SBS 2008 is too expensive.
by Carl Farrington on Sep.24, 2008, under Computer Stuff
Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2008 is too expensive.
The trade cost for an OEM copy of SBS 2008 Standard Edition is now exactly double that of SBS 2003 R2 Standard Edition. Most people talking about the price increase only state that Premium Edition costs more because of the extra functionality, but I am talking about Standard Edition.
My OEM supplier is asking exactly double for SBS 2008 Std incl 5 CALs, OEM.
Additional licenses are a little cheaper – 20% cheaper. So, the product is 100% more expensive and the additional CALs are 20% cheaper.
Add to that the fact that you now have to buy the Outlook client separately (Office 2007 SBE or Basic) for £100 + vat per user, I think it’s too expensive.
February 10th, 2010 on 8:16 pm
An ex collegue who works for Microsoft informed me that due to the competitive pressures of appliances and hosted SaaS solutions etc they are less interested in ’small customers’ (Interesting positioning for a small business server solution) and becoming more focussed on higher value customers in the market sectors where they can differentiate themselves and generate acceptable margins.
As a vendor of Linux Small Business Server Appliances SBS 2008 has been music to our ears as it made it an easy decision for end user clients and its helped us strengthen our reseller channel considerably.
We’ve spent nearly two years developing what we believe is becoming the most comprehensive Linux based Small Business Server (55% Open Source, 15% Commercial Open Source & 30% Propriatary software).
I’m not saying its right for every organisation, but we win more deals than we loose when competing against MS SBS, you may wish to take a look – http://www.sharptechnology.co.uk and give me a call (01242 516302) if you have any questions or wish to see an online demonstration.
We also provide it on a white label basis for resellers and partners.