Announced back in February, previewed and priced in May, the business products built on Windows Server 2008 from the Windows Essential Server Solutions product line (all-in-one IT solutions designed for small and midsize businesses) now have a release date. Windows Small Business Server 2008 (for up to 75 PCs) and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (for up to 300 PCs) will be released on November 12, 2008, Steven VanRoekel, senior director of the Windows Server Solutions group at Microsoft, said today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.
The announcement comes as the Release Candidate 1 milestone for both products is almost finished. Those interested in prerelease versions of Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 can still sign up to download and evaluate them.
VanRoekel also took the time to reveal that "AMD, Dell, HP, IBM, and Intel are all demonstrating systems at the Worldwide Partner Conference this week. Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Wortmann AG in Europe also plan to deliver products built on both of the solutions. HP, IBM and Intel are integrating their hardware management software with Essential Business Server."
Software development kits and other resources will be available to software vendors via sources like MSDN, and of course products and software currently compatible with Server 2008 should work just fine with Windows SBS 2008 and Windows ESB 2008. In the next year, Microsoft will be training more than 25,000 partners through events and online tools.
Microsoft is putting a lot on the line with the launch of these two products, and this doesn't come as a big surprise if you remember how big the small and midsize business market is and how steadily it is growing. See the interview with VanRoekel below for more insight on Microsoft's plan to move into this niche.
Source: arstechnica.com/journals
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