I somehow agree that Microsoft is one of the best company that can provide integrated IT solutions for any kind of industry,especially with today’s business requirements which push the company to work more agile than ever
But somehow, the things that we are quite worry of is Microsoft notable style by locking other options to use other technology that will push client to use one and only vendor for the rest of their life, even though now Microsoft is being pressed to adopt open standard that can make their softwares have better interopability with other software providers
Based on our own experience, here I want to share some ideas on how to find other altnerative for Microsoft Small Business Server.
Microsoft Small Business Server consist of following main components
1. Windows Server 2008
This is the foundation of all computer as what we all know that operating system is the underlying component that makes a computer working. More information of Windows 2008 server can be found here
2. Exchange Server 2007
Messaging and Collaboration platform to enable services like email, calendar, chatting or even voip service. For more information you can find it here
3. Windows Sharepoint Service
The main benefit of windows sharepoint server is to provide centralized content repository service, as the extension of common file server components
4. Forefront Security
Software component that helps company to protect email from security threats like virus
5. Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Famous database server software from Microsft, more information can be found here
The decision to use small business server really depend on the usage, because based on my experiences, not all capabilities in Microsoft small business server is utilized, most of the time, company (small to medium) only use 30-40 percent of its capabilities, but now the question, can we adjust the capabilities to only 30-40% of its full street price?
Based on those problems, we can find other cheaper alternative by using open source technology which gives us many options in terms of licensing,deployment and support costs
Linux and Open source technology that can be used for alternative are
1. Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS
This is sufficient enough to be another alternative of Windows Server 2008,eventhough it depends on application, but based on my experience, if you are going to need modest server for file and print server, then you can rely with this linux distro. Some other good alternatives are openSuse,OpenSolaris,Fedore and CentOS
2. Zimbra Community Edition
If you are looking for good substitution for MS Exchange server, I personally recommend this
3. Windows Sharepoint Service
One of the best Conetent repository software of open source is Alfresco Content Management System, with its latest version, I can say that this software is really worth to use
4. Forefront Security
We usually use ClamAV and SpamAssasin to help us safeguard the server from virus and spam
5. Microsoft SQL Server 2008
If you are looking for one of commonly used web server, you must have heard about MySQL, furthermore, MySQL is not part of Sun Microsystems, which is quite important aspect if we talk about commercial support. Other than MySQL, we also recommend PostGreSQL
You can see that there are many alternatives with linux and open source technology, and if you are looking for professional support, you can also find many seasonal professional or offcial support from vendor, this seems more interesting for many small to medium sized business to have more flexibility to find technology that suits to their “pocket”
Related posts:
- Example of Open Source Business Model: Open Solaris
- Concerned about Open Source Software Security?
- What really matter for web worker
Related posts brought to you by Intermatik.
