! WHS is a perfect fit with SBS 2003/2008.
Blain Barton, Microsoft’s Southeast IT Pro Evangelist, will be bringing his Spring Tiki Tour to the Tampa area on June 4th, 2009 (6p-9p) at the Polk Community College in Lakeland. Topics include: Moving to the Modern OS Roadmap, Windows Security, and Windows 7. I will be doing the Windows 7 presentation. (Yes, food is included!) Space is limited. As of Tuesday 5/26, we already have 165 registered. Click here to register and for more information. Hope to see you there!
I previously blogged on April 1st about the new entry level Windows Server that Microsoft just released — Windows Server 2008 Foundation (WSF). Microsoft has now published a new paper called Introduction to Windows Server 2008 Foundation. WSF is NOT intended to be a “baby” version of SBS. Rather, it is a Windows 2008 Server limited to 15 users. It’s designed to be sold into an existing very small business that is currently running a peer-to-peer (workgroup) network. There’s no Exchange on it. Enjoy!
Microsoft announced today (April 1, 2009) a new entry level version of Windows 2008 Server – called Foundations. And this ain’t no April Fool’s joke. It will support a maximum of 15 users. Read more in their press release.
One of my mottos has always been: “You cannot have enough backup!”. So, I am always investigating and testing backup software. When Microsoft first releasd Windows Home Server (WHS), I knew that this was a product I would be testing. Well, tonight, it saved my bacon! My own SBS 2003 server that has been running for years experienced a serious hard drive failure. Fortunately I do use Raid-5 disk configuration. So I shut down the server, replaced the drive, fired up the server to rebuild the Raid, and then rebooted. But apparently something else was amiss, as Windows would not boot up properly, reporting … Continue reading SBS, WHS and Backup Software
