Windows 2003
Windows Server 2003 is the latest O/S from Microsoft and provides best in class security, reliability, availability and scalability.
Windows 2003 is the core operating system for many larger IT infrastructures and provides best in class manageability, security and functionality, and a unified view of the network across the entire company.
Core to Windows Server 2003 is the creation of a single company directory across all branches and encompassing all employees and IP devices. This is built upon Active Directory.
Active Directory is the integrated, distributed directory service that is included with Microsoft Windows Server 2003. With Active Directory, the administrator of the organization can add a user to Active Directory and through that single entry enable remote access to the network, enable the same user account for Exchange messaging, that same user for database access for accounting, client relationship management, or other applications.
SBS 2003
Business Perspective
SBS 2003 delivers enterprise class functionality at a lower cost than full blown Windows 2003. It is more than adequate for the requirements of many SME's with less than 75 users.
SBS 2003 is available in two editions – Standard includes Windows 2003, Exchange 2003 and Premium which also includes SQL Server 2003, ISA Server and FrontPage 2003.
Support for remote and mobile users has been enhanced to provide a single point of entry for users outside the firewall. Via a browser, users are able to access resources on the network remotely, including Outlook Web Access.
The mail store size of Exchange 2003 has been increased from previous versions, from 16GB to 75GB. Also included are enhanced mobile email services, allowing users to send and receive e-mail and view their calendar via suitable smart mobile phones.
In addition Exchange 2003 comes with a Spam Filter – Intelligent Message Filter (IMF). IMF provides advanced server-side message filtering designed to combat the influx of unsolicited commercial e-mail, also known as spam or junk e-mail. When used in combination with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, it helps to significantly reduce the volume of spam users receive and consequently free up your time in managing this problem.
The main benefits of SBS 2003 are as follows:
Based on Windows Server 2003
SBS 2003 offers all of the features and functionality of Windows Server 2003, but also includes a host of features specifically designed to make the product easier to install, manage, and monitor.
Previous versions of Small Business Server were developed by product teams outside of the core Windows Server Team, so much of the source code was not shared. As a result the SBS product often lagged behind the release cycles of Windows Server.
This is no longer the case now that Windows Small Business Server 2003 has been brought in-house and made part of the wider Windows Server System.
Improvements to core Windows Server 2003 technologies
Windows Server 2003 is the first Windows Server version to offer pervasive storage functionality through technologies like Volume Shadow Copies, and its Backup application is significantly improved over previous NT Backup versions, supporting media such as hard drives and network shares in addition to tape drives.
SBS 2003 builds on these raw capabilities, but supplies simple front-end tools that makes managing backup and restore, and document retrieval, more elegant than in the base Windows Server 2003 package.
SBS 2003 also includes pervasive remote capabilities, including the ability to remotely access the server as an end user, administer the server, or access troubleshooting data and reports. Again, all of this functionality is available in raw form by Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003, but SBS 2003 takes away the technical drudgery of figuring out how to make it all work.
