Microsoft SBS

Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2003, released last week, is a polished and well-designed product that will satisfy the needs of small offices with multiple PCs but no central file server or IT support.   Expanding on SBS systems built on Windows NT and 2000, SBS 2003 comes in two editions: Standard and Premium. The Standard Edition includes file and print services, Internet Information Server, Web and portal services, and Exchange Server 2003. The Premium Edition adds SQL Server 2000, the Internet Security and Acceleration server and Office FrontPage 2003. Pricing starts at $500 and $1,500, respectively, including five client licenses.

Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2003, released last week, is a polished and well-designed product that will satisfy the needs of small offices with multiple PCs but no central file server or IT support. 

Expanding on SBS systems built on Windows NT and 2000, SBS 2003 comes in two editions: Standard and Premium. The Standard Edition includes file and print services, Internet Information Server, Web and portal services, and Exchange Server 2003. The Premium Edition adds SQL Server 2000, the Internet Security and Acceleration server and Office FrontPage 2003. Pricing starts at $500 and $1,500, respectively, including five client licenses.

Microsoft includes a poster-sized Quick Start Guide with space to jot down pre-installation information. The guide was remarkably clear, even when handling multiple options and explaining technical concepts such as disk partitioning.

We liked the To Do List screen, located in server management utilities. It provides necessary configuration steps, along with a button to click for context-sensitive help. Each step opens a wizard to help complete the task and a Done box you can check when finished. You also can access the To Do List from the management screen for configuration help as needed.

Basic file and print services for client PCs are handled easily using Microsoft’s standard network processes. Users can configure private storage space on the server; and for easy centralized data backup, the server can redirect each client’s My Documents folder to the server. Users also can share information via Microsoft’s SharePoint Services. SharePoint lets you access document libraries, view announcements, engage in threaded discussions and link to internal and external resources.

The home page on the server management console gathers all the server information. Administration relies on simple “click to configure” options. Users familiar with managing a Windows peer-to-peer network will have no trouble configuring user access to disk shares and other standard network management tasks.

To test back-up and restore capabilities, we connected a Sony StorStation AIT-2 USB tape back-up drive. However, SBS 2003 only recognized an earlier Sony AIT drive.

Although SBS 2003 accepted the drive and ran a backup with no errors listed, it didn’t read the restoration files, probably because of incompatibilities between the old and new drivers. IT administrators know to test restorations before trusting a tape unit, but non-technical users don’t. SBS 2003 should have reported the backup wasn’t viable. 

Last, previous SBS editions didn’t have the low-entry cost, but client licenses cost less, $60 rather than $100. If a company adds 23 additional users, the cost advantage is gone ($2,879 for SBS 2000 vs. $2,876 for SBS 2003). Because SBS 2003 can handle a total of 75 clients expanding on the earlier cap of 50 users, you can pay more at the end even if you start out paying less. But Microsoft says the vast majority of its target audience has only a handful of clients and will therefore see a substantial decrease in their networking costs, yet still have room to grow.

For the full report, go to https://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/reviews/2003/1013netrev.html