MS Fans DO Respond

By James Gaskin, NetworkWorld.com, 08/15/06

It seems the Microsoft fan I quoted and said didn't respond did in fact respond, but for some reason his personal e-mail never reached me. He sent e-mail from work and it did find me. Maybe I need to run Exchange or he needs to fix his. Ain't the Internet wonderful sometimes?

Many Microsoft fans share my opinion of their new Small Business Server 2003 R2: good, but not sure if the upgrade is worth paying for. Several mentioned that every other R2 update in the past came free, and this one will cost money. None of the users who mentioned the cost of the upgrade thought charging for it was a good idea.

Other responses agree on several interesting details about SBS 2003. Most believe the cost of getting expert help to install and later maintain the server is a fair value. Customers seem comfortable paying for a handful of support hours per month (five or less). Others felt comfortable enough to install the server themselves, using the Microsoft Wizards and documentation.

However, none who wrote use the supplied Web server as their public server. They're not worried about putting their e-mail server on the Internet directly, because they use the Exchange server, but they won't use the Web server. Some consultants hinted that only an idiot would use SBS 2003 as a serious e-commerce server, no matter what the Microsoft propaganda, er, marketing, department says. Many mentioned that running the Web server internally to support the SharePoint services makes sense, and I agree.

Reader Steve sent a well thought out response saying (my summary, not his) that SBS 2003 does an excellent job for small businesses, that most businesses don't use nearly all the features, and that choosing between running your own Exchange server on SBS 2003 and paying for a hosting service may be a coin flip. I plan to talk to a couple of Exchange-compatible e-mail hosting services soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Reader Gary fights a good, but often losing, fight. He tries to convince small business customers that computers are not toasters that you plug in and leave alone. I absolutely agree. Companies often carefully monitor and maintain their production machinery but somehow figure computers should just magically work. Unfortunately, ignored Windows computers will soon grab your attention. At least they don't leak oil when they fail, like production machinery.

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