SBS 2008: Released to Manufacturing!
On behalf of the SBS team, I am extremely pleased to announce that Windows Small Business Server 2008 software has been finalized! Today both SBS Standard and Premium are being released to manufacturing, which means we begin the process of finalizing international versions, creating media, building packaging, delivering the product to distribution channels and handing it off to our OEM partners, so it will be widely available by our November 12 launch. (More information about launch will come in the future.)
As you can imagine, this is an exciting day for me and the rest of the team. Development of SBS 2008 has been a big effort here at Microsoft and the software has undergone extensive testing within Microsoft, by our partners, private tech beta participants and our Technology Adoption Program members. We are proud to say we have truly heard and incorporated input from our partners and customers throughout product planning and development. As a result, we feel very confident that this new release builds on the success of SBS 2003 R2 and makes the power of enterprise IT accessible and affordable for small business, helping them increase productivity and grow. And, just as important, SBS 2008 provides solution providers with a great platform to meet the needs of their small business clients.
We invested in a number of different areas for this release; here’s the big picture of the themes and features in SBS 2008:
For IT managers and technology consultants:
· Microsoft’s newest server technologies: Powerful and more secure infrastructure that was rebuilt from the ground up.
· IT made easy: Deployment, setup and administration is dramatically simplified and improved. New tools to manage domain names and data folders. New single CALs make SBS 2008 licensing more flexible and cost-effective.
· Improved Manageability: Monitoring across both servers and client PCs. Customizable, remotely-accessible reports via e-mail and mobile devices
· Application Platform: SBS 2008 Premium Edition is an ideal platform for critical business applications, via SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 on a second hardware server
For small business owners and employees:
· Greater security: Trial subscriptions to Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Windows Live OneCare for Server. Extensibility model for easy reporting of 3rd party protection applications.
· Better data protection: New block-based server protection technologies that can complete backing up your server in minutes rather than hours.
· Simple, easy online marketing and commerce: Integration with Microsoft Office Live Small Business
· Better productivity: Improved Remote Web Workplace, integration of the new SharePoint and support for the newest Windows Mobile devices
I want to congratulate the entire team and thank our partners and beta participants for their tremendous efforts and help.
Regards,
Dean Paron
Group Program Manager
Windows Small Business Server
