Windows Essential Business Server RTMs (9/18/08)
Well, you saw in an earlier post that SBS 2008 RTM’d several weeks back, now EBS has also RTM’d. As I noted in the previous post, GA (general availability) and a joint Launch (for the Windows Essential Server Solutions, which encompasses both of these products) is scheduled for Nov 12th. And, btw, we will be discussing and showing the WESS in the upcoming SB2@TS2 series (OEM/SB focused) seminars as well as the regular TS2 events.
Just to briefly refresh, EBS is an integrated server stack (3-4 servers) designed to meet the needs of medium-size businesses. The server bundle, available in two editions, can be configured and supported by Microsoft's channel partners for companies that don’t have full time IT staff.
The Standard Edition of EBS includes Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server, System Center Essentials, Forefront Security for Exchange and Forefront Threat Management Gateway, delivered as Management, Messaging, and Security servers, with a 4th LOB server option in the Premium Edition all managed thru a single console view.
As an interesting note, Microsoft's Forefront Threat Management Gateway has been released to manufacturing for the very first time with this EBS release. It replaces Microsoft's ISA firewall product and adds "unified threat management" capabilities. For example, the TMG solution provides network edge security that can support a company's headquarters, as well as its branch offices, according to Microsoft's Forefront TMG blog.
EBS has been almost 2 years in the making and has undergone significant testing and customer trials. Of course, all the components are based on the latest Microsoft technology, such as Windows Server 2008, which has come out very strong. (from a quality perspective)
The EBS suite is focused on bringing enterprise-class resources to medium-size organizations with few or no IT support staff. In that vein, it comes with best practices and enterprise-grade security built-in. And, like it’s close relative, SBS 2008, it also features fast and easy set-up and migration capabilities, as well as centralized IT administration and lot’s of integration and automation.
For those of you with customers between 50-300 computers, I think this will potentially be a compelling solution.