Microsoft SBS (Small Business Server) has been around since the days of NT4, for about two decades, and many small businesses have relied on the integration of the various server software components in which to run their business. But, with the end of life support coming closer and Microsoft refusing to extend the life span, what options do small businesses need to think about if there are going to be no more security and software patch updates from Microsoft?
Why is it the end of SBS Server
Well, call me cynical, but Microsoft want to move you to their big brother software licensing model, which frankly earns them more money. By removing updates and support, it means businesses will want to move off SBS after July 2019, forcing many businesses into quick fix solutions costing far more than that need to pay. Think about this for a moment, your email was handled by Exchange (with Outlook as the software that users loved), and the database was SQL server (with custom software that the users related to and you ran your business with). If Microsoft make it difficult or expensive to replace small business server with an enterprise solution in house, you are likely to move data to their expensive cloud.
Email and database data.
Well, this is all very well for some small business, in moving the email data to the cloud, and perhaps just keep a plain Windows server for file sharing either in a domain or workgroup. With low prices at the moment for loads of mailbox space, this on the face of it solves the email volume issue. Nothing wrong in that, but you may ask, what happens to the bespoke business application that is running on the SQL server inside small business server? Do you move it to a SQL express version running elsewhere? Well there are issues in going down that road too. With a 1Gb data limit, the problem is that any established business over a decade old, will want to keep some form of historic information, and downsizing the data volume may be a big issue.
Bespoke Application Databases
So, Microsoft have shot themselves in the foot because it leaves many established businesses nowhere to turn to without some form of expense in servers and licensing. Well fear not, we think we have a more attractive and alternative option, so first, look at our pricing, and have a long hard think about the current bespoke business application you are running and if it needs any changes? Why not take the opportunity to update your software with no up front development costs and move that data into the cloud with us? This will remove any capital expenditure outlay on new servers too..! All in a flat rate monthly payment affordable to every business.
We can offer you…
A bespoke piece of software, written with no up front payments, simply rent the software from us, and run our software modules on our server cluster, hosted, backed up, secure, always on. It completely solves the retirement of small business server for nearly all business currently running bespoke business software and SQL databases. So, now you already know the monthly cost, simply call us now for an informal chat, and discuss some pathway options.
