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Announcing Windows SBS Codename Aurora Preview Availability

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[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Kevin Kean from the SBS Product Team]

I (we) am(are) incredibly excited to announce that the preview of Windows Small Business Server Codename “Aurora” is available for download!

Windows Small Business Server Codename “Aurora” is part of the next generation of our award winning Windows Small Business Server, and represents a significant departure from our traditional fully on premise model. Aurora extends the ease of use of our traditional SBS products while simultaneously being a great platform for small businesses wanting to combine traditional and cloud computing.

We believe that most small businesses need a server; however not all of them know it yet. This is why we designed Aurora to be the ideal first server solution for those millions of Small Businesses worldwide who have less than 25 users and who are using a peer to peer network or have no network at all.

For these businesses, Windows Small Business Server Codename “Aurora” provides a cost-effective and easy-to-use way to simplify computing infrastructure, reduce cost and spend more time focusing on core business’ needs.

Aurora offers small businesses the help they need to ensure their data is safe through advanced backup and file restoration features. Aurora’s users can quickly set automatic, daily backups of every personal computer on the network. If problems with those files arise, small businesses can restore individual files, folders, or an entire PC or server with simple recovery tools.

In addition, Aurora gives users the power to utilize their files and documents to solve business challenges even when they’re away from the office. Using a personalized web address, Aurora’s users will also be able connect to the server from virtually anywhere and access their computers and documents from any common web browser.

Finally Aurora offers our customers the possibility to run their critical line of business applications on a stable, reliable platform based on Windows Server 2008 R2.

If these on premise functionalities are not enough, Windows Small Business Server Codename “Aurora” is a true “bridge to the cloud” designed to integrate between on-premise and online services and to use pay-as-you-go online services to extend the server functionality without increasing workload and maintenance needs. To learn more about the next version of Windows Small Business Server Code Name “Aurora”, visit our SBS site.

The preview build of this release is available on our connect site and can be downloaded now. If you haven’t already signed up for the preview, you can visit our connect site and get signed up. We have setup a connect feedback form to capture your feedback, bugs and suggestions as well as a newsgroup where you can discuss the preview with other testers.

For those interested in developing add-ons for “Aurora”, we have also posted a version of our Windows Server Solutions SDK. The SDK can also be found on our connect site in the download section.

For Windows Small Business Server Code Name “Aurora,” the SDK provides a toolset to extend the platform, develop server and client add-ins, and provides customized interoperability with cloud services. Partners can use this to easily develop the Windows Small Business Server Code Name “Aurora” integration components for new and existing cloud services.

The SDK provides the following content:

  • API references that help you understand all the API elements that can be used to extend and manage Windows Small Business Server Code Name “Aurora”
  • How-to documents that help you to understand how to build add-ins
  • Templates that help you build add-ins with Visual Studio 2008
  • Samples that provide examples of complete add-ins

We are very excited about Aurora. Please: join the site, download the preview and start testing with us! We look forward to hearing from you.

Kevin Kean
General Manager
Windows Home and Small Business Servers

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    How I can give access to downloading of the distribution kit of Aurora? In my dashboard on a site connect.microsoft.com there is no point Download.

  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2010
    Any idea when the SBS 7 preview will be there as well?

  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2010
    When can we expect to see SBS 7 code?

  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2010
    We announced at WPC that we would have Aurora and SBS7 previews released by the end of August.  We are still on track for this for SBS7 - thanks for your interest, and I will hope to get it into your hands for testing as soon as we can. Michael Leworthy Senior Technical Product Manager - Windows Server SMB Microsoft Corportation

  • Anonymous
    August 18, 2010
    Looks promising, however there is only one official MS online business productivity suite (hosted exchange/sharepoint) provider in Australia at the moment and thats Telstra who aren't reknowned for for competative pricing.  Hopefully more will come online.  Have got the beta but it needs installing on modern hardware so will install it on some new kit later this week.

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2010
    interesting post on windows small business servers. thanks for sharing.

  • Anonymous
    December 02, 2015
    The comment has been removed