Some Thoughts on the Demise of SBS And A Suggested License Structure For An SBS-Like Stack

We always recommend Open Value Agreement licensing with Software Assurance for our clients. It offers a three year spread payment option giving them the chance to ease the cost of licensing over the three year period.

Once the original agreement with its licenses goes into years 4 through 6 we move to a Software Assurance only mode on those licenses which means a significant drop in the annual payment costs.

So, looking at the 10 year picture for a client's business they see the value of OVL over the long term as OEM no longer makes sense given the amount of flexibility SA gives for their business moving forward.

Agility

Agility is what gives SMB/SME businesses the edge over their Enterprise counterparts. There is an ability to drive new technology adoption at the business level to improve their user's overall efficiency.

Most folks don't care about what goes on in the back end. They just want to turn the machine on, log on, and do their work throughout the day.

However, show them a few new features that improve their ability to do their job and they are all over that.

Crossroads

So, here we are at a crossroads for the Small Business Server product line. Only the road we are on ends in a T intersection.

What does that mean for us?

It means that we need to develop some new skill sets. It means that we need to develop some new policies and procedures to create consistency in our solution set that will be based on the Microsoft Stack of products going forward.

Will that mean that there is room for other vendor's products to fill some of the void? Most certainly.

Current Stack SKU Set

Since we do not have the full picture on the SKUs for the new product stack yet we are going to start by posting the SKU stack as it stands today.

All SKUs and costs were obtained from the Microsoft License Advisor

Note that the SKUs are Open Value Agreement with the Spread Payment Option and that the option is somewhat hidden below Organization-Wide in the Advisor:

Our first options will be for a server with either a single socket or dual socket setup.

1. Host OS: Windows Server Standard 1+1 with E-mail
• VM1: DC + File Services
• VM2: Exchange
2. Host OS: Windows Server Enterprise 1+4 with RDS
1. VM1: DC + File Services
2. VM2: Exchange
3. VM3: WSUS and SharePoint Foundation
4. VM4: RDS
3. Host OS: Windows Server Enterprise 1+4 with SQL
1. VM1: DC + File Services
2. VM2: Exchange
3. VM3: SQL, WSUS and SP Foundation
4. VM4: RDS

To license the above in order for a firm with 35 users:

1. Host OS: Windows Server Standard 1+1 with E-mail
1. P73-01420: $1,136 Windows Server Standard ($568 each)
2. R18-01855: $805 Windows Server CAL ($23 each)
3. 312-03037: $554 Exchange Server Standard
4. 381-02257: $1,855 Exchange Server Standard CAL ($53 each)
1. TOTAL: $4,350.00/Year
1. $10.35/User/Month
2. Host OS: Windows Server Enterprise 1+4 with RDS
1. P72-01277: $1,845 Windows Server Enterprise
2. R18-01855: $805 Windows Server CAL ($23 each)
3. 312-03037: $554 Exchange Server Standard
4. 381-02257: $1,855 Exchange Server Standard CAL ($53 each)
5. 6VC-00701: $2,310 Remote Desktop Services CAL ($66 each)
1. TOTAL: $7,369.00/Year
1. $17.55/User/Month
3. Host OS: Windows Server Enterprise 1+4 with SQL
1. P72-01277: $1,845 Windows Server Enterprise
2. R18-01855: $805 Windows Server CAL ($23 each)
3. 312-03037: $554 Exchange Server Standard
4. 381-02257: $1,855 Exchange Server Standard CAL ($53 each)
5. 6VC-00701: $2,310 Remote Desktop Services CAL ($66 each)
6. 228-04738: $702 SQL Standard
7. 359-01471: $5,740 SQL Standard User CAL ($164 each)
1. TOTAL: $13,811/Year
1. $32.88/User/Month

As a comparison for option 1 the following is what the current version of Small Business Server 2011 Standard and the Premium Add-On would cost to implement for the same size firm:

1. Host OS: Windows Server Standard 1+1 via PAO
1. T72-00882: $745 SBS 2011 STD c/w 5 CALs
2. 6UA-00908: $984 SBS STD 20 CAL Pack
3. 6UA-01804: $492 SBS STD 5 CAL Pack x2 ($246 each)
4. 2XG-00206: $1,090 SBS PAO c/w 5 CALs
5. 2YG-01596: $1,245 SBS PAO 20 CAL Pack
6. 2YG-01039: $624 SBS PAO 5 CAL Pack ($312 each)
1. TOTAL: $5,198/Year
1. $12.38/User/Month

We can then mix and match the various SKUs to come up with the right combination of products for our client's solution set as well as an SBS based dollar amount equivalent to the above options 2 and 3.

Another option for us is Microsoft's CAL Suites:

• Microsoft CAL Suites

The cost for the above CAL Suites again on Open Value with the Spread Payment option:

• W06-00649: $172 each Microsoft Core CAL ($6,020 for a 35 user firm)
• Versus $75 for both Server and Exchange CALs.
• 76A-00616: $343 each Microsoft Enterprise CAL ($12,005 for 35 user firm)

With either of the above Microsoft CAL Suites we inherit the ability to license CALs for products we may not be deploying today but may be down the road.

Conclusion

We have lots of options going forward. Once the new SKU line-up have been released we will revisit this blog post with an up to date version to see where the costs went relative to the above.

The big job will be getting our configuration processes in line with the various server product group's best practices and having a detailed setup guide similar to our SBS Guide.

Possibilities . . . we have lots of them going forward.

Time to think outside of the SBS Box we have been so comfortably in for the last 10 or so years. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer