Yesterday Microsoft announced the planned beta for a new Small Business Server - code named “Aurora”.  Because this new product delivers so much value to MSPs I was invited to participate in the panel at the World Wide conference in DC this week to discuss some of the implications for Microsoft Partners.

In a nutshell Aurora is the new core server product from Microsoft that will completely open up the 5-25 desktop market for MSPs.  Aurora and Managed Workplace were made for each other. 

First some background.  The moment Windows Home Server was announced we were all over it. Even though it was designed for the home market, we immediately saw this as the missing product to fill the needs for the small end of the market.  Our Onsite Manager was quickly certified for WHS and many partners began deploying the product to the sub 10 workgroup market.  The results have been excellent with the combined product directly addressing the need for simple backup and restore, file sharing and a platform for the full Onsite Manager remote monitoring and management software that MSPs use to deliver a full range of IT services to SMBs.  

Our partners deploying this solution have also been adding hosted Exchange offerings and some basic LOB applications to create a complete small business solution for their target markets.  They use our advanced cloud monitoring features to monitor not only local PCs, networks and printers but also BPOS and other cloud applications allowing them to add ongoing service value in their role as virtual CIO. Motivated by the success of this solution in the marketplace, we recently announced an initiative with HP based on their DataVault 500 Storage product focused on this small business market segment.

The benefits are overwhelming, both for MSPs and for the millions of underserved small businesses that struggle with IT challenges every day.   Without remote monitoring and management there is simply no way that solution providers can effectively afford to provide a high level of IT support for very small businesses.  The amount of money these customers can spend cannot support the traditional on premise IT service model.  So what do these small businesses do?  They suffer. 

There are approximately 5 million small businesses in North America.  At least one in six of small businesses experience unacceptable downtime each year and only one in four have implemented a backup and recovery plan (Source:HP).   Today for a very small cost the customer can have all of these business issues addressed by an MSP running WHS and Managed Workplace can today begin to enjoy the IT experience of much larger organizations.

But there are some limitations to this solution.  WHS is limited to 10 PCs, it runs on Windows Server 2003 and therefore lacks some of the great new features of Windows Server 2008, it is limited to a Work Group with no support for Active Directory and until now there was no clear upgrade path as their business grew.  Partners correctly saw this as a back door solution and were waiting to see what Microsoft planned to do to address the proven market requirement, and where the cloud would play in his strategy.  These factors have held back the full adoption of WHS for business.

Aurora addresses these issues and more. It brings all the benefits of WHS now well established in the market, while addressing the shortcomings limiting its broad application. It establishes a clear direction from Microsoft for this market segment including the role that cloud applications will play in the hybrid IT infrastructures of the future.  All of this fits exactly the strategy and product features we have been building in Managed Workplace.

 MSPs need to get busy as the small business MSP feeding frenzy starts in earnest. They can plan around Aurora, or get started right now with WHS to prove their marketing and deployment models so they are ready to hit the ground running when Aurora is released.