Microsoft Small Business Server 2003

Features of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003

Small Business Server 2003 is not a single application. Rather, it is a collection of Microsoft technologies--all installed on a single server. Ostensibly, it competes with other server suites targeted at small business, such as Apple's Mac OS X Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES, but SBS offers more-extensive features and tighter integration among the applications and services.

SBS is available in two editions: Standard and Premium. Standard Edition, with five client-access licenses, costs $599. Premium Edition, with the same number of users, sells for $1,499. You can purchase additional client licenses for $99 a pop. Microsoft offers upgrade pricing for customers moving from previous versions or from Standard to Premium to standalone versions of Microsoft server applications. But buying it all together saves money. For instance, a 50-user network consisting of standalone Microsoft server applications would cost at least $6,500 if purchased separately, compared to about $5,000 using SBS.

The core of SBS is Windows Server 2003 which provides the platform for Windows SharePoint Services, Exchange Server 2003, Shared Fax services, server backup, and Routing and Remote Access Services, including a firewall. The Premium Edition adds ISA Server 2000 for more complete firewall protection, SQL Server 2000, and Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. With both versions, every user gets a copy of Microsoft Outlook 2003.

From the end user's perspective, SBS delivers Exchange-based e-mail, calendars, and contact lists that can be shared with other users; file sharing and network printing; and a preconfigured intranet site using SharePoint. The SharePoint collaboration tools can be used from any Web browser, but the service is also tightly integrated with Microsoft Office 2003. SBS provides several tools for remote users, including Outlook Web Access for checking Exchange mail from any PC with an Internet connection, a virtual private networking (VPN) client, and Remote Web Workplace.

Build an instant intranet with the included SharePoint portal services, one of several features you won't find in the competition.

Despite its long list of features, SBS still leaves a few holes that small businesses will need to address, most notably antivirus and spam-blocking tools. Exchange does a good job of filtering attachments, keeping viruses and Trojan horses off users' PCs, but you'll still need to protect the server itself; most major antivirus vendors such as McAfee, Symantec, and Panda have server-based solutions for small business.

The best way to deal with spam is to use the excellent junk-mail filter in Outlook 2003. But the filter works only after the mail has been delivered to the client (in other words, it requires cached mode) and not on the server, so it is useless when accessing mail remotely using Outlook Web Access. One solution is to add a server-based spam filter such as iHateSpam, which works with SBS. (Microsoft has promised its own server-based spam filtering around the middle of the year. It should be a free upgrade.)