Microsoft's Midmarket Server Gets a Name, Release Schedule

This week, Microsoft revealed that its upcoming Windows Server 2008-based midsized business server solution, code-named Centro, has been given a final name: The product will be sold as Windows Essential Business Server when it hits the market in the second half of 2008.

Windows Essential Business Server is currently in a limited private beta, but will be expanded to a wider public audience in early 2008, Microsoft says. The logistics, however, are somewhat daunting: To install Windows Essential Business Server, you'll need three or four 64-bit servers, depending on the version you purchase: The Standard edition includes a management server with Windows Server 2008 and System Center Essentials, a messaging server with Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront Security for Exchange, and a security server with the next version of Microsoft ISA Server and an Exchange 2007 gateway. The Premium edition includes these servers, as well as a fourth database server with SQL Server 2008.

Eric Watson, a group program manager on the Centro team, told me this week that the product is targeted at the businesses that fall between traditional small businesses and large enterprises. These midmarket businesses typically have 25 to 250 PCs, 50 to 1000 employees, and 1 to 5 IT administrators. It's a market that has been underserved to date by computing infrastructure products and services.

"IT administrators in mid-sized businesses are overwhelmed today, and overworked," Watson says. "They spend most of their time fighting fires and being reactive. Windows Essential Business Server will help them become proactive and take advantage of new technology."

The key to Windows Essential Business Server is its integrated setup sequence and centralized management console, both of which are designed to overcome the complexity of working with multiple physical servers. The product will be sold as complete solutions from server makers and in a software-only package that administrators can install on their hardware. Companies such as Fujitsu, Intel, HP, and IBM have already signed on to sell unique Windows Essential Business Server-based solutions, and Microsoft says other partners will be announced in the coming months.

Less well known is Cougar, the code name for Microsoft's next version of Windows Small Business Server. Like Windows Essential Business Server, this product is based on Windows Server 2008 and will likely ship within a year.

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It is a bad practice to create new products that are slightly different from each other. Yes, there is a market fo such product but this market is serviced by the normal versions of the products (Windows Server, Exchange Server, ISA Server, etc.). If you think that this market is underserved then just change your licensing system for it. Why do you create yet another package? Too much products, too much confusion and frustration.

muraty November 08, 2007 (Article Rating:

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"The product will be sold as Windows Essential Business Server (WEBS) when it hits the market in the second half of 2008."

Microsoft seriously needs to rethink its naming "strategy". I'm surprised they didn't tack a "2008 Midmarket Edition" at the end of it. ;-)

MozillaGen November 08, 2007 (Article Rating:

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nobody seems to understand this but me, so i'll explain it a little clearer. Microsoft is targeting the medium-sized market segment here the same way they targetted the small business. that is to say, they are taking pre-existing operating system components (Windows Server, Exchange, etc) while reducing their capabilities so that they fit that market and bundling them together at a reduced cost. this is EXACTLY what they did with Windows Small Business Server, which includes more functionality than Windows Server Standard at a lower cost, and yet includes it with functionality that fits that market, without requiring extra investments in functionality that doesn't. i think this is a great idea - approaching it as a complete solution that fits a goal or particular audience. SBS won several awards for being the best bundled server product, and for ease of use.

if you want to know how they got this idea, just look at the Office suites and compare the prices to the standalone applications....who would actually buy Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, etc, separately anyway?

with the new Windows Server "suites", it'll be a much easier deployment scenario with the central management capabilities in each package too.

questions that come to mind: is there any way to integrate Forefront Client Security into one of the existing servers in that set of 3 (or 4)? what is the client security strategy for small-business customers on SBS? currently, Forefront Client Security management requires a separate server that isn't a domain controller, and has very high system requirements and requires a large investment in SQL Server for monitoring and reporting, meaning it doesn't serve the smalll business market particularly well. you can run FCS without central management though, and it is VERY cheap to do so (approx. $13/client/yr), but there should still be a central management option for small biz IT's.

XP

Waethorn November 08, 2007 (Article Rating:

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