During my morning routine of looking at Susan Bradley’s blog, she had a post from over the weekend about an article she found blasting SBS server. Being someone who wants to see what all the hoopla is about I followed the link to the actual article, and found myself in awe.
The article is obviously written from someone who talks to his friends in the Linux community. There are lines in the article that are obvious opinions that are trying to be passed as fact. My favorite of these is, “I contend that nobody actually selects SBS based on perceived feature advantages. Businesses would much rather deploy the fuller individual components, be they operating system, mail server, database server, firewall or something else.”
Now, I will not call the line total bunk, because if you are in a larger company, then yes you are going to want individual servers. Yes if you have over 75 users you are going to want separate servers. The idea that a Small Business would not want SBS because of its advantages is a load of bunk.
As I consult for SMBs, I do recommend SBS based on its advantages. “I’ve spoken at length in the past about why I have no love for SBS . It’s a deliberately crippled product and it has artificial limitations. It lulls its administrators and users into a false sense of security with its watered-down terminal server environment, Remote Web Workplace, “David says. This is not totally true. Yes it works properly if you use the wizards, but with SBS 2008, there is plenty to do without the wizards, The simplified licensing scheme (1 license per user covers Connectivity, Exchange and even SQL on premium), lowers TCO which is very important in this economy.
Now the statement about security with RWW is an odd one. I never tout RWW as a security feature, but instead it is an alternative to VPN for those that have a desktop (XP, Vista, or Win 7) that is open to use. It only allows 1 person at a time on any given machine as it is. The advantage is that you can use any web browser to access it.
Now to get away from the Windows busting for a little bit. I know some SMBs that do use Linux, in fact they tend to use SUSE, since they can use Novell’s Groupwise product with it. It is a small faction, but it is out there. Yes Linux can use a better version of a Small Business server, but like with everything else Linux, it would need to become simple enough that a non-IT person can run it. In other words, you would need to “cripple” it.
The advantages of Microsoft’s SBS start with the simplicity of it, and yet it gives you a full on solution for e-mail, file sharing, domain structure, and security.
The advantage of David’s article is basically an advertisement and opinion piece, with lack of reliable information about the product he is bashing.