It’s not a great time for a new product launch. But Microsoft officials soldiered on with the company’s planned November 12 virtual launch of its newest small and mid-size business servers: Windows Essential Business Server 2008 and Windows Small Business Server 2008.
As of today, customers can obtain the final versions of both products. Both of the new servers — EBS (codenamed “Centro”) and SBS (codenamed “Cougar” — were released to manufacturing earlier this fall. Both products are part of Microsoft’s Windows Essential Server Solutions (WESS) family.
With today’s WESS launch, Microsoft is trying to turn the tightening economy reason for not buying new software on its head. From today’s posting to the Windows Server team blog:
“Considering how tight the economy is for the approx. 1.2 million mid-sized companies and 32 million small businesses worldwide, IT resources are going to be stretched very thin for organizations that have limited or very few IT professionals managing the company’s IT needs. As part of our effort to help customers stretch their technology dollars farther, we’ve designed the WESS products to be “all-in-one” solutions that address key customer pain points by taking the benefits of enterprise-class technology and making it accessible, affordable and less complex for SMBs (small/mid-size businesses).”
Microsoft also is offering potential customers “flexible payment terms” for the new products, running from between 24 to 60 months.
A refresher on the two new SKUs: SBS is aimed at businesses with up to 75 PCs. EBS is designed for users with up to 300 PCs.
SBS comes in two editions (Standard and Premium). Products that are part of the SBS bundle include a mix of software and services: Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, SQL Server 2008, SharePoint Services 3.0, Forefont Security for Exchange Server, Windows Live OneCare for Server and Office Live Small Business.
EBS also is available in two different SKUs (Standard and Premium) and includes Windows Server 2008, System Center Essentials 2007, Exchange Server 2007, SQL Server 2008, Forefront Security for Exchange and Forefront Threat Management Gateway (medium business edition).
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