SBS 2008 RC0 now available!

SBS 2008 is an exciting upgrade to SBS 2003. You will definitely want to get your hands on this early, so here’s your chance. SBS 208 RC0 public release is now available, click here . Get it and learn it today!

A standard version install is DVD 1 only. For Premium, you will need all 4 DVD’s, just under 10 GB.

Overview

Windows Small Business Server 2008 (Windows SBS 2008) is an integrated server solution that helps you protect your business data, increase productivity and present a more professional image to customers. By providing many of the features used by larger companies –e-mail, an Internet connectivity, internal Web sites, remote access, support for mobile devices, file and printer sharing, backup, and restore–Windows SBS 2008 gives you the tools you need to help grow your business.

Windows SBS 2008 is available in two editions: Standard and Premium.

Standard Edition includes the software to install the primary Small Business Server. To install Standard Edition, you will need to download:

* SBS2008_RC0_ ENU_DVD1. iso – Small Business Server Installation

Premium Edition includes software to install an additional Windows Server (either x86 or x64) for your domain, with the option of running SQL Server. To install Premium Edition, you will need to download:
* SBS2008_RC0_ ENU_DVD1. iso – Small Business Server Installation
* SBS2008_RC0_ ENU_DVD2. iso – Additional Server Installation x86
* SBS2008_RC0_ ENU_DVD3. iso – Additional Server Installation x64
* SBS2008_RC0_ ENU_DVD4. iso – SQL Server 2008 for Small Business CTP6

More information about Windows SBS 2008 editions is available here
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/essential/sbs/editions.mspx

 

SBSC Tour Notes – Calgary

A great day in Calgary, the first stop on the Spring SBSC Tour in Western Canada.

Constanza Zalba showed why we should be interested – the opportunity for selling SBS 2008 in Canada is huge.

• There are over 1 million small businesses in Canada (less than 99 employees).
• Of those, 72% do not have a server!
• Where server sales to mid and enterprise customers are declining, server sales into small businesses are growing at over 9%.

Mitch Jarvis, an MVP from Toronto, provided a hands on demo of SBS 2008. First, the deployment of SBS 2008 is easier than SBS 2003, and the setup questions are far less technical and more business related. For example, anyone remember the issues that you could create if you changed the domain name from the recommended .local?? No longer an issue in SBS 2008. He stressed how using the new answer file will save a lot of time and will help to standardize deployments. Also, the new migration process can happen side by side to a new server, so no more working weekends to do migrations!

The next message from Mitch was to make full use of reporting. For example, “Generate and email report” can help us support our clients better; if a client calls with a problem, we can easily walk them through sending us this report by email that will allow us to pinpoint the cause of the problem.

Mitche’s Favorite PHD (Press Here Dummy) feature is the “repair network wizard” - when it finds problems, it will allow you to fix automatically with a single click; really cool!

Finally, Mitch wanted to stress how important it will be for us to learn Sharepoint. Sharepoint is the wave of the future. We will not use desktops as we know it within 5 years. Web 2.0 is where it’s at and it’s all about collaboration.

So, after a day long teaser, you will be pumped and ready to get your hands on SBS 2008 and EBS 2008. Remember to send your request to preview@microsoft.com to get on the list for the beta.