Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag
All the things you ever wanted to know about the next release of SBS but were afraid to ask, are finally, blessedly, officially official and steaming hot from those crazy kids in Redmond.
Here are some key things about Cougar, which will for sure and absolutely be named Small Business Server 2008, all gleaned from the official press release.
At the very top of the list has to be the revelation that Small Business Server 2008 is now part of the brand-spankin’ new Windows Essentials Server Solutions “family” AKA WESS (yet another acronym suitable for framing or wrapping fish). More about what that actually means and some more info on the WESS family tree in the next post. For now, we’re gonna stick with SBS 2008.
Licensing limits are unchanged. MS quotes 50 seats as the target for SBS 2008, altho it will officially support up to 75 seats…
That graphic doesn’t say a whole lot tho. The next one is the real money shot. As in…yes, Standard and Premium Editions of SBS are still around in the 2008 release.
Let’s get one thing right out of the way. There have been some questions about ISA Server in SBS 2008 for quite a while now. But it’s not shown in this graphic at all. Here are some facts which have been revealed publicly elsewhere, but bear repeating…
- Only a single NIC supported in SBS 2008
- ISA Server no longer included in SBS
Exchange 2007’s inclusion in SBS 2008 actually carries with it a couple of particular requirements…
- Only 64–bit hardware supported
- Outlook no longer included
And because of that 64–bit hardware support requirement…
- No in-place upgrades to SBS 2008 supported
Now, most of that has previously been announced elsewhere. But there are a couple of new tidbits you might find interesting, quoted verbatim from the MS press release…
- “Dramatically simplified server and PC backup technologies”
- “New monitoring across server and client PCs”
In case you’re wondering, yes…that sounds an awful lot like some stuff that first saw the light of day in Windows Home Server, doesn’t it?
It’s also been previously announced publicly that Small Business Server 2008 would not offer tape drive support out-of-box, which is something inherited from Windows Server 2008, actually. So we’re talking about nothing but disk-based backups, unless you shell for something 3rd-party like Backup Exec.
If all that’s not enough, SBS 2008 also will include one year trial subscriptions to a couple of new MS security and management services…
- Forefront Security for Exchange Server Small Business Edition
- Windows Live OneCare for Server
MS also touts integration with Office Live for Small Business, whatever that actually means. As in, you get to Office Live from a web browser, right? I’m not sure how that counts as “integration” but…whatever.
Other stuff that will be included in SBS 2008, carried over from SBS as we know it today but with shinier, newer versions…
- Remote Web Workplace
- SharePoint Services
- Windows Server Update Services
With ISA Server gone, the main benefit of SBS 2008 Premium has been reduced to SQL Server. However, to soften the sting, SBS 2008 Premium offers a couple of kickass perks over the SQL in SBS 2003 Premium…
- SQL 2008 Standard, not Workgroup
- Can install SQL 2008 on a totally separate Database server
Good to see these changes being included, as they are long overdue. Should have actually been in SBS 20003, but at least the option is here now.
Unfortunately, there’s something new about the way Standard and Premium are operating in this 2008 release that gives me a sinking feeling in my stomach. More on that in yet another post.
|| posted by chris under business, hardware, it pro, migration, virtualization || || ||
[...] part of the full court press release on Small Business Server 2008 today, SBS got inducted into the Windows Essential Server System AKA WESS family. Here’s how that [...]
pingback by welcome to the funcave » The Family Von WESS — February 20, 2008 @ 8:17 am