Ever since the heady days of the Windows Server 2003 suite of operating systems, Microsoft has been helping the smaller businesses of this world by releasing a version called Small Business Server 20xx. Based on the latest server kernels, Small Business Server bundled the latest versions of Exchange, Sharepoint and SQL into one OS, and priced it well below the cost of buying each feature separately. This allowed small businesses to implement a Windows server environment without breaking the bank and Microsoft knew that once they were on a Windows environment and even if they out grew their SBS server they would stick with Windows. Everyone was a winner. Well now it’s time to say good bye to Small Business Server, as this product line is effectively being withdrawn from 2013 with the final version Windows SBS 2011. It is being replaced by Windows Server Essentials 2012, which whilst sounding like it has everything a small business needs, it in fact comes with none of the Exchange or Sharepoint features of SBS of old.

Microsoft are clearly trying to move small business to the cloud and usher them over to Office 365 as opposed to running their own email server.Whilst we are big fans of the cloud at Orbits, we recognise it isn’t right for everyone. Some still require an onsite email solution and for those, it will involve going out and buying a second server with a second copy of Windows Server and a copy of Exchange. It’s all going to add up.

If you believe you will require a server with email functionality in the next few years then it may be worth you getting a Small Business Server 2011 system before December 29th 2013 – the day SBS is put to bed forever.