Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server
Microsoft have now announced the offical lauch date for the latest 2008 product set, Small Business Server 2008 and the all new Essential Business Server. These are scheduled for official release on November 12 2008 however it will make it’s way into the channel soon before that so server manufactures can begin to bring it into their product set.
The diagram above shows the fundamental differences between Small Business Server 2008 Standard and Premium editions. One important changes that they have made is that Client Access Licenses (CALS) can now be purchases as single licenses as well as the previous 5 packs. The premium edition also adds an additional Windows Server 2008 license. Another change is the system requirements which are in-line with Windows Server 2008 which means in summary:
Processor: 2Ghz (x64 Processor)
Memory: 4GB Minimum
Disk Space: 60GB Minimum
Essential Business Server (EBS) is one of the new product offerings from Microsoft. Small Business Server 2008 still maintains the license limit from previous versions of 75 users however EBS allows up to 300 licenses which will help bridge the gap for those businesses that are slightly too big for SBS but not really big enough to afford the full license model. As you can see from the diagram above it also includes Windows Server 2008 licenses for 3 servers with the standard version and 4 servers in premium edition.
More information to follow as it becomes available.