The news continues to stream from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC.
This time news a couple of days, Microsoft released news on the next generation of SBS that many impact many of our Ottawa Small Business clients. In our role as your Ottawa Computer Support specialist we have several clients who rely Microsoft Small Business Server as well as many Microsoft services every business day. The news this week may impact several our small business clients moving forward. And perhaps in a good way.
According to popular IT industry blog “The Var Guy” the next version of Microsoft Small Business Server will embrace the Internet or the cloud. Microsoft is preparing two Windows Small Business Server upgrades or new releases. The next upgrade/release code-named “SBS Aurora” will tie in some cloud-based services right into the heart of Small Business Server. What does this mean to the average Ottawa business? It is really to early to tell. All we know, several key players in the small business IT market are going to play with Microsoft including Ottawa’s Level Platforms (LPI).
Microsoft has confirm two new versions of SBS scheduled for release in public preview at the end of the summer. This is something that we wouldn’t recommend waiting on. The exact date of release is still unknown and depends on the success of the public preview and updates required from the testing phase.
According Microsoft’s Kevin Kean from Microsoft in his blog entry the next version of SBS will have two flavors:
- Windows Small Business Server (SBS) “7” Preview: The next version of Windows Small Business Server will include a richer remote access experience, as well as updates to all the components in the suite to the latest versions (Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010 SP1, SharePoint 2010 Foundation, Windows Server Update Services 3.0 and SQL Server 2008 R2). As a result, small business customers will find significant security and management enhancements as well as much richer features for providing file-and-print, email and Internet services to employees. SBS 7 will support up to 75 users.
- Windows Small Business Server (SBS) Code Name “Aurora” Preview: A new edition of Windows Small Business Server, Aurora is an affordable, easy to use “first server” option for small businesses that will be the company’s first to deliver both traditional and cloud capabilities. With SBS Aurora, customers will be able to better protect their business data through automated backup and restore capabilities, easily organize and access business information from almost anywhere and run a variety of business tools and software. SBS Aurora will support up to 25 users.
Your team at Harris stumbled upon this Small Business Server 7 video on YouTube. The video sponsored by Microsoft and HP explains the next release of SBS 7.
