Microsoft Kills Business Product

Ars Technica reports: Microsoft's mid-market server bundle, Essential Business Server, is being discontinued, with no further development after June 30. EBS shipped in November 2008, aimed at organizations with up to 250-300 desktops. The bundle includes a range of Microsoft server products, including Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Forefront Security and ISA Server. The discontinuation was announced on the EBS blog.

The Small Business Server product, aimed at companies with fewer than 75 desktops, has been a significant and popular part of its server software line-up for many years. The company hoped to replicate this small business success with EBS, but after just 16 months has chosen to terminate the package, citing changes in the demands made by the mid-size companies and a desire to streamline its product lineup.

An EBS R2 release, updated to include Windows Server 2008 R2 and other technology, was originally expected in the second half of this year. With this announcement, that's no longer going to happen. Instead, existing customers will be able to replace EBS with the equivalent standalone software for a six-month period from July 1 through to the end of the year. EBS itself will continue to be supported for a further five years.

This decision will not have any impact on SBS; an update to that package is expected later this year.