Price explosion due to end of Microsoft Small Business Server

Microsoft Server 2012: Interest in alternatives grows among dealers and customers

With its successor to the Small Business Server (SBS) published last week, Windows Server 2012 Essentials, Microsoft has transferred important messaging and groupware functions to the cloud. Small and medium-sized companies who use this have reacted sceptically though: they want to be able to decide for themselves whether and which services they procure from the cloud. If they want to be able to continue operating their data and services themselves, they will have to dig considerably deeper in their pockets with Microsoft Server 2012. Consequently, market observers have noted a sudden increased interest in more cost-effective alternatives to the new Windows server version.

Bremen, 25.09.2012 Windows Server 2012, just released by Microsoft as the successor to the Small Business Server (SBS), will mean both structural and financial burdens for many companies that previously employed a Small Business Server. With the new Windows Server, Microsoft has transferred central functions essential for small and medium-sized companies such as groupware and sharepoint services to the Microsoft Cloud. Those wishing to continue to use these components will have to purchase the licenses for them separately or purchase Exchange as a cloud service. Consequently, this change will result in a massive price increase for smaller and medium-sized companies: If companies wish to continue to store their data locally, they will require additional licenses in the future and more server hardware for a separate Exchange and SQL database server. In addition, with the new SBS successor, you can employ a maximum of only 25 clients although the Small Business Server allowed operation of up to 75 client licenses. That all translates to four or five times the previous license costs for many companies.

“Small Business Server customers who previously paid between 2,000 and 2,500 euros for 25 clients on the server side can expect to pay between 10,000 and 12,000 euros as of 2012 if they want to keep on operating their data servers, groupware, sharepoint and backup and security software locally”, said Oliver Klarmann, an IT consultant from Frankfurt, who advises a large number of companies that use SBS and is now looking for alternatives to the Microsoft Server 2012 for his customers.

After all, many of his customers do not want to have to bind themselves to the Microsoft cloud for their groupware services. This consensus is also confirmed by hundreds of reader comments in reaction to the Heise article “Windows Server 2012: No Enterprise, Small Business and Home Server” published on Heise online at the beginning of July. The reactions in the contributions show that small and medium-sized companies are generally hesitant when it comes to cloud offers or at least are not willing to bind themselves to the Microsoft cloud. Naturally, they understand the advantages in terms of cost efficiency and resource efficiency, but they want to preserve their freedom of choice when it comes to the cloud service provider and control over the data. However, the alternatives on offer from Microsoft are much too expensive and complicated.

Peter H. Ganten, Managing Director of Univention, a company offering Open Source alternatives to the server products from Microsoft confirmed that: “For many organisations it is decisive to be able to decide for themselves which services should be stored on the cloud. At the same time, it is important to preserve control over the data and services and have the possibility of switching between offers at any time.”

Univention has also noted considerably increased interest in alternatives to the Small Business Server from Microsoft, primarily among dealers and system integrators. "We believe that many users have not even realised yet what the changes to the Microsoft portfolio mean for them”, said Ganten interpreting this observation. According to the Bremen-based software manufacturer, the Univention product Univention Corporate Server (UCS), which enjoys particular popularity in German-speaking countries, offers previous SBS customers everything they need for the operation, integration and administration of IT infrastructures and server services including, as in the case of the virtualization components, many things that need to be purchased and managed separately when cooperating with other providers. As the product also includes the Active Directory domain services which are important for the operation of Windows PCs, computers with Microsoft Windows can be just as easily operated with UCS as with Microsoft products. UCS also allows the operation of groupware and document management systems on the cloud, but users can decide for themselves whether and which services they want to operate with which cloud provider. Free test versions are available to download on the Univention website: http://www.univention.de/en/download/. There is also a wide range of applications certified for UCS available including groupware solutions like Zarafa and Open-Xchange as well as document management systems such as agorum with their own integration packages.

Further information

Article on end of SBS on Heise.de (German):
http://www.heise.de/ix/meldung/Windows-Server-2012-Kein-Enterprise-Small-Business-und-Home-Server-1633507.html

Product information on UCS:
http://www.univention.de/en/products/ucs/

Domain management with UCS:
http://www.univention.de/en/ucs-solutions/ucs-domain-management/

Cloud service management with UCS:
http://www.univention.de/en/ucs-solutions/it-infrastructure-for-the-cloud/

Information on the groupware solutions certified for UCS:
http://www.univention.de/en/ucs-solutions/ucs-and-groupware/

About Univention
Univention is a leading European provider of Open Source products for the cost-efficient operation and effective administration of IT infrastructures. At the heart of our offer is the Linux infrastructure solution Univention Corporate Server (UCS). UCS is a modern enterprise Linux distribution with an integrated Open Source solution for identity and infrastructure management, which makes efficient, centrally controlled administration possible even in challenging environments. The core product UCS is complemented with, among other things, products building on it for the cross-platform administration of thin clients, support of Linux desktops and an integrated server and desktop virtualisation solution. Thanks to the supplied connectors, the products are ideal for use with for example the Microsoft Active Directory, integrate perfectly in existing infrastructures and allow simple migration. A large number of software producers offer optimised packages for operation with UCS, which can be integrated in the UCS management system among other things. UCS is thus the Open Source integration platform for IT infrastructure operation and management.

Univention GmbH
Silvia Frank
E-mail: frank@univention.de

Mary-Somerville-Straße 1
28359 Bremen
Germany

Telephone: +49 (0)421 22232 - 0
Fax: +49 (0)421 22232 – 99
http://www.univention.de

This release was published on openPR.