Microsoft Readies Next Two Small Business Server Releases

While it's readying a new midmarket server, Microsoft is continuing to enhance Windows Small Business Server. Expect an SBS R2 release in 2006 and a 'Cougar' SBS update in 2007.

While Microsoft Corp. is preparing its midmarket marketing onslaught, the company is not forgoing its small-business push.

Microsoft is expected to roll out a new Windows Midmarket Server bundle at a business summit for midmarket customers on Sept. 7. Although the midmarket server is not expected to ship until 2007, according to sources, Microsoft will talk up its plans for the new Windows Small Business Server (SBS) equivalent, sources added.

In the interim, SBS isn't vegetating. Microsoft has two new SBS releases due out in the next two years, according to information provided by Microsoft to its partners.

SBS is a bundle of several different server-based products. Included in the SBS 2003 version are Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, SQL Server 2000, Exchange Server 2003 and ISA Server 2000. The product comes in two flavors: Standard and Premium.

Earlier this summer, Microsoft rolled out its first service pack update for SBS 2003. Next on the Redmond software's SBS agenda is SBS R2, an interim release of SBS that will be based on the Windows Server 2003 R2 operating system build that is due to ship before the end of this year. The SBS R2 version is due out in the first half of 2006.

New features set to be included in SBS R2 include integration of SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition, Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and SharePoint Services Service Pack 2 into the bundle. The R2 version will add support for mailbox sizes of up to 75GB, as well as support for automatic RPC over HTTP setup. Microsoft also is working to improve patch management for the product with the SBS R2 release, according to Microsoft.