All-in-one server for SMEs

Pro

What is Microsoft Small Business Server anyway? Because it is a network product with none of the glamour of individual applications – or even the various editions of Windows that have been making headline news for the past decade – most business people who have not had some occasion to learn about it probably haven’t a notion what it is or does. So here goes: What Windows is to the individual PC, Small Business Server is to the office network. Now that’s not entirely accurate from a technical perspective, but it will do for the moment.

Windows is both an operating system in the old and basic sense and a set of commonly required applications. It controls all of the internal operations of the computer, processor and hard drive and screen and keyboard. It also looks after communications with peripherals like printers and scanners and external data storage. But on top of that set of engineering or device controls Windows has from the beginning added what are definitely applications that a general user might require – think of the clock and time zone settings, for example, or the notepad, address book, calculator and other functions or accessories. As time went on Microsoft added, crucially, the Internet Explorer Web browser and Outlook e-mail and communications tool. The clear objective was and is to give users so much in one package, all tightly integrated out of the same stable, that there would be little need to go elsewhere. The Microsoft Office suite dominates the market in turn largely because of its total integration with its elder sibling.

Now Microsoft Small Business Server 2000, the current edition, is very like Windows. Because it is based on Windows 2000 Server to run the mechanics of a local area network together with a range of other applications and functionality on top to handle most of what Microsoft has decided are the principal or standard requirements of a small business today. It simply aims to be a ‘one size fits all’ box with a lot of tricks.

Windows 2000 Server is the network operating system that is generally recognised as the most stable and powerful that Microsoft has yet produced in the Windows line of products. It runs the network server and enables users to share files, equipment and applications. It also manages the all-important data security functions like RAID and automated back-up to tape or other medium. In today’s wired world, it is taken for granted that every business will be Internet-enabled. So the next SBS platform is Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000 (ISA), which does what it says. The users on the LAN – or your employees – can access the Internet securely and – very importantly these days – the same people or others can securely access the home network over the Internet from any computer anywhere using the technique of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN is essentially a private connection over the public Internet that is secure because it is ‘invisible’ to all but the most serious hacker and, in any case, it is encrypted. All kinds of teleworking and remote access are now made possible.

What do you want?

Your business will want a Website, of course, so the box includes Front Page 2000 so that you can design and build your site or just publish information to it. If you wanted your customers to be able to look at information, like their own accounts or orders in progress, Internet Information Service 5.0 (IIS) is the tool. You could then host the Website yourself, given the in-built SBS security, although you would need a 24/7 Internet connection, which would be over the top for most small companies. But with your site hosted by an ISP such as Eircom.net you can use the tools to update and maintain it with minimal need for special skills or training. The actual Internet connection can go from simple dial-up by modem to ISDN and ADSL all the way to a leased line. The SBS kit will run any of them with appropriate security.

In some ways the stars of the SBS show are Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and its Outlook 2000 individual clients. These make up a total communications suite that embraces e-mail, address book and diary/calendar/file exchange between all users in the organisation as well as external e-mail, fax, etc. With them you can manage anything from simple “Are you free for Wed 9am meeting?” memos to colleagues to all-group communications to video-conferencing. Customers and suppliers and partners can easily be included in the communications chain if you wish. ‘Virtual project teams’ are becoming almost commonplace, with members in different places and organisations and even time zones working effectively together using this kind of technology.

Finally, SBS includes SQL Server 2000, one of the most powerful and customisable database engines on the market which enables a business to develop unique solutions for its specific requirements.

Builder buys SBS

O’Malley Construction of Galway is one of the leading builders in the West of Ireland, with a 30 year track record and over 300 employees on its current payroll. The firm has built almost 8,000 housing units in the Galway area in that time. It invested in Microsoft Small Business Server just 18 months ago on the advice and assistance of its IT consultants Evolve Computing. “We had a lot of needs we wanted to deal with but e-mail was certainly high on the priority list,” says O’Malley QA Manager and ‘de facto’ IT manager David Casserly. “But we also wanted to upgrade our network and its functions including safe back-up and file and print sharing here in head office.” With no IT staff in-house and a busy team of 11 daily users, the company wanted as powerful and comprehensive a system as it could get, on a reasonable budget and with as little ongoing need of outside help as possible.

So Evolve proposed and sold SBS, which has served the business very well since according to David Casserly. “We handle a vast amount through Outlook, from calendar and diary functions to arranging meetings to longer range reminders like insurance renewals or project events. The emphasis is on versatility for each of the individual users but there are also a lot of group functions.” Centralised mail is the major Internet application although back-to-base links with the site teams at two current locations are a frequent occurrence. Each uses standalone versions of Microsoft Project for their on-site management but copies of all significant drawings, etc. are stored, backed up and ultimately archived to CD back at head office. “We can easily carry out day-to-day network administration, like setting up a new user or remote access, without having to call for external consultants,” David Casserly explains, “In fact it’s fair to say that SBS is meeting all our original needs. Every few months we tend to have Evolve in for a day or so to look after a little list of specific jobs we want done with the system on the basis of our experience with it – but otherwise it hasn’t broken so we don’t need to fix it.”

Legal eagles’ judgement

In Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, the long established and prestigious firm of solicitors Ensor & O’Connor also installed Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 about 18 months ago. The firm has the two branches with a leased line connection between them and a total of 25 users currently. “The firm was looking for all of the basic network management features that SMS offers out of the box,” says Simon Collins, Microsoft specialist in IT services company Datapac. “But as solicitors and with a relatively new reliance on the Internet they were particularly concerned with the security aspects. The other side of security – data protection and back-up – was also a serious concern, again for professional client considerations as well as the normal business needs. People in the practice use the Internet more and more – for legal research, access to the courts service and so on – so the firewall was important because of that new level of exposure. Internet access is ISDN dial-up, however, with the leased line serving purely as a secure data connection between the two offices.”

As the longstanding IT advisors to Ensor & O’Connor, Datapac was happy to recommend SBS based on its experience with other clients. “It looks after so many aspects of most businesses’ day to day issues that it really is the only solution in its class at this stage,” says Simon Collins. “The other element is value for money – the set of products bundled together in SBS would cost roughly double if they were bought singly, not to mention the costs of integrating them. Literally the only snags are that the user licences come in packs of five, ten and twenty – so you might be paying for more than you strictly need – and the 50-user limit is absolute. In fact a business with, say, forty or so users would have to think long and hard if expansion was at all likely in the near future.”

Ensor & O’Connor are now advanced users of the communications tools in SBS, with a particular reliance on shared calendaring/diary for court appointments etc. and the reminder functions for the many legal process deadlines for court filings and submissions. The in-house IT administrator Pauline Hannan has been making successful use of a VPN connection to the network to facilitate teleworking. The next step, on which Datapac is now advising, is to move to encrypted email so that communications with clients and fellow professionals can be electronic but completely secure.

Microsoft Small Business Server is neither cheap nor particularly expensive and few dispute that it is good value for the range of powerful software that comes in the box. A typical price for the full SBS kit for the server end of things is EUR1,270 including a five-user licence pack. An additional five users would add EUR230 giving a neat EUR1,500 for a 10-user company. Getting a professional set-up across that 10-user LAN would probably add much the same again, depending what other stuff you are buying at the same time. You will probably need anti-virus software as well (contrary to myth, that’s not what firewalls do) so add perhaps EUR500.

Bouncing off

Hardware is a different element altogether. You will need a central server of course, so buying new the entry level for a basic model is about the same as a reasonable PC at say EUR1,000 or a few hundred more. But if you want RAID for data security (and you should) you need a three-drive model and are bouncing off EUR2,000. Automated tape back-up is still the best solution if you want to save network and user settings and configurations (usually the result of time and effort) as well as straightforward data. Entry level here is around EUR600 for 20Gbyte capacity, but can easily run up to a few grand for big capacity and the software to manage it.

As with everything in IT, “How much would it cost?” brings the ritual response “It all depends.” There is quite a range of possible variation in specific circumstances because although SBS takes care of so much it needs matching equipment and ancillary software to give your specific business the best solutions and the full performance and benefit. A simple example is that Microsoft’s recommended levels of RAM memory in server and PC for versions of Windows should always be doubled, the professionals will say, and its ‘minimum’ levels ignored if you want a task finished today.

So best guess is around EUR1,000 per seat for a 10-user implementation of SBS over an existing LAN (Local Area Network), which will drop by a couple of hundred each when you get to the 20-user level. It may sound like a lot compared to an average PC or a full copy of Microsoft Office, say, but it’s buttons compared to people costs and in efficiency and reliability your return on investment is as near guaranteed as such technology ever can be. 

Small Business Server Top Tips

• Use the wizards in the Administration console to quickly and simply walk you through new user setups.
• Firewall Client is a shared program that allows auto-configuration of Internet Explorer on all PCs across the network.
• Use the Instant Messaging feature of SBS to open a chat session instead of expensive long-distance calls.
• Get rid of modems and POP accounts on individual PCs and save money on Telephony.
• Configure applications on networked PCs using just one floppy disk with application installation information.

“It’s hard to give tips for Small Business Server, as it’s so user-friendly,” says Jim Hughes, Datapac engineer.

Read More: Hardware & Equipment