Earlier this year, Microsoft released Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 to the market. There is more than one version of SBS to consider, should your organizations environment be ready for an upgrade.
The most basic of the releases is Small Business Server 2011 Essentials. This release is based on the Windows Server 2008 R2 technology and is designed for twenty-five or fewer user environments and, not surprisingly, includes a more tightly integrated cloud experience. Microsoft has been heavily investing in cloud architecture for the last several years and their cloud service products like Office 365 and hosted email are designed to integrate more seamlessly with this version.
Small Business Server 2011 Standard Edition is the next level in terms of capacity, yielding the same seventy-five user limitation as previous versions of SBS. This release is also based on the Windows Server 2008 R2 technology and integrates limited versions of Exchange 2010, SharePoint Foundations 2010 and Windows Software Update Services.
Finally, Microsoft has Small Business Server 2011 Premium Add-On which allows customers the use of a second Windows Server 2008 R2 license on which to load SQL Server 2008 R2 to run any line of business (LOB) applications that are based on SQL Server technology. This second Windows license could also be used as a terminal server, additional file server, or any other purpose that your business requires. This license would be an excellent use for virtualization.
The clear take away from the release of SBS 2011 is that Microsoft is continuing its march straight to the cloud. Although the technology behind SBS 2011 is based on Server 2008 R2 technology, the packaging of some of Microsoft’s latest products such as Exchange 2010 and SharePoint Foundations can bring some benefits to organizations.
For a complete overview of the products discussed above, the following link can provide more information: http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/overview.aspx .