I haven’t been on the EBS team for a while now but this news came as a huge shock.  If there’s some consolation I’m really glad to see Microsoft is making the existing EBS 2008 customers whole by getting them to the stand-alone server products for free. 

After 3.5 years of development, I am happy to announce that we have released Essential Business Server 2008 to manufacturing (aka RTMed)!  I have seen the product come along way in that time and am very proud of the work the team has put into EBS.  I have been meeting with customers these past...

It was a big day for the product group.  We signed off on Windows Essential Business Server release candidate 1 today!  It will be available on Connect and the Public Preview will be refreshed very soon. I can’t wait until we RTM (release to manufacturing) and then EBS is made available broadly...

I have been a huge fan of SysInternals long before Microsoft acquired the company a few year ago and rebadged its founders/super talents Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell.  If you ever get a chance to see/hear Mark in person I highly recommend doing so.  His sessions at TechEd, etc. are always...

When I was an Enterprise Strategist and then Consultant in Microsoft's US Midwest sales district, one of the most frustrating situations I experienced were customers (mainly enterprise: 20K+ desktops, 1000+ servers) who didn't utilize technology to its fullest.  I was always troubled by how much...

This much? Oliver Sommer does.  It's his company car!

The document describing how to virtualize EBS RC0 on Hyper-V has just posted.  I don't expect virtualization to be a mainstream case in most midsize businesses because we have loaded each EBS server already.  That said, virtualization is a great way to "kick the tires" without having...

I know its not possible for everyone to run EBS RC0 through its paces but if you're like me and good at visualizing (not virtualizing <g>) the written word into near reality then you'll be glad to know that EBS' documentation is now online.  The documentation is the real deal--its the same...

We revealed some new Windows Essential Business Server information today.   Take a look at: Licensing Pricing System Requirements Want to give EBS a spin?  Sign up for the Public Preview here (the red indicates its important <g>).   Note: the Hyper-V extensions for running...

Today, we publicly announced the product family in which Essential Business Server is a part of-- Windows Essential Server Solutions --and the new family web site .  The Essential Server Solution family also includes Small Business Server and the web site unveils the features and functionality in...

One of my favorite features in Essential Business Server is one that simply lets the IT Administrator help his/her users without having to leave his/her desk.  You might be saying, "well duh, Remote Assistance has been a feature in Windows client since the XP version", I've met with lots...

As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, we had a session on Essential Business Server at the IT Forum in Barcelona, Spain during November 2007.   Recently, the TechNet team posted the video of that Essential Business Server session so you can see what was discussed even though you couldn...

One area that I'm especially proud of in Essential Business Server is how the product accommodates and enhances other products from ISVs (independent software vendors) and other Microsoft product groups whose products are not in the box.  "Extensibility" was was largely driven by the effort...

A number development team members and myself recently went to visit [potential] Essential Business Server customers in San Diego and Chicago.  Visiting the latter is always an enjoyable trip [despite the temperature <g>] because I lived in Chicago for a number of years and its always great...

I'm happy to announce that my product, after being called Windows Server code name "Centro" for over two years, finally has a name-- Windows Essential Business Server !  Essential Business Server will be in Beta 2 in the next couple of months and as a daily dogfooder I have to say the...