Changes to Small Business Server and Windows XP

An awful lot of small businesses could be in for a nasty shock unless they start seriously planning for IT upgrades over the next 12 to 24 months. There are many small businesses out there that are still using Windows Small Business Server to run a single server in their organisation, and in many cases it’s quite possibly an aging server. It’s probably running something like Windows Small Business Server 2003. And in their office, they’re probably running Windows XP. According to figures, 35-37% of computers are still running Windows XP, and an awful lot of those are still in businesses.

To give you the facts, Windows Small Business Server 2003 support ends in July of 2015. So you’ve got two years to plan an upgrade. With Windows XP, support ends in a year’s time, in April 2014.

Now, what’s the significance of that? Well, if you’re running a Windows Small Business Server and you want to upgrade, the latest version of Microsoft Windows, that’s Windows Server 2012, there is no equivalent Small Business Server product to what you’re currently using. Windows Server 2012 is available in a couple of different versions. The small business version, if you like. Windows Server 2012 Essentials, is designed for businesses of up to 25 users, and it doesn’t contain an email product. Microsoft are expecting you to combine Windows Server 2012 Essentials with Office 365, which is their hosted email and office product

For businesses larger than 25 users, well you’re stuck with the full version of Windows Server 2012. Again, what Microsoft expects small businesses to do is to combine Windows Server 2012 with an Office 365 subscription.

If you’re a business that is currently using Small Business Server and you have your own onsite email server and you want to be able to do that in Windows Server 2012, you’re going to have to combine a Windows Server 2012 license with a full license for Microsoft Exchange Server with the appropriate user licenses as well. That works out far more expensive than buying a traditional small business server product. So what you’re going to find is there’s going to be an awful lot of businesses who are going to be enticed by the allure and pricing benefits of moving to Office 365.

What may not be immediately obvious is that moving to Office 365 has some hidden upgrade implications of its own – how so? Well Office 365 customers are currently going through an automated upgrade to the latest ‘2013’ versions of the software making up your chosen plan (e.g. Exchange 2013; Lync 2013 etc). For those businesses whose Office 365 plan includes desktop Office software, this means you have to upgrade Office ProPlus on each of your computers to the latest version (confusingly called Office 365 ProPlus – but basically Office 2013). Not so bad? Maybe, oh but did I mention that Office 365 ProPlus requires your computer to be running at least Windows 7? If that isn’t enough – as a final nudge from Microsoft to move you away from your old Windows XP machine – if you don’t upgrade to Office 365 ProPlus by April 8th 2014 your current subscription version of Office will go into a ‘reduced-functionality mode’, effectively preventing you from doing anything but looking at your documents.

Now, Office 2013 can’t be installed on a Windows XP Server or on a Windows XP desktop. So what you’re going to find is there’s an awful lot of businesses out there with old software that are going to have to go through a transition in the next 12 months, of upgrading desktop machines to either Windows 7 or Windows 8 and upgrading their small business server to a Windows Server 2012 product, probably with Office 365.

That’s a great deal of change for most businesses, and they really need to start planning for it now, both in terms of cost and impact. You may be using some applications that aren’t going to work with Office 365. If that’s the case, then you really need to plan for it now.

Contact Breakwater IT if we can help you in any way in relation to these changes. We offer IT Support in Nowich, Norfolk and beyond. Call us now 01603 709300