bruceb news

A few days before Christmas, Microsoft delivered the “Office 365 Integration Module for Small Business Server 2011 Essentials,” a long awaited add-in that integrates Microsoft’s new server software for very small offices with its hosted Office 365 service.

In some respects this is what SBS 2011 Essentials should have included all along, and the combination is a compelling choice for many very small offices considering their first onsite server or a replacement for an aging Small Business Server 2003 tower. You’ll find a full description of Small Business Server 2011 Essentials here:

• Overview
• Remote Access
• Backups

Separately, the two products are already compelling choices for small businesses. […] continued

Western Digital is shipping the first device available in the US with Microsoft’s small business storage and backup software, Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

Microsoft has a gift for names, doesn’t it? It’s a little embarrassing to gush over a product that is brand new on the market and very appealing when it has a wince-inducing name like “Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.” It is closely related to Microsoft’s other new small business server, the one named “Small Business Server 2011 Essentials.” Couldn’t this have been named “Storage Server 2011 Essentials”? That’s a nice name. Maybe it was taken. […] continued

Previously:
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Part 1: Overview
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Part 2: Remote Access

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials has one overlooked feature that fills an important need in most small businesses. Every night, SBS 2011 Essentials backs up all of the workstations in their entirety.

Microsoft originally developed this backup technology for Windows Home Server. Microsoft did some of its best technical magic on the backup system to use the least possible space on the server hard drives and to make the backups quick (although they’re done in the middle of the night, so speed isn’t really an issue). […] continued

Previously:
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Part 1: Overview

Microsoft has done more than anyone else to promote remote access to small business networks. Almost ten years ago, Small Business Server 2003 opened up Outlook Web Access and safe remote desktop access to small businesses for the first time. SBS 2008 and the various iterations of Windows Home Server refined that first portal to make it easier and cleaner and more likely to work properly.

SBS 2011 Essentials brings something new to the table: remote access to files. Hold that thought and let’s look at some of the other features first. […] continued

Small businesses are finally in a position to set up Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, the perfect server for many small businesses with fewer than 25 users. Today’s technology world does not offer any one-size-fits-all solutions but SBS 2011 Essentials should at least be closely evaluated by almost anyone with 2-25 users looking either for a first server or a replacement for a dusty server in the closet.

The idea is to blend an onsite server and cloud services. In broad overview:

• The server runs the network onsite, authenticating people as they log in and passing out files;
• Email is handled separately, ideally by Microsoft’s hosted Office 365 service.

[…] continued

WordPress is everywhere.

A few days ago, WordPress announced rather startling statistics:

• WordPress is now powering 14.7% of the top million websites in the world.
• 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the US are running WordPress.

Those are big numbers.

If you’re not familiar with WordPress, I’ll give you a very brief overview.

WordPress is a collection of tools to help you create a web site.

• There’s a standard dashboard and standard administration screens that are always the same regardless of where you run WordPress. Behind the scenes is a standardized database.
• You can freely choose from countless themes that change the way the web site looks, switching between them with a single click.

[…] continued

I have a story about web hosting.

When you visit brucebnews.com, all the pages pop into place instantly. Do a search or click on a link and you’ll see the result right away. That’s what you expect from a web site, right?

Until last week, that’s not what you got from my news page. It would almost always take a few seconds for a page to appear. In the middle of the day, pages might take 10-20 seconds to appear – an eternity.

There is an interesting story about what changed.

Bruceb News is built on WordPress, the publishing platform that powers a huge percentage of the blogs in the world. […] continued

Previously:
The Future Of Small Office Technology
History Lesson, Part 1: Small Business Server
History Lesson, Part 2: Windows Home Server
Looking Forward: Small Business Server 2011 Standard

I have a long article for you about an exciting new platform for small businesses scheduled for release in six months. Take your time and read this over the holiday weekend, but don’t get lazy and decide you can skip this one – there will be a test when class meets again. Happy Thanksgiving!

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials will be marketed as a “first server” for small businesses with fewer than 25 users. […] continued

Previously:
The Future Of Small Office Technology
History Lesson, Part 1: Small Business Server
History Lesson, Part 2: Windows Home Server

Let’s see if we can keep the big picture in mind while we look at the specific features of Microsoft’s servers for small businesses, starting with Small Business Server 2011 Standard, scheduled to be released in December as the replacement for Small Business Server 2003 and 2008.

At first glance, the various products for small businesses look quite different from each other. It’s worth noting that all these products start from the same rock-solid code base. Microsoft’s operating systems have more in common than you think. […] continued

Previously: The Future Of Small Office Technology

It’s hard to remember how much of an impact Small Business Server had on small offices when Microsoft released the first version in 2000. Until then, nothing had been available that would let a small business run a reasonable mail system or handle security for logons and file sharing. In those days files were shared from a co-worker’s Windows 98 computer – when it went down, everyone stopped working while the system rebooted. SBS 2000 changed all that by giving small businesses an affordable way to begin logging into a true domain, using Exchange for mail, all powered by a server that wouldn’t crash. […] continued