subject: What Is The Windows Small Business Server? [print this page] Microsoft's small business server (now known as the Windows Small Business server) software suite is a tool specifically aimed at the needs of SMEs.
Small to medium sized enterprises often have very different software and network needs than larger organisations. Largely this is due to the difference in scale; a large organisation with hundreds of workstations requires an extremely robust network infrastructure, which in turn requires a fairly powerful standard of hardware. For many SMEs this isn't just impractical, it's entirely unaffordable.
Still, only the tiniest of businesses could ever operate with a consumer-grade network. Whilst a simple station-to-station office network may be feasible for businesses with less than twenty workstations, in practise it would likely cause significant problems in terms of both resource management and the cost of proprietary licenses.
Using a server allows small businesses to get the benefits of remote access, application serving technologies, intranet management and controlled internet access - which is what Window's Small Business Server (SBS) offers. Designed for running the network infrastructure for SME's with no more than 20 workstations or users, SBS allows small businesses to take advantage of their smaller premises through features such as a shared Fax service or opens up the possibilities of networked working whilst streamlining network management.
On a technical level, the Small Business Server is a customised operating system for the central server that tightly integrates many of the features commonly bundled with a server OS. By integrating these features the OS is limited to a certain range of capabilities - but offers a much more stable infrastructure than otherwise, meaning that management can be handled almost entirely through the packaged management console within the SBS package.
One of the key benefits that the SBS package offers SMEs is the ability to access their business intranet from any location, from their desktop to their email or the applications installed on the server. Usefully, it's also a scalable, compatible software system; it's relatively easy for managers to add users to the system or install new applications or even new servers.
