Upcoming Small Business Server in 2010 or 2011

(This information is from the Microsoft SMB Blog…)

Microsoft on Monday announced two new “previews” to come for its Windows Small Business Server (SBS) product suite.
The previews, which aren’t yet publicly available, are code-named “SBS 7″ and “SBS Aurora.” The announcements, which will likely interest Microsoft partners serving the IT needs of smaller businesses.

SBS 7 is designed to support 75 users max, so there’s no real change in capacity from SBS 2008, the currently available all 64-bit product that rolled out in November 2008. However, Microsoft is planning to upgrade all of the components in SBS 7 to reflect its current product stack of server technologies. SBS 7 will include “Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010 SP1, SharePoint 2010 Foundation, Windows Server Update Services 3.0 and SQL Server 2008 R2,” according to the blog. SBS 7 will support employees with “file-and-print, email and Internet services,” plus Microsoft is adding management and security improvements.

SBS Aurora, on the other hand, will support 25 users max, enabling remote data access. Microsoft is describing it as a “first server” option for small businesses. What’s more, SBS Aurora is described as “the company’s first [server suite] to deliver both traditional and cloud capabilities,” according to the blog. Apparently, what that means is that SBS Aurora will be available for on premises installs or accessed as a service, or it will provide access to services (it’s not really clear from Microsoft’s blog post). SBS Aurora also will feature automatic backup and restore capabilities and will enable file and print sharing.