Small Business Server Licensing, Promotions

Discounts on Small Business Server (SBS) 2000 upgrades and extension of an incentive for channel partners are designed to promote sales of Microsoft’s server suite for small companies.

SBS 2000 is a bundle of Microsoft server products that is limited to no more than 50 users. It includes Windows 2000 Server, Exchange 2000, SQL Server 2000, and Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000. It also includes software for sharing faxes and modems. The volume price of the basic product, including five Client Access Licenses (CALs), is US$1,299.

Beginning May 1, new SBS 2000 purchases are eligible for steep discounts on Software Assurance (SA), which confers upgrade rights for any versions of SBS released in the next two years. The US$99 price for SA on new purchases (SA cannot be purchased for already-owned products) is an 85% discount off the regular SA price of US$649.

The promotion will be attractive to many customers considering SBS 2000: Microsoft could release an updated version of SBS within the next two years that includes Windows Server 2003, a new version of Exchange that will be released in summer 2003, and a new version of SQL Server likely to be released in 2004. Those who paid the US$99 upgrade fee could get the new version for no additional cost.