Over 25 million small and medium sized businesses use two or more computers within their business and yet 63% of those don’t have their own server. There are numerous reasons for this including: the high cost, technical expertise, reliability and complexity of having such a server.
Microsoft has addressed this need with the Windows Small Business Server 2011 editions. The standard edition is ideal for an all-in-one secure solution that can be run on the premises at an affordable cost.
These servers originally started in 1997 as the BackOffice Small Business Server 4.0 but had lots of teething problems in the early days. Today’s versions are much smoother to operate because they’re designed to be much more user-friendly.
You have a choice of the Standard or the Essentials version depending on your needs. The Standard version can accommodate up to 75 concurrent users while the Essentials only handles up to 25 users and is ideal for smaller businesses.
All the main services run from a single chassis but the Standard version can have extra virtual or physical servers added if you purchase the Premium Add-On Kit which contains Hyper–V R2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2.
Within the Premium Kit, there’s an added facility called Remote Web Access. This allows employees who are on the road, or working away from the office, to have complete access to desktops, emails, file shares and SharePoint through a specific new interface. The Premium Kit is an add-on which means employers don’t have to decide straightaway whether they need the extras it provides.
This version connects to Cloud services such as SharePoint and hosted Exchange for collaboration and email as well as providing shared folders and a central backup of all computers within the network. You have a single sign-on because it uses the Active Directory Federation Services.
Another advantage of the Windows Small Business Server 2011 is the RAM capacity which has increased from 4 GB to 10 GB and now has a quad-core processor for extra speed and efficiency. The shared folders use an interface similar to Microsoft’s SkyDrive, which allows you to drag and drop uploaded files into its browser.
The new edition includes Windows Update Services and Exchange as well and everything is tuned so it works on the single server. It has a management console and wizards to assist with common tasks.
Part of the upgrade is SharePoint 2010 which contains various Office Web Apps that allow in-browser viewing and the ability to edit Office documents whenever you need to do so.
Microsoft and other companies will always keep working to improve software and hardware because the need for faster, more efficient options keeps increasing as does the need for technology to do things that were previously never thought possible. This Windows Small Business Server 2011 is simply the latest version in a long line of things that will keep evolving over time.
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