I\u2019ve written in the past about Server 2012 R2 Essentials in combination with Office 365 and I\u2019d like to circle back again and revisit the value statement for the combination.<\/p>\n
But, first, let me do a quickie Windows Server licensing refresher as it is relevant to the discussion \u2026<\/p>\n
There are four<\/em> levels of Server licensing available:<\/p>\n OK, so back to the discussion about Essentials and Office 365.<\/p>\n Back in the day Microsoft provided the \u201call you can eat\u201d Small Business Server for small businesses that combined a number of management tools (\u201ceasy management\u201d), web-based remote access to the server and workstations, SharePoint and Exchange all on one box.\u00a0 SBS went away but the combination of Essentials and Office 365 now more than \u201creplaces\u201d SBS, I think it surpasses it by a wide margin.<\/p>\n The server side of the equation is Essentials and it provides a rock-solid foundation for Active Directory, local file\/print services, local application hosting, controlled \u201csecure\u201d remote access to server and workstation resources on the LAN as well as a suite of modern wizard-driven system management tools.\u00a0 As well it provides server and workstation backup tools that are a major step up from the Microsoft backup tools of yore.\u00a0 It can play \u201cnicey nice\u201d with other servers on the LAN so you can have more than one server within your domain hosting other application services such as SQLserver and it will even allow for multiple domain controllers within your domain (but it must hold all the FSMO roles).\u00a0 It can even work with a local, on-premise Exchange server (if you are so inclined).<\/p>\n The Office 365 side obviously provides both the Exchange and SharePoint sides of the equation and it does so with way more capabilities than SBS ever could provide.\u00a0 For a start there are obviously all of the incremental improvements in the products over those available in the last shipping SBS version (2011); Exchange 2013 and SharePoint 2013 (the basic building blocks of Office 365) are considerably more powerful than the 2010 versions included in SBS.\u00a0 Moreover, the Online versions (as used in Office 365) have morphed and expanded considerably beyond the 2013 products that are available for on-prem install.\u00a0 And Office 365 provides a number of Enterprise <\/em>features in Exchange and SharePoint that are prohibitively expensive for the on-prem counterparts.\u00a0 But that is only the start of what Office 365 provides!\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget the Office Pro licenses provided with various Office 365 subscriptions as well as Delve, Clutter, Video, Sway and the other technologies that are continuously being rolled out and into Office 365.\u00a0 Think about the access to data that is provided by Office 365 and the apps that tie iPhones, iPads and Android devices back to Office 365. And there are the linkages that are in place between Essentials and Office 365 for management of your Office 365 tenancy directly from the Dashboard in Essentials.\u00a0 Finally, there is the \u201cbaked-in\u201d ability in Essentials to run backup of your system out through Azure Backup Services in the Azure Cloud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n All of this makes a pretty compelling package for small businesses.\u00a0 You get access to the same technology as the \u201cbig boys\u201d but for a price that is much more in line with an SMB budget.\u00a0 I admit to being a fan, whole heartedly.<\/p>\n If you are a small business casting about for some sort of on-prem solution, I urge you to seriously consider the Essentials\/Office 365 combo.\u00a0 I think you will be very pleased with the capabilities and the value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n