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By Chris Angelini |
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IT PROBABLY COMES AS No SECRET, but I'm a big fan of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. I have it running in my lab and I install it for SMB customers whenever one comes knocking. We've said it many times:The platform's value to smaller offices is immense, from the base operating system to Exchange email host and collaborative SharePoint features. Despite my enthusiasm, I'm not even close to being an SBS veteran—one of the resellers who cut their teeth on Small Business Server 4.0 and rode the bugs out to 4.0a, 4.5, and 2000. No, I caught the bus later than most and learned the ropes with a much more mature SBS 2003 package under my belt. I've talked to quite a few of the "old timers," though, and know that what you can give customers today is immensely more powerful than previous versions. It's also supposedly simpler to install and intuitive to maintain. My experiences over the past two years have taught me a lot about not only working with Small Business Server but also working with small business customers and their needs. There are three points I try to keep in mind as I discuss SBS with new customers and as I work on the software within my own organization. First, there's a lot of functionality that Microsoft enables in the Small Business Server package. Secondly, there's a lot of functionality that Microsoft doesn't give you in the Small Business Server package. And finally, Small Business Server, though replete with easy-to-follow wizards and seemingly simple tools, still leaves plenty of room for value added resellers to step in and make money with additional products and services. Those three points might seem somewhat silly, but it's important to keep the software's value in mind while remembering that it shouldn't stand alone in a publicly-facing organization. And if you're a reseller or consultant making a living working with small businesses, then you already know that certain components of SBS 2003 require attention on a periodic basis, and any company too small for a dedicated IT staff will be receptive to a monthly service contract. That's the reseller's opportunity to earn much more regular income at a higher margin. What SBS Gives You If you've worked with SBS 2003 in the past, then you probably have a really good idea of where the software package comes up strong. Financially, it makes great sense. Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition costs $999 by itself. Add Exchange Server 2003 and you're already looking at $1,700 in software without SharePoint Services or any of the Premium technologies. The latest build of Small Business Server is friendlier to organizations with small IT departments or a contracted reseller than any version before. First off, it's fully mobile. Resellers and customers alike are able to connect remotely to SBS 2003, accessing email over a Web-based portal or even taking complete control of a server desktop. Customers who need around-the-clock access to email can have Exchange synchronize with their compatible cell phones. VPN connectivity is built in, precluding the need for an expensive third-party solution, and Terminal Services implemented in remote administration mode gives administrators one more tool for addressing issues on the road. Microsoft also makes it easy to monitor SBS as a value-added reseller. A wizard helps you turn on and configure monitoring options, including having the server send you daily performance and usage reports in email if you want them. The logs, which can be as detailed or as Spartan as you'd like, play a critical role in helping you identify potential problems with server hardware or a software process. Moreover, they'll show you which programs are using the most processor time and how much disk space is available. Such comprehensive coverage puts you in the position to approach a customer proactively with solutions while your competitors receive angry phone calls that something isn't working. As an enabler of managed service, I certainly recommend keeping a close eye on the logs SBS 2003 drops at your doorstep each morning. As you court customers with more advanced demands, the move from Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition to Premium Edition starts making sense. The Premium SKU adds ISA Server 2004, a high-end software firewall solution, and SQL Server 2000, a professional database system. Of course, SQL Server 2005 is more modern and vastly improved, so customers expecting that solution will want to wait for SBS 2003 R2, which Microsoft is already talking about. Back It Up Equally important to selling customers on the features and benefits of SBS is making sure the operating system's shortcomings are properly addressed. I have never rolled out SBS 2003 on its own, either in a production environment or during testing. To me, the key issues are security and redundancy. The first value-add I like to discuss is backup. I've lost plenty of desktop workstations, and I've rebuilt servers that were not wholly protected. Time after time, the cost to get everything back (and often it's simply impossible to recover completely) turns out to be higher than if the customer had simply purchased a solid backup package and maintained its schedule. Now, it'd be false to flag this as one of those features Microsoft didn't try to cover with SBS 2003 because, let's face it, backup is too important to be shrugged off. SBS does come with some native data protection technologies built-in. For example, it'll retain copies of deleted files and emails. You can set up scheduled saves direct to tape. And it's even possible to redirect each user's My Documents folder as a means to centralize information, invariably making it easier to protect. For small organizations with very basic backup demands, the built-in utility might actually fit well. But consider my most recent customer who wanted the data belonging to each of his employees to stay on their respective workstations and a backup solution capable of reaching out from the server to archive information centrally. A job like that calls for a third-party solution and a fairly involved configuration. In fact, there's the software sale itself, the initial setup, and ongoing support to look forward to. I've found is necessary to make sure backups happen as scheduled, media are groomed for space, and so on. Most of the time, I'll recommend EMC's Retrospect, which just went into version 7.5. The software is easy enough to set up given wizard-based tasks and broad device support. However, I was recently disappointed that EMC offered one customer a free upgrade based on his paid support plan and then declined to provide an Open File backup key, which he had just purchased for Retrospect 7.0, after the upgrade was run. Resellers looking to standardize on one software vendor might look at Symantec's Backup Exec 10d as an alternative. Capable of saving an Exchange store, SQL Server database, and SharePoint site, Backup Exec is every bit as capable and similarly priced. Protecting the Hive Rumblings from within Microsoft seem to suggest that the company is at least thinking about entering the security market, though it hasn't done so commercially yet. And while I've actually used Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool out in the field to help exposed organizations recover from debilitating virus outbreaks, that's more of a break-fix measure than preventative maintenance. So once again, you'll need to take the third-party route for an imperative piece of the SBS puzzle. There's no way around it. Even if you were to service a small business without Internet connectivity, safety against viruses brought in on someone's floppy disk or synchronized PDA should be a priority. On the bright side, you're looking at another opportunity to make some money adding value to a cost-effective package. Anti-virus software has to be set up, configured to keep itself up to date, and periodically checked for activity. Picking the right anti-virus solution for your job can be even more perplexing than selecting a backup suite. Not only are there more options out there, but you can also forgo software entirely in favor of a hardware appliance. It's worth noting that most, if not all, of the small businesses I work with stick to software since there are so many possible points where a virus could be introduced to a network, making it important to cover servers, workstations, and remote clients alike. Of the software packages out there, I've had some of my best luck with Trend Micro's Client Server Messaging Security for SMB, which wraps its net around your SBS 2003 server, Exchange Server 2003 software, and any workstation you connect to the network. Trend breaks the software into a number of different packages, making it easier to pick the right-sized version for each organization. And it adds an anti-spyware option as an easy little upsell, too. The combination is useful for stopping viruses and spam, of course, in addition to hackers and phishing attempts, according to representatives at Trend. Additionally, the Client Server Messaging Security suite gives remote administrators a Web-based console where they can remotely manage the software. If something happens requiring your attention, the software even sends out custom notifications. Dynamic Workaround Many business-class Internet plans are characterized by a static IP address. This makes life convenient for resellers and consultants, who, in the process of setting up a customer's server for access on the Web, can use that unchanging address for tying to a domain name. SBS even asks for the information explicitly—that's one of the reasons it's such a pleasure to set up. Most businesses would rather pay for a SOHO cable or DSL plan instead of a fractional T1 line, though, and most providers push dynamic rather than static addresses. As such, an increasing number of customers will have an address that changes with some regularity. The folks who'd prefer not to shell out an extra $20 or $30 each month for a static address require a third-party alternative in the form of dynamic DNS services, which update a set of name servers with IP information so that a changing address doesn't result in downtime. I use DynDNS as a money-saver in my own organization. A small software utility runs in the background on my SBS server, keeping the system's IP address in sync with an easier-to-remember domain name. That keeps things convenient whenever I'm on the road and need to access files or email on the server but can't remember the most recent public IP address. Above and Beyond the Call As I work with SBS, I notice that there are features both included by Microsoft and added at my recommendation requiring attention on a daily or weekly basis. Whether it is verifying nightly backups, checking the logs for critical warnings, maintaining user accounts, or keeping an eye on virus activity, an SBS installation is full of opportunity outside of the initial deployment. For some resellers, it's easier to move from business to business, making money by rolling out the SBS solution. There's an easier way to work, though. Any SMB without in-house IT support is going to need someone to help keep them up and running. SBS 2003 isn't a fire-and-forget project. Moreover, adding a server bears certain administrative responsibility that a VAR should not ignore. The good news is that once a customer has invited you in to deploy SBS and you've proven yourself to be technically competent and amiable with everyone around the office, the hard part is behind you. Working out a service deal with recurring revenue should be relatively painless. The customer might already be thinking the same thing. So let's say you specialize in doctors and acquire 10 offices with 15 employees each over the course of a year. Each has its own service agreement, meaning you're on the hook for 10 sets of logs each morning to make sure nobody is in trouble. As the service arm of your business grows, giving every customer timely support becomes a complicated endeavor unless you're prepared to pay an extra salary or two. That's where a managed service partner might come into play. Managed service makes it possible for you to leverage another company's support infrastructure while still making money. For example, I recently talked to an organization called Do IT Smarter (www.doitsmarter.com) about helping with my own service arrangements. They offer nine different packages covering firewall analysis, server monitoring, managed backup, Exchange Server monitoring, and performance analysis. Do IT Smarter allows you to resell its packages, and the company takes care of remediation. As your customer base grows, it then becomes possible to create a team able to field the calls and deliver the managed service yourself. I keep my business small enough so that it isn't necessary to define a support structure for recording incidents, escalating problems, and resolving complaints. However, service-oriented resellers could really stand to benefit from such organization. Do IT Smarter has implemented an ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) framework to facilitate efficient communication between itself and customers. A reseller rolling out SBS 2003 can use the Do IT Smarter packages to enable everything from a service desk to release management. In other words, your customer has a resource for reporting incidents, identifying problems, requesting a change from the service provider, and getting the fix implemented, all in a documented, standardized way. In contrast, I can get away with jotting down problems in a notebook and plugging away after-hours. Clearly, the managed service route is much more professional. Hold on Tight As a reseller who has embraced Microsoft's offering, complemented it with other value-added products, and stepped up to keep small business customers up and running with managed service, it should be easy to promote growth. Microsoft is preparing a second release of SBS 2003 that'll make the story even more attractive to you and your customers alike. Larger mailboxes should cut back on tech support calls, automated patch management will help streamline remote administration, status reports on network desktops should simplify monitoring, and the addition of SQL Server 2005 gets customers up to date on the latest Microsoft products. Look to SBS 2003 R2 as your new play on efficiency. |
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