How Linux is keeping Microsoft honest (and why SBS sucks)

David M Williams
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 19:40

Opinion and Analysis

Windows Small Business Server, or SBS, is Microsoft’s flagship product for the small to medium business environment. Yet, it’s frankly a product that ought not to exist.

Let me elaborate. As you know, Windows have a range of server products: there is Windows Server, which is the base operating system. Then comes SQL Server, Exchange Server and others like ISA Server.

These products cost huge amounts of money. Each server product, along with user licenses, come to thousands of dollars, even tens of thousands if you opt for enterprise licenses. This is out of the price range for many small companies who really have only very modest needs. Hence, SBS.

SBS is a much lower cost bundle of Windows server products. It includes the operating system as well as Exchange and some other options. It offers a small business the ability to legally license a proper server operating system and mail platform for use on their network.

Yet, SBS comes with a catch. It’s heavily restricted. You cannot have another SBS server on your network, for one thing. And while you can have other Windows Servers – using the full product – none of them can be domain controllers. Your total user count is restricted.

This may sound acceptable; you have a reduced cost setup with the trade-off of some limitations. However, it’s exasperating, to be honest. SBS is much more restrictive than businesses realise. Even if it suits today, it’s almost certain it won’t tomorrow. It absolutely offers no scalability and any organisation which intends to grow is heading off on the wrong path by using it.

A large part of my work is integrating the infrastructures of companies that have joined via mergers and acquisitions. SBS is always a nuisance; it always has to be replaced because, frankly, it is just no use in a wide area network. It is no use in an environment where redundant domain controllers are desired. It is no use when the user count exceeds its limit.

So why do people use SBS? The answer is simple. It’s cheap. Or, let me clarify that; it’s cheaper than Windows Server standard edition. It’s cheaper than Microsoft Exchange standard edition. And, the organisations who sell it do so because they want to win tenders and contracts based on price, not future functionality.

In many ways SBS is like Windows Vista Home Basic. It’s the bastard edition of the operating system that retailers and resellers bundle because it’s the lowest cost version and they know their buyers don’t know any better except to look at the price tag. This is the same reason retail outlets sell Vista laptops with insufficient RAM.

So where does Linux come into the equation?

CONTINUED