Hey I’m Bruce Naylor, the Frugal Tech. The other day, I was listening to a podcast called Windows Weekly and it features Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott. It’s a very good show by the way if you get a chance to listen to it. I highly recommend it.
The show though, one of the things that Paul mentioned was you know, Google Apps and he started talking about small business server and really, he kind of made it, kind of mentioned the fact, you know, Google Apps was free and an excellent replacement for exchange server. Google made a tool available that you run on, use desktop that would synchronize Outlook and Google Apps, the Gmail and the calendaring application and basically it’s free and all those stuff. Look I’ve got to thinking, when you’re a small company, when you’re getting started particularly, you know, every dollar is precious, every dollar is precious.
Google Apps has its place. Now, first I want to talk about small business server 2008 and I’m not going to give them along the technical stuff about it but essentially come in two version, it’s the standard and the premium edition. Both support up the 75 users and the standard edition features exchange Windows SurePoint Services 3.0, Window software updates services 3.0. I believe like about a four-month trial of the Forefront Security for Exchange server in integration with Office Live Small Business.
Now if you get the premium edition that includes SQL Server 2008. Now Google Apps comes in two editions, a standard and a premium. Now the standard edition is web based. It includes your Gmail, your calendar, as well Google docs.
You can use your own domain so you can basically have your email forwarded or sent through Gmail and that’s very, very cool. You can use your own domain. It’s advertising supported, however. What Paul, I think got wrong was that this free tool he was referring to. The tool is synchronized Outlook with Google Doc or Google Apps or you have to have the paid subscription which is the premium edition and that’s $50.00 a month per user. It also allows up to 25 gigabytes of storage per mail box per user which is very, very cool.
So that being said, Small Business Server 2008 had a price increase, alright? So the standard edition is now about $1089.00 and the client access licenses or that includes five client access licenses.
The premium edition includes about $1900.00 and the client access licenses are about a $189.00 a piece. So I got to do on some math and said okay, if you have 25 either shop, you went with the Google premium version, right? You’re looking at $25,000 a year every year. You did a Small Business Server standard with 20 additional calls. You’re at $2600.00 and $29.00 plus the price of the server.
Even though it does have block level backup include solution, included with small business server, you know, you’re going to need some type of backup device and it depends on the server. You probably will need a consultant unless you’re an IT guy to get it all, everything configured. You get e-mail and all that point to exchange.
So there you have it. You have a Google Apps which was the standard edition which was free, web based, add sponsored plus there is a $2500.00 a year ongoing thing. Now remember though, if you choose Small Business Server, you’re going to get a whole lot more than just mail encountering and the rest of the Google Docs and yeah, you can use that in some ways like a SurePoint services sort of thing.
You’re also going to get you know, file sharing, printer sharing, network authentication, group policy. You’re going to get remote web workplace and you’ll get better client management. As I said, there is a block level backup that comes with Small Business Server 2008.
So these are the features you’re going to get that you wouldn’t get if you will look at a Google Apps as a replacement. Let’s say for Small Business Server so at the end of the day, my opinion is this, is the Small Business Server 2008 as it stands today. If you can afford it, is a better way to get started than really looking at the Google App things you know, especially if you’re looking for more robust network services, right? You want that Microsoft Ecosystem and I think that depending on what you paid for the server and in consulting fees and certainly the more users you have then it’s probably, ultimately going to be less expensive than working with Google on the premium version.
However, if your pocketbook’s tight and you don’t need some of this stuff then Google Apps may very well be the clear ware for you. It really bears thinking it through and what your future growth is going to be. You can always start on Google Apps and then transition over to Small Business Server. Well, down the road that maybe a very good way to get your company up and off the ground with a minimum investment, no servers. You’re still probably going to need a consultant or an IT professional and help you get all the email stuff configure but you know why, it certainly is a several thousand dollar investment. You can kind of pocket right there off the bet so there you have it.
Plan for growth depending on what your needs are going to be if you want that Microsoft Ecosystem, if you want file printer sharing, if you want all these, the remote web workplace, the backup solution that comes with Small Business Server. You want all these things, window software updates, services that pushes patches out to your area network then Small Business Server is going to be much more robust but if your needs are basic, calendaring and email that sort of thing, perhaps the Google Apps will do it for you.
That’s my take on it. I still think it is John’s Small Business Server would be worth the upfront investment. That, of course Google is basically really hitting Microsoft hard with this one and this could possibly be the last major version of Small Business Server. Certainly, I think it’s just a matter of time, you know, Microsoft does have their hosted solutions and they may be as pushing that more and more and more, who knows, there may not even be a Small Business Server down the road. Who knows but as I said today, that’s my recommendation.
I always love to hear from you. I liked your opinions and comments on this. Feel free to rate out videos. Remember we’re also having a drawing on June 30th. It’s a Tuesday between one and three p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Just visit Frugal Brothers.com. Hit the link that says Frugal Tech Live, join the live chat room. Be there one day and we will be having a drawing for an iPod Nano.
Bruce Naylor, Frugal Tech. Remember, if it’s within your shot, not making any money or saving you money, get it out there. I’ll talk to you later.
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