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Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Releases to Manufacturing

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[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Curtis Lee, Director, Server and Cloud Marketing ]

“Microsoft provides that forward thinking that I use in my company every day with our client design solutions. ” --Stan Bovetz, President of Frost Engineering Service Co N.W

Hello everyone,

It’s customer feedback like that from Stan Bovetz that keeps the SBS team motivated and excited, especially as we now have the pleasure of announcing the release to manufacturing of Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard edition and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Premium Add-on.

As you are reading this we are making the final steps to bring the product to the market so that you can acquire throughout our large network of partners. We are finalizing international versions, delivering the product to distribution channels and handing it off to our OEM partners so that they can begin pre-installing the software on new servers. Starting in early January, you will find SBS 2011 Standard and Premium Add-On in volume licensing, and from mid-January you will be able to download a trial copy from our website.

Designed and priced for small businesses with up to 75 users, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard delivers enterprise-class server technology in an affordable, all-in-one solution. Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard not only helps to protect, access, and manage your information from virtually anywhere, but also allows your business to be more productive by providing:

  • A great way to manage email with the powerful new Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 SP1 . Securely access and manage your communications—e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more—from virtually any platform, Web-browser, or device .
  • A powerful collaboration suite with Microsoft SharePoint® Foundation Services 2010 . Enable your employees to access and share your business documents with exciting features and capabilities that help you collaborate securely online—no matter where you are.
  • A rich platform to run your business applications. SBS 2011 Standard allows you to take advantage of the vast library of applications compatible with Windows Server 2008R2 technologies.
  • A simple installation/migration path to limit your downtime. SBS 2011 Standard has been designed to simplify the experience of upgrading or installing a new server.

If you have limited IT resources but still need to run a large number of applications, you should consider using the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Premium Add On to complement your SBS 2011 Standard deployment. Because the Premium Add-on includes SQL Server 2008 R2 for Small Businesses, it offers a dedicated, highly effective data management solution to run those applications that require a centralized database and shared information among users. Also with the Premium Add-on you have access to technologies like Hyper-V or Remote Desktop Services that Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard provides.

Our early adopters are already reaping the benefits that SBS 2011 Standard brings, including ease of migration from earlier versions, as well as its great features.

As Stan Bovetz, President of Frost Engineering Service Co N.W says “We have found the migration of the new SBS to be much more trouble free than we anticipated. I would call it seamless. Our personnel did not even know it had happened. Microsoft provides that forward thinking that I use in my company every day with our client design solutions. ”

Jim Davidson, General Manager of Bellevue Towers is also excited about the product. “Bellevue Towers selected Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 Standard to meet our needs for better information sharing and simpler communications. We have multiple system users with varied skill levels, and we have found the system intuitive and easy to use. Having uniform documents, communication tools, and file sharing available 24/7 is helping us meet our customer service goals and increasing the efficiency of community management.”

These products could not go to market without the important support and contribution from our long term-partners, We have received support from many of our key OEM partners like Acer, Dell, Fujitsu and HP just to name a few, and from ISV’s like Kaspersky and Symantec. To them go our thanks.

Last but not least, I want to thank the rest our partners, our MVP’s, and the thousands of participants to the beta program for their tremendous efforts, passion and help in bringing this product to market.

If you want to learn more in details about the multiple ways your business can benefit from Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Edition, please visit our webpage here, download the brochure or contact one of our Microsoft partners (you can find here one located near you). We gladly welcome comments about what features you find exciting about Windows Small Business Server 2011 and what your plans are to use it. Please feel free to add below in the comments session of this blog.

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