Microsoft faces partner unrest over SBS death sentence
World will be a bleaker and more expensive place without Small Business Server, argues irate partner
Microsoft is facing a channel backlash following its decision to bin its Small Business Server (SBS) offering.
The vendor this afternoon announced that SBS 2011 Standard, which is aimed at firms with 5-75 staff running Exchange and SharePoint, will reach end of life next year, according to a blog post by Microsoft partner NCI Technologies.
Microsoft's SBS Premium and Home Server offerings have also been end-of-lifed, the blog detailed.
Microsoft's new Windows Server Essentials offering - a successor to SBS Essentials - incorporates some of the major Home Server features such as client back-up - but is no longer part of the SBS family. Limited to 25 users, it will allow customers to connect to Microsoft's Office 365 package through built-in links in its management console and is now being billed as the first server offering for SMBs.
NCI managing director Andy Trish argued that the move amounts to Microsoft forcing customers into the cloud. He claimed very few of his customers had bought into SBS Essentials because SBS Standard and Premium are superior.
"NCI's customers have always said to us they don't want budget products on cost, they want products that will help them compete in today's world," he wrote. "SBS Standard and Premium did that; case studies carried out and paid for by Microsoft on NCI's customers are proof of that fact."
Talking to ChannelWeb, Steve Hennessy, sales manager of another Microsoft small business partner, Computerworld Business Solutions, said most of his customers had so far shunned Office 365 due to concerns over its reliability.
"There have been so many horror stories, they have stayed away," he said. "But this move with SBS will force their hand and as they will have no other mail option unless they buy Exchange."
Meanwhile, Trish said he "did not understand" why Microsoft made completing an exam in SBS a requirement for its new Small Business Competency.
"The days were I used to love Microsoft for listening and adapting, advising and partnering seem a distant past, now a giant beast of an organisation has moved from innovating and motivating its own staff and partners to dictating to them all," he said.
Trish concluded: "So it is with sadness I say goodbye to an old friend, product and culture, the future in the SME world is a bleak (and more expensive) place without you, R.I.P. SBS."
In a Windows 2012 licensing FAQ, Microsoft confirmed theat Windows SBS 2011 Standard would be the last product of its kind.
"This change is in response to small business market trends and behaviour," it stated. "The small business computing trends are moving in the direction of cloud computing for applications and services such as email, online back-up and line-of-business tools."
Further reading: Andy's Techie blog