Essential Business Server Targets Midsize Market

Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 uses Windows Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2007 as the base for a secure infrastructure for messaging, collaboration, and line-of-business applications. As the flagship product of Microsoft’s new Windows Essential Server Solutions family, EBS 2008 targets midsize businesses that have a dedicated administrator for IT tasks. Although it should be easy for even an inexperienced IT administrator to install and configure EBS, especially when compared to creating a similar infrastructure from the component stand-alone server products, running and maintaining EBS still requires an experienced administrator.

A Multiserver Standard Edition

EBS 2008 provides midsize businesses with a turnkey infrastructure, including file and print, messaging, and collaboration services, for 300 or fewer users. The limit positions EBS as an entry-level solution for the 1.2 million midsize businesses worldwide with between 50 and 5,000 employees and 500 to 1,000 computers. Like its sibling, Small Business Server (SBS), EBS offers both Standard and Premium Editions. Unlike SBS 2008 Standard Edition, which requires one server, EBS 2008 Standard Edition uses three servers to split the infrastructure workload onto Management, Security, and Messaging Servers.