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Posts on Jan 1970

Why Windows Small Business Server is Dead

Microsoft has done away with Small Business Server. Over the last couple of years, the MCS tech team has recommended that small businesses move away from Small Business Server and into Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard. Small Business Server has always seemed to to a little temperamental. For most users, SBS was overkill and came preinstalled with SharePoint and Exchange. Best practices would lead us to believe that if you don’t need something on your server then don’t install it, but SBS forced the issue.

Windows Server was designed to be modular and that is how we install it now. We have performed several Small Business Server 2003 to Server 2008 R2 migrations successfully. This brings organizations to a more standard platform that can be custom built to suite almost any business need. We are seeing more stable servers and services now with less bloat.

Windows Small Business Server Essentials has been renamed Windows Server 2012 Essentials now. We are still recommending Windows Server 2012 Essentials for very small offices who would otherwise run a peer to peer network because of costs. Windows Server 2012 Essentials comes per-loaded on HP micro Servers for around $900 with redundant hard drives and room for 2 more. That is a great deal and it is perfect for offices that want better security and control but don’t want to pay $5000 for way more server and software than they will ever need. Small Business Server going away is the end of an era and we at MCS could not be happier.

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