Microsoft has put a price tag of $599 (£380) on the
Standard Edition of its Windows Small Business Server
2003.At the same time it has raised the price for
client access licences (CAL) for the 2003 editions of its small
business server software, from $60 to $99.
The Standard Edition is new to Microsoft's
software line-up. It is aimed at businesses with up to 10 PCs that
want to begin server-based computing. The offering includes Windows
Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services
as well as five CALs.
The $599 price tag is Microsoft's estimate for
retail. The actual street price will be lower with suppliers
including Dell and Hewlett-Packard set to offer the software
installed on a server for "significantly under $1,000", said Katy
Hunter, group product manager for Windows Server at Microsoft.
Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium
Edition is the successor to Small Business Server 2000. It includes
the products in the Standard Edition and adds Microsoft's SQL
Server database and its Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA)
Server, which have firewall and web caching capabilities.
Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium
Edition is priced at $1,499 (£955) including five CALs, which is
unchanged from Small Business Server 2000. The price for additional
CALs is going up to $99 per CAL, Hunter said.
"It is not a hike, it is a price adjustment,"
Hunter said. The software package is still a good deal compared to
the price that customers would pay if they were to purchase
separate licences for Windows Server, Exchange Server and SQL
Server, she said.
Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst at Jupiter
Research, said the CAL price increase is "a hefty hike" and may be
an unpleasant surprise to buyers unfamiliar with Microsoft's
pricing scheme.
"My concern is that some non-technically savvy
small businesses might not understand up front about CALs and, in
the end, pay much more than they expected," Wilcox said. On the
other hand, businesses might benefit enough from the new software
to make the price increase an acceptable trade off, he added.
Pricing for Standard Edition is attractive,
Wilcox said. "The $599 version is a good starting price for Small
Business Server that could help spur adoption."
Microsoft's Small Business Server products are
tailored for companies that do not have a lot of in-house IT
knowledge.
The 2003 editions offer several improvements
over Small Business Server 2000, including easier installation and
management, better security and enhanced remote access features to
make users more productive, Microsoft's Hunter said.
Microsoft also increased the number of users
or PCs that can be connected to a Windows Small Business Server to
75 from 50, Hunter said.
"We found that a lot of small businesses even
at 35 or 40 [users] feared that they would not have enough headroom
for growth, so we bumped it up to 75," she said.
Microsoft will announce the availability of
the Windows Small Business Server 2003 products on 9 October at the
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. They will be
available worldwide in 16 languages.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service