MGR IT

As announced on the Windows Essential Business Server blog and confirmed on the EBS web site, Microsoft is discontinuing further development of Essential Business Server and will stop selling it from the end of June.  The announcement talks about the changing market landscape behind the decision, which sounds like a roundabout way of saying the thing didn’t sell.  That’s a pity, because it is actually quite an impressive product.

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IT service providers have traditionally made a living from being little more than computer repairmen, fixing IT problems as they come up and are reported by their customers.  The closest thing to proactive service that this type of provider would perform would be when it came time to install a new computer or perform a system upgrade.  The most widely used method for charging for these services is on an hourly rate basis.  Even quoted jobs would be based on an estimated number of hours to complete the work multiplied by an hourly rate.  This is the way that professionals of all industries have traditionally charged for their services, mostly because it is an easy method to calculate.

There’s a dirty little secret in this traditional method of charging, though.

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The rather strange title above comes from this blog post by Clayton Moulynox of Evolve IT.  He hits the nail on the head when it comes to comparing the ‘IT Guy’ with a true technology partner and the fact that the ‘IT Guy’ is a dying breed.

Those businesses who ‘get’ IT as a business enabler and a strategic asset will immediately see the sense in Clayton’s post.  Those who don’t are in real danger of being left behind.

The difficult economic times are certainly the topic of the moment and look like they will continue to be for some time.  Obviously the IT industry is not immune to the current woes, with businesses likely to have second and third thoughts before signing off on technology purchases (as with any other purchases).

It seems a pretty obvious thing to say, but the best way to avoid unnecessary IT costs is to properly maintain the systems you have in place already.  Most small businesses tend to engage with IT support providers only when something needs fixing, but there are huge productivity and performance gains to be had through proper maintenance of systems.

Which brings me to Managed Services.  Managed Services means different things to different people, but essentially it is a framework that allows an IT provider to manage client systems or system components so that they are kept running optimally, rather than waiting for something to break.  Managed Services can range from simple monitoring through to a comprehensive set of services such as patch management, disk management, remote and on-site support and backup and disaster recovery services. 

Managed Services are generally charged on a fixed-fee basis, so clients can budget for these services effectively.  In the long run, this type of service works out less expensive than traditional break-fix services provided at an hourly rate.  The savings come through increased productivity and efficiency, decreased downtime and avoiding the blow-out of a major system malfunction that requires many chargeable hours to resolve.

At MGR IT, we have been providing a full range of Managed Services for a while now.  Click here to find out more.

In my last post I said I would cover Windows Essential Business Server 2008 in a future post, so here it is!

Essential Business Server 2008 is similar in concept to Small Business Server 2008 and they are both bracketed by Microsoft under the name of Windows Essential Server Solutions.  The difference is the target market.  While SBS 2008 is aimed squarely at the small business market, EBS 2008 is aimed at those organisations who have outgrown SBS 2008 and caters for up to 300 users.  As with SBS 2008, that user limit is a hard limit.

EBS 2008 is a suite of server products in one package, as for SBS 2008, but spread over more servers.  As for SBS 2008, there is a Standard and a Premium edition, with the Standard edition consisting of three servers and the Premium edition adding a fourth server.

The first server in either edition is designated as a Management Server.  This server comprises Windows Server 2008 Standard and System Center Essentials 2007.  It is compatible with SharePoint Services 3.0 and downloading and installing that product is an option during server setup, but SharePoint Services is not shipped with EBS 2008, which seems strange.  This server acts as a domain controller and provides network functions such as DNS, DHCP and WINS.  It is also the logical server to act as a file and print server.

The second server is the Messaging Server.  This server comprises Windows Server 2008 Standard, Exchange Server 2007 and a one-year subscription for Forefront Security for Exchange Server.  As the title implies, this server is pretty much dedicated to Exchange, i.e. e-mail, calendaring, etc.  This server handles the internal messaging requirements, but does not directly face the Internet.

The third server is the Security Server.  This server is Internet-facing and comprises Windows Server 2008 Standard, Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront Threat Management Gateway – Medium Business, including a one-year Web Anti-Malware subscription.  Forefront Threat Management Gateway is the successor to Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server.  This server acts as a firewall and security device for the network.  Exchange is included as a front end server, with all of the mailboxes being stored on the Messaging Server.

As mentioned, the Premium Edition adds a fourth server, which, as for SBS 2008, is a Database Server.  This server comprises Windows Server 2008 Standard and SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition.  This follows the new SBS 2008 practice of moving the resource-intensive SQL Server application to its own server for performance reasons.

Again, the three core servers are 64-bit only, but the Database server can be either 32-bit or 64-bit.  64-bit is becoming the new standard and I would certainly recommend that any business buying a new server from now on go 64-bit.

EBS 2008 has many of the same restrictions that SBS 2008 has - the user limit is a hard limit, the domain must be the root of the network forest, it doesn’t support child domains or Active Directory trusts – but these are unlikely to be of concern to the target market for this product.

EBS 2008 certainly appears to fill a gap.  Previously, businesses that had outgrown Small Business Server had to make the leap to licensing the individual components, but now there is a clear Windows Server pathway for business growth.