https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Tech Services Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • MSP 501 Information Center
    • 2021 MSP 501 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Top Gun 51
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Tech Services Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • MSP 501 Information Center
    • 2021 MSP 501 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Top Gun 51
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Agents
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • Channel Partners Events
 Channel Futures

Cloud


Time to Unplug Microsoft Small Business Server?

  • Written by The VAR Guy 1
  • July 9, 2008

The VAR Guy isn’t going to make many friends with this blog post. He thinks Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) is past its prime. Even as Microsoft gears up this November to ship SBS 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008, our resident blogger wonders: Do small businesses really want on-site servers with all that software?

First, a little background. The VAR Guy spent 2006 and 2007 working for a 15-person company in New York. Aside from a file-and-print server, there wasn’t much need for an on-site email server or database server.

Unless you have specific vertical-market apps that you need to run in-house, the time is right for small businesses to start outsourcing as many applications as possible to a service provider. Over on MSPMentor (our sister site), managed service provider Nick Vossburg of TechAssist posted a comment on July 7 that stated:

“If your business’s focus is maintaining and supporting Microsoft networks, then be prepared for a market that may not exist in 10 years.” (Be sure to read Nick’s entire post for proper context.)

Nick has a point. But The VAR Guy thinks the shift away from network- and server-centric projects in small business will occur much more rapidly.

With the rise of hosted Exchange, on-demand CRM and even hosted databases, more and more small businesses don’t want the hassle of running and maintaining their own servers, The VAR Guy asserts. (In fact, The VAR Guy believes Microsoft will ultimately succeed in the Software as a Service market.)

Is Small Business Server truly dead? Admittedly, that’s quite a stretch by our outspoken blogger. Software, after all, never really dies. How else can you explain the thousands (millions?) of people still running OS/2, NetWare, Windows 98 and other legacy platforms?

Sure, SBS 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 will enjoy their share of sales. In fact, sales may even grow for a couple more years. Even the open source industry is following Microsoft into the small business server market. But real VARs have their heads in the cloud.

Tags: Agents Cloud Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Cloud

Most Recent


  • Grabber machine
    Converge Technology Solutions Snaps Up PC Specialists
    This is the California-based company’s 31st acquisition.
  • Ingram Micro Cloud Summit: From the Expo Floor
    "By gaining access to an ecosystem of partners, we’ll put distribution at the center of our channel strategy,” summit participants said.
  • Old job new job
    Exclusive: Zoom Channel Leader Laura Padilla Takes New Role with Airtable
    Airtable's valuation reached $11 billion in December.
  • Accelerating revenue
    Barracuda: MSP Revenue Accelerating in 2022, Increasing Demand Creating Challenges
    Security remains the biggest concern for customers and the greatest revenue opportunity for MSPs.

9 comments

  1. Avatar Tristan Rhodes July 9, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
    Reply

    I agree – SaaS offers a much better choice for small businesses. These business don’t have IT staff, so they know that the SaaS vendor will do a better job than their tech-savvy cousin Freddie. Small businesses will not be able to afford great redundancy, and may also neglect to backup their data. All of these issues are taken care of by the SaaS vendor.

    Lastly, many micro-businesses can operate sans servers simply by using free online services like Google Apps.

  2. Avatar Joe Panettieri July 9, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
    Reply

    Thanks Tristan. I know this is a tricky decision for VARs and their customers. One size certainly doesn’t fit all. But I would try SaaS first before buying a big piece of hardware with loads of memory and on-site applications that need to be configured, managed, etc.

    A lot of SaaS apps are still in their infancy. But items like email and CRM certainly work fine in the SaaS world.

  3. Avatar Alex July 10, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
    Reply

    Well I would like to give my opinion on this issue. A couple of months ago we were approached by The Planet for their Small Business Server 2003 Hosting. They allowed up to test a demo server. We got it set up and it was working fine. Well apparantly they had isses in their data center and their hosted SBS server were affected greatly. We cant get our reports and we are constantly getting processor alerts and many other alerts. I wonder if we would have moved all of our clients servers that we monitor now, what kind of problems we would have. I cant even remote into the server now and I cant get any support from them. I was told the Planet was one of the biggest data centers there was. I have asked my clients if they would like a hosted model, all of them said NO! They have peace of mind that their data is there and that we are watching over the backups! Now I will agree with the hosted Exhange and CRM, because we have clients on them now. Just my two cents for what it is worth.

  4. Avatar Rajesh Kothari July 11, 2008 @ 11:06 am
    Reply

    Just check this development. IBM has bought a canadian company called Net Integration Technologies. They are selling licensed Linux called ‘NITIX’. They have been fairly successful in getting a good hold in SMB market for last 9 years due to ease of installation, configuration and daily operations – called ‘autonomic’ computing. It automatically takes backups in the background, has built in firewall, router, antivirus, antispam, file server, print server, database. It is priced per user. Check it out. IBM seems serious about serving SMB market with NITIX acquisition.

  5. Avatar The VAR Guy July 11, 2008 @ 11:11 am
    Reply

    ibm made that deal earlier this year. now part of lotus

  6. Avatar Doug Steinschneider July 12, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
    Reply

    Our business focuses on providing very small businesses advanced technologies including CRM, collaboration tools, mobile computing and remote access at the best price possible. The result is a mix of on-premise and SaaS – licensing vs. subscription value is a big part of the decision. I believe that on-premise costs have dropped dramatically due to a combination of lower hardware prices and managed services. In many cases we find the SaaS pricing very steep once you factor in all the accessory pricing such as storage, API etc. Salesforce is a good example, to really make the product sing it costs $195/user per month – more if you want Blackberry access. We can deploy an on-premise equivalent (MS Dynamics CRM) for much less including disaster recovery and server management.

  7. Avatar The VAR Guy July 12, 2008 @ 9:08 pm
    Reply

    @Doug: Your point about the total cost of ownership for on-premise Microsoft Dynamics CRM being lower than an off-site solution is interesting. How long has your company been supporting MS Dynamics CRM? How many customers are running it? The VAR Guy would love to hear more and is very interested in your perspectives.

  8. Avatar Doug Steinschneider July 16, 2008 @ 2:11 pm
    Reply

    Good questions as my post is counter-intuitive. Most of my CRM implementations are extensively customized GoldMine systems. I’ve only migrated 2 customers over to MS Dynamics CRM. These customers already have SBS 2003 and SQL 2005 in place running on HP ML350s. They outsource all IT management to us for a flat monthly fee based on server and workstation count. We backup using StorageCraft for on premise backup and Data Deposit Box for offsite backup and WSUS 3 for automated patching (definitions). The work increase increment caused by maintaining MS Dynamics CRM hasn’t been much.

    I did some cost comparison and realized that MS will price their subscriptions under the on premise cost. Hosted Exchange, SharePoint and MS Dynamics CRM is a better value than a properly managed on premise system so I agree with your blog post. I also agree that MS should thrive in SaaS markets.

    This will benefit our company as our goal is to deliver advanced technology at affordable prices. We got into IT infrastructure support because our small business customers were trying to do it themselves which caused problems for our CRM implementations.

  9. Avatar Home business July 22, 2008 @ 2:09 am
    Reply

    Thanks Tristan. I know this is a tricky decision for VARs and their customers. One size certainly doesn’t fit all. But I would try SaaS first before buying a big piece of hardware with loads of memory and on-site applications that need to be configured, managed, etc.

    A lot of SaaS apps are still in their infancy. But items like email and CRM certainly work fine in the SaaS world.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Conflict Boxing Gloves
    Channel Conflict, Controversy: SolarWinds Hack, Racism, Layoffs, Zoom-RingCentral
  • DevSecOps
    ServiceNow, Microsoft Set to Deliver Broad SecOps Integration
  • kicking down obstacles
    IBM, Microsoft ‘Helping Eliminate Obstacles’ for Developers
  • Data management platform
    IBM Acquires Catalogic Software's Copy Data Management Business

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Europe

June 14, 2022 - June 15, 2022

MSP Summit

September 13, 2022 - September 16, 2022

Galleries

View all

Ingram Micro Cloud Summit: From the Expo Floor

May 20, 2022

What Does TSB Consolidation Mean for Vendors? Channel Reacts to PlanetOne-Avant Deal

May 19, 2022

The Gately Report: BlackBerry Ups Investment, Support of MSSP Partners

May 19, 2022

Industry Perspectives

View all

How SD-WAN Helps Secure the Expanding Network Perimeter

May 19, 2022

A Sneak Peek at the 2022 BrightCloud Threat Report

May 17, 2022

Build Customers for Life with CX and Lifecycle Selling

May 16, 2022

Webinars

View all

Simplifying SaaS Security for MSPs

April 27, 2022

How to Supercharge The Network to Support Your IT Superhero Moves

May 3, 2022

The 2022 MSP Challenge: Scale Service Delivery Despite the Talent Gap

April 21, 2022

White Papers

View all

The New Bottom Line: How MSPs Can Meet the Healthcare Crisis While Evolving Their Businesses

April 19, 2022

How to build a Security Operations Center (on a budget)

April 4, 2022

The AT&T Cybersecurity Incident Response Toolkit

April 4, 2022

Channel Futures TV

View all

AT&T, Microsoft, Cisco, ThreatLocker on Unlocking Partner Potential

Agents Share ‘Secrets,’ Industry Opportunity

May 11, 2022

Vonage Addresses Potential Partner Opportunity via Acquisition by Ericsson

May 5, 2022

Lumen Technologies ‘Built for Growth and Scale’

May 4, 2022

Twitter

ChannelFutures

.@barracuda seeing huge shift to managed services among partners at #discover22 dlvr.it/SQmR1y https://t.co/driODezzpS

May 20, 2022
ChannelFutures

.@ConvergeTSC has just announced the acquisition of PC Specialists (@TIGConnect). dlvr.it/SQmMqK https://t.co/suLrTFx1W1

May 20, 2022
ChannelFutures

Photos from Expo @IngramMicroInc Cloud Summit for @pluralsight, @Vonage, @CloudCt4, @watchguard, @TenableSecurity,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

May 20, 2022
ChannelFutures

.@Zoom channel leader @LauraPadillaSF has taken a new role with @airtable. dlvr.it/SQm6pd https://t.co/R71QtFlwwy

May 20, 2022
ChannelFutures

Was Cisco right to blame "external factors" for its latest numbers? @zkerravala, @AnuragTechaisle, @OmdiaHQ and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

May 20, 2022
ChannelFutures

The deal between @Avant_CCC and @PlanetOneComm comes at a critical juncture in the channel, as vendors envision dea… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

May 19, 2022
ChannelFutures

.@QNAP_nas warns of #ransomware attack on storage devices. dlvr.it/SQhjs3 https://t.co/2FL32Zh5Be

May 19, 2022
ChannelFutures

We're excited to announce that @Alvinstafford of @thinktrue_ & @MorganGranfield of @digitalrealty will be on the pa… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

May 19, 2022

MSSP Insider

Business advice for MSSPs and news from the broader security channel.

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Galleries

Educational slide shows and images from live events.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Events
  • Telecoms.com
  • MSP 501
  • Black Hat
  • IoT World Today
  • Omdia

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X