Microsoft announced plans to release downloadable public previews of two upcoming server products for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs): version 7 of Small Business Server (SBS) Standard, plus a new cloud-enabled edition of SBS codenamed Aurora. The Aurora cloud server is fully focused on helping small businesses. SBS 7 will be a fully on premises solution, bundling several software service products together.
Aurora will deliver both “traditional and cloud capabilities,” according to a blog post on Microsoft’s TechNet site. “We are going to create a lot of industry buzz with these offerings,” an anonymous Microsoft blogger predicted.
Announced at Microsoft’s recent WorldWide Partner Conference, the downloadable previews of SBS 7 and Aurora are due for availability by the end of August. However, SMB customers can sign up in advance now to try out the new software.
