Microsoft servers in the SMB market

Wayne Small

Microsoft defines the SMB market space in various terms, but normally bases it around the number of users in the network rather than a company’s sales revenues.

I’ve typically defined the SMB space as being anywhere from one through to 500 users.

In Microsoft’s terms, they focus on the one to 75 user market as being the “S” in SMB and the 50 to 300 user market as being the “M” in SMB.

Regardless of the definition you use, if you have been involved in selling into this market for any length of time you will know that both the S and the M clients have similar, but at the same time, very different needs and desires.

The “S” clients tend to be smaller, more entrepreneurial businesses that initially have no in- house IT staff and rely on either the business owner or the financial controller to manage and maintain the IT systems.

Because of this, their skills at understanding and using the IT infrastructure are often weak.

Any IT functions are secondary to their primary role of running the business, being the accountant or whatever their normal job is.

They are typically working in reactive mode for the most part and look to purchase IT solutions only when they suffer pain of some kind or other.

When working with the S clients we need to be cognisant of these facts as IT is often looked upon as a cost rather than an asset that can help build the business.

Typically when consulting to these clients we will be talking directly to the business owner about the purchase or upgrade of any of the major IT systems.

“S” clients often purchase more so based on a relationship with the reseller than cost alone.

Time spent building and enhancing these relationships will pay off well in the tougher economic times that we are in right now.

“M” clients are similar to the “S” clients but at the same time very different.

M clients are typically well- established business operations with multiple levels of management.

Often the referrals we get to an M client lead us to talking to the in-house IT guy.

Yes – one of the things that makes an M client different is the fact that they have in-house IT staff to help support their infrastructure.

The IT guy in these companies is often a jack of all trades, master of none.

He has to support not only the basic network infrastructure, but also the line of business applications, desktop applications and the boss’s home PCs.

His life revolves around keeping the existing systems running day in day out.

Occasionally he has time to plan for the future. The IT guy will often report to the head of finance.

When working with an M client, we as resellers need to take a two-pronged approach in connecting with the client and helping them with their needs.

We need to help the IT guy do his work better, more efficiently and at the same time, we need to work with the finance guy/business owner to ensure that their needs are met.

One of the challenges that we face in dealing with most clients in the SMB space is that they have no idea what technology they are running that supports their business. This is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.

It’s good because it allows the SMB reseller to put in place the best technologies that will help the client achieve their business goals.

The downside to this is that when it comes time for the client to upgrade or change technology, they tend not to appreciate the huge efforts that we as SMB IT professionals make in ensuring that we keep it simple for them to understand and consume.

In response to these requirements that we have in the SMB market, Microsoft has recently announced new additions to its server range specifically to focus on the needs of the SMB client.

Under the title of the Windows Essential Server Solutions family, Microsoft has released a fifth generation of its Small Business Server product (SBS 2008) and also a first-generation product called Essential Business Server.

Both products are designed to meet the specific needs of both the S client and the M clients mentioned earlier.

Both products include the latest technologies from Microsoft’s server platforms integrated in ways that are not possible with the standalone products.

This integration pays off well in terms of the benefits to the SMB IT professional/reseller and to the customer.

Microsoft has designed both SBS and EBS products to fit in well with the requirements of the typical SMB client. SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 both include the latest Microsoft Windows Server 2008 as a base platform and utilise Exchange 2007 for email functions.

Both SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 are 64-bit only platforms, allowing them to utilise up to a full 32GB of RAM for the server and applications.

Both are expected to be run on Dual Core Intel or AMD 64 bit CPUs or higher which is the normal CPU for today’s crop of servers.

Each platform will require a minimum of 60GB of hard drive space as well.

That’s where the core similarities stop, however as Microsoft has done well to address the requirements of the SMB client by finetuning the products to meet very specific needs.

SBS 2008 is designed specifically to be easy to use.

It masks a lot of the underlying architecture from the user from the very start when you install it onto new hardware.

During the installation process it asks non-technical business level questions which most amateur techos will know how to answer.

Comprehensive help is provided along the way to explain to the user in further detail what they might need to know.

Often SBS 2008 will be installed into an environment where there is no pre-existing server, with a peer-to-peer network more likely to be in use.

Once the SBS 2008 setup is complete, the administrator is presented with the SBS 2008 console.

The console is laid out to focus on task-based operation rather than the underlying technologies which is a change from SBS 2003.

The administrator will be able to set up new users and groups via the Users and Groups tab for instance, rather than having to delve into the challenges of using the native Active Directory Users and Computers tool that would normally be required.

Performing all functions from the console makes it very simple for the administrator to deal with the day-to-day requirements of managing the network without needing to be a network expert.

Many “S” clients start off their business with no web presence and a simple one-person email address, often with their local ISP.

As a result they have no real presence on the Internet and it’s harder for them to command respect as such.

Dealing with a business that has email addresses in the form of @myisp.com.au (just an example) does not give the feeling that you are dealing with a significant organisation.

Microsoft knows from its support experience that one of the biggest challenges for a small business is establishing themselves with a valid Internet presence which normally includes their own domain name and website.

In response, SBS 2008 has wizards that will allow the administrator to go online and purchase a domain name of their choice from a group of domain name registrars and then link that to the SBS 2008 server.

SBS 2008 will then handle all the intricacies of configuring the Internet firewall/router that the customer has, and configuring DNS records automatically.

There is also the option to use SBS 2008 to configure your own company’s website using the Office Live services that Microsoft provides.

To do all of this, all you need to know is how to use your credit card. It is that simple.

Once the business has SBS 2008 set up and configured, it’s easy to add PCs to the network, with instructions provided on the SBS 2008 server.

The users on the network can add their computers by using a web browser and typing http://connect into the address bar. Wizards will then walk them through adding their computer to the network and configuring it to be linked to the SBS 2008 server’s security.

Once connected to the SBS 2008 server, the true power of SBS comes into play.

SBS 2008 can automatically monitor the security state of the connected computers and provide additional information to the SBS console.

Here on the SBS console you will be able to monitor the status of the individual computer updates, anti-virus/anti-malware software and firewall to ensure things remain secure.

You no longer need to worry about performing Windows Updates on the connected computers as SBS 2008 handles that automatically using default settings to ensure any critical or security updates are applied to PCs without user or administrator intervention.

SBS 2008 also provides increased resilience to disaster in the form of its enhanced back-up abilities.

Using the Windows Server 2008 back-up technology under the covers, SBS provides a wizard that allows the administrator to configure the back-up of the SBS 2008 server to a removable USB or firewire hard drives.

Back-up is done at a block level to provide massive speed improvements over that of the older file-based back-up software.

So fast is the back-up engine that you now have the option to configure it to perform back-ups as often as every 30 minutes.

To the business owner this means that in the event of a total server failure, they will only lose the last 29 minutes of work at most.

Recovery of the back-up to alternate hardware is also a big feature of the back-up within SBS that has been drawn out of the native Windows Server technology.

Naturally with these advances in the back-up engine there is a downside and that is the elimination of tape drive support in both Windows Server 2008 and SBS 2008.

Many resellers are concerned about this, but once they get a taste of how good the new back-up is they will realise that the advances are worth the sacrifices.

One other key area that Microsoft has worked on with SBS 2008 is the inclusion of customisable reports.

In SBS 2003, we had a single daily status report that was full of detail that would leave the average administrator’s head spinning.

In SBS 2008, Microsoft went back to the drawing board and created a specific monitoring and reporting engine for SBS 2008 that allows us to have customisable reports.

This is ideal as by simply checking a few tick boxes, I can create a report that includes only the back-up status information and have it sent to the business owner daily to show him that his back-up is running fine.

I can then create additional reports to send to the administrator or the IT support company that show detailed information about the server’s event logs, security status, email usage and other items.

Alert notifications for critical events such as low disk space on the server and the connected systems in the SBS network can also be configured to be emailed to those concerned.

Something not covered in the SBS console but is available for advanced administrators is the ability to create customised alerts to trigger on specific event log entries on the SBS 2008 server.

All of the above is simple for the average user to get up and running.

But what about the needs of an existing network with SBS 2003 on it? They will want to migrate over to SBS 2008 and given the 64-bit requirements of the new product, a migration is the only way to get there.

Microsoft has designed a process that utilises a combination of documentation and wizards to help the SMB IT professional/reseller to perform a migration for their customers.

This process involves some preparation work on the existing SBS 2003 server, and then building the SBS 2008 server into the domain using specific methods.

During the process the IT professional will perform a number of steps that will ultimately see all data, email and server roles transferred over to the SBS 2008 server.

Microsoft has provided a special patch for the SBS 2003 server that is installed in the preparation phase that allows the two SBS servers to co-exist in the network for a maximum period of 21 days to ensure that sufficient time is allowed to perform the migration.

From personal experience, whilst the migration process is documented, it is something that should not be taken lightly.

The SMB IT professional will need to ensure that the existing network is well prepared for the migration and ensure that they have good back-ups of the server during the process should anything unexpected arise.

That’s a fair bit of information on SBS 2008, in CRN’s upcoming issues we’ll take a look at the big brother product EBS 2008 in more detail.