Essential Business Server 2008 - Roles and Technologies

So following on from last weeks post on SBS I thought it was only fair that I talk about EBS and its technology components.

As you know EBS is designed to support up to 250 users or devices.  We break the architecture into three core roles;

• Management
• Windows Server 2008
• Active Directory - Directory Services
• File and Print
• System Center Essentials
• Messaging
• Windows Server 2008
• Active Directory - Directory Services
• Exchange Server 2007
• Forefront Security for Exchange
• Security
• Windows Server 2008
• Exchange Server 2007 Edge
• The next version of ISA server

One of the questions I get asked a lot is how did we end up with three roles.  The answer - research, lots and lots of research.  We worked extensively with customers with 25 -  250 desktops and found a few key things.

Email is King - Just about every customer we spoke to wanted messaging isolation. A specific box that held the major Exchange roles and provided a robust messaging environment.  We included Forefront Security for Exchange as well to ensure SPAM, AV and other policy was enforced.  Interestingly and what comes as little surprise email was seen as often the most important LOB application inside the organization.  If it wasn't the most important it was usually the second.

Environment hygiene and knowing you're secure are key areas of concern for the midsize organization.  Our research told us that most customers invested in some form of mail and gateway filtering - cleansing traffic as it came in and providing an entry point into the network.  The security role does this in several ways firstly we implement the Exchange Server 2007 Edge role to perform filtering of email as it enters the organization.  Secondly we install the next version of ISA server - providing perimeter protection for the organization.

Management and core services were next on the list.  Not just the foundation stuff like AD-DS, DHCP, DNS, File and Print, but also implementing System Center Essentials to manage the entire environment.  We found that IT administrators wanted an all up way of managing their network, from the servers to the clients and everything in between.  Last but not least we implemented our own Unified Administration Console on the management server (This will get it's own post soon).

Finally I hear you say, what about my LOB applications?  Well in Premium edition you get another copy of Windows Server 2008 Standard edition technologies.  Making up the forth server within the EBS environment and providing the ideal location for other critical business applications.