 | |
|
- Virtualisation Technology news and Jobs 
The Linux distillery Vomit or Linux: your choice
The Linux distillery Vomit or Linux: your choice | Vomit or Linux: your choice |
|
|
| by David M Williams | |
| Wednesday, 27 February 2008 | |
|
Page 2 of 4 They asked a collection of suppliers to quote on a solution. The server hardware was fairly much the same across the board: RAID 5 SCSI hard drives, backup tapes, uninterruptible power supply and the like.Small companies like SBS because it gives them Windows Server and Microsoft Exchange in one hit at one price which is lower than buying the regular versions independently. A higher-end version also includes SQL Server and the firewall product Internet Security and Acceleration Server, or ISA Server. Independent computer support companies like SBS because it’s easy for them to sell, they can use wizards to set it up, and they can get it for themselves by signing up to Microsoft’s Partner Program and ordering the Action Pack software subscription. Yet, SBS isn’t just a one-off price tag. The reduced cost – compared to that of the full-blown product – can blind some to its many shortcomings. To be fair, these shortcomings aren’t generally issues a small company faces, but they must be noted. Firstly, only one computer in the entire domain can be running SBS. If you wish to introduce other servers, you need to buy the full Windows Server product. SBS is limited to 75 users or devices, and each requires a client access license or CAL. You get a certain amount of CALs in the box – generally 5 or 10 – and must buy more as you get more staff or computers. You need a second server – which, as said above, must be a full version of Windows Server – if you want to allow users to run terminal services/remote desktop. SBS is limited to 4Gb of RAM. That’s not a burden on 32-bit hardware, which is itself constrained to 4Gb of memory, but with 64-bit architectures becoming mainstream this places a limit on the ultimate grunt of your server. Ironically, Windows Small Business Server 2008 will be 64-bit only – and it no longer supports tape backup which is a terrible decision in my opinion. Now, the question has to be raised. Is Microsoft Small Business Server really the best option? One brave supplier obviously thought not and quoted a Linux solution. The software cost nothing. There was a stark contrast immediately. Additionally, the supplier said, it had no limits on the number of users they wanted to add. There were no more licensing costs. And, what’s more, they said, it would run for months and months without needing a reboot. And if it did have a problem they could simply remotely connect via a light-weight text-based secure remote login protocol without needing a cumbersome GUI. Should the little company grow, the supplier assured them their network could easily expand. Their server operating system would easily work with other servers without limiting their functionality or its own. The company’s ever-savvy purchasing officer proposed the competing vendors sharpen their pencil in light of a Linux solution which had no software costs whatsoever. The response came back that Linux was not a sensible solution because as well as implement a server, the sensible thing to do would be set up an Active Directory domain and roll the Windows XP desktops into it. This way you’d have better security and could allow users to log in to any desktop with their own identity. Which way did he go? Please read on. CONTINUED
|
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
