Small Business Server 2008 Enters Public Beta

Microsoft's next generation operating system designed for small and mid-sized businesses is set to release in the second half of 2008.

Introducing the IBM N3000 Series - Modular Disk Storage Systems

Lease a well equipped 6 TB IBM N Series Express from $650 per month.

Server 2008 Feature Review: Network Access Protection

Network Access Protection is a set of operating system components included with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that serve as a platform to ensure client computers connected to a company's network meet a specified set of system health requirements.

Small Business Server 2008 is the successor product to the hugely popular Small Business Server 2003 R2, and is Microsoft's next generation business platform solution for small and mid-sized businesses. Like the 2003 version of the SBS product family, Small Business Server 2008 is a suite of products that are designed to run on a single server system to provide a platform for security, collaboration, and remote connectivity, with a particular focus on the needs and technical abilities of small and mid-sized businesses.

For many months, Broadview Networks has been testing SBS 2008 as a participant in the early private beta program. Small Business Server 2008 recently entered the Public Beta phase of development, which expands the testing community to a much wider audience as the product approaches a release date in the second half of 2008. First impressions of the product are very positive; the features and integration are impressive!

For 2008, SBS retains two product versions - Standard and Premium. Both Standard and Premium versions include Windows Server 2008 at the operating system level, Exchange Server 2007 and SharePoint Services v3.0 for collaboration, and Windows Server Update Services v3 for managing security updates for systems and applications in the small business network. New in 2008 is the inclusion of Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Windows Live OneCare for Server (120 day limited) subscriptions.

Premium Edition of SBS 2008 will deliver all the features of SBS 2003 Standard, plus this suite will add a second license for Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (32 or 64 bit), and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition.

A key consideration for most SBS 2008 target customers is that SBS 2008 is available as a 64 bit only installation. For existing SBS 2003 environments, this introduces challenges with respect to migration, as there is no way to in-place upgrade from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. A major benefit of the move to a 64 bit platform is significant improvements to memory management - SBS 2008 will support up to 32 GB of system memory!

In preparation for the launch of Windows Small Business Server 2008 in the second half of 2008, Microsoft Canada recently kicked off an initial round of training for Microsoft Partners and technology specialists in 4 Canadian cities - and Broadview Networks was in Calgary for the training event. Systems Consultant, Jason Miller, was invited to present the day-long training session to thirty Microsoft Partners from Calgary and surrounding areas. And more recently, Broadview Networks was also involved in an evening presentation of SBS 2008 in a technical review to the local Winnipeg IT Professionals group.

If your company is interested in learning more about Windows Small Business Server 2008, please contact Broadview Networks.

Network Access Protection (NAP) is a set of operating system components included with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that serve as a platform to ensure client computers connected to a company's network meet a specified set of system health requirements. NAP policies define the required configuration and update status for a client computer's operating system and critical software.

For example, computers might be required to have anti-virus software with the latest signatures installed, current operating system updates installed, and a host-based firewall enabled. By enforcing compliance with these health requirements, NAP can help mitigate risks caused by client computers that might be exposed to viruses and other malicious software.

NAP enforces health requirements by monitoring and assessing the health of client computers when they attempt to connect or to communicate on a network. If client computers are determined to be noncompliant with health requirements, they can be placed on a restricted network that contains resources to assist in remediating client systems so that they can become compliant with health policies.

Network and system administrators who want to enforce system health requirements for client computers connecting to the networks they support will be interested in NAP. With NAP, network administrators can do the following:

• Help ensure the health of desktop computers on the LAN that are configured for DHCP or that connect through 802.1X authenticating devices, or that have NAP IPsec policies applied to their communications
• Verify the health and policy compliance of unmanaged home computers that connect to the company network through a VPN server running Routing and Remote Access
• Determine the health and restrict access of laptops brought to an organization by visitors and partners
• Enforce health requirements for roaming laptops when they reconnect to the company network

Depending on their needs, administrators can configure a solution to address any or all of these scenarios. NAP also includes an API set for developers and vendors to build their own components for network policy validation, ongoing compliance and network isolation.

NAP deployments require servers that are running Windows Server 2008. In addition, client computers running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows XP with SP2 or SP3 and the Network Access Protection Client for Windows XP are required. The central server that performs health determination analysis for NAP is a computer running Windows Server 2008 and NPS. NPS is the Windows implementation of a RADIUS server and proxy. NPS is the replacement for the Internet Authentication Service (IAS) in Windows Server 2003. Access devices and NAP servers act as RADIUS clients to an NPS-based RADIUS server - NPS performs authentication and authorization of a network connection attempt and, based on configured system health policies, determines computer health compliance and how to limit a noncompliant computer's network access.

If your organization is interested in learning more about Windows Server 2008 or if you would like to discuss implementation options for your environment, please contact Broadview Networks for more information.

Lease a well equipped 6 TB IBM N Series Express from $650 per month*

The promise of scaling out a data center with small, low-cost servers has led to an unintended consequence-"stranded storage" from internal disks or directly attached storage (DAS) solutions. IT professionals today are overwhelmed by the amount of data they have to manage. They are challenged by the need to keep pace with their companies' growing business, improve backup and restore effectiveness, implement disaster recovery solutions and not overwhelm their IT staff-often on a shoestring budget.

The IBM N3000 Express systems are designed to provide primary and secondary storage for midsize enterprises. Consolidating all of their fragmented application-based storage and unstructured data into one unified, easily managed and expandable platform can help IT generalists increase their effectiveness. N3000 Express systems offer integrated block-level and file-level data access, intelligent management software and data protection capabilities-such as higher-end N series systems-in a cost-effective package. IBM N3000 Express series innovations include internal controller support for Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) or SATA drives, expandable I/O connectivity and onboard remote management.

The IBM N3000 Express is compatible with the entire family of N series unified storage systems, which feature a comprehensive line-up from top-to-bottom of hardware and software designed to address a variety of possible deployment environments.

The N3300 squeezes 12 TBs of physical capacity into a 2U enclosure and optional external expansion that can increase total system raw capacity to 68 TBs. The N3600 scales up to 20 TBs of internal raw capacity and can scale up to 104 TBs by supporting up to 104 disk drives. Whether for primary or secondary storage use, the N3000 systems are intended to provide outstanding deployment versatility and connectivity to help satisfy your data protection and recovery needs.

Highlights:

• High availability-Takes advantage of proven features including a high performing and scalable operating system, data management software and redundancy features
  
• Backup and recovery features-Designed to support disk-based backup, with file or application-level recovery with Snapshot™ and SnapRestore® software features
  
• Simple replication and disaster recovery-Designed to provide easy-to-deploy mirroring solution that is highly tolerant of WAN interruptions
  
• Management simplicity-Self-diagnosing systems designed to enable on-the-fly provisioning
  
• Versatile-Single, integrated architecture designed to support concurrent block I/O and file serving over Ethernet and Fibre Channel SAN infrastructures

IBMN3000 Express systems offer versatility via unified file and block storage-CIFS, NFS, iSCSI and FC protocols are supported-and can be used as primary or secondary storage. These systems are designed to address storage consolidation challenges as well as application server virtualization projects. With Data ONTAP®, theN3000 Express systems offer the ability to use storage efficiently by helping increase utilization through thin provisioning (FlexVol® and FlexClone®) and reduce storage space requirements with Snapshot technology.

The N3000 Express systems support dual-controller configuration with auto-mated active-active failover. Using the IBM N series SnapSuite™ of manageability software, multipath high availability for business continuity, and intelligent data protection and disaster recovery software, the N3000 Express systems are intended to help keep your business running smoothly.

The N3000 Express systems are designed as the entry point to the entire N series family. The systems provide multiple I/O connectivity options, a small footprint to hold high density SAS or SATA drives, and external expansion using low-cost SATA drives and Fibre Channel disks for production applications, and utilize Data ONTAP Snapshot technology. The systems are truly versatile products that can be deployed to address some of the most demanding application environments. For further systems administration time and cost advantages, the N3000 Express systems come standard with Remote Onboard Management capabilities to help simplify remote system monitoring, cycle power, execute firmware upgrades, enter console commands and run diagnostics to help maintain the reliability of the system and your business-critical data.

The IBM System Storage™ N3000 Express series is designed for a broad range of deployment scenarios. The N3000 Express supports Ethernet and Fibre Channel environments, enabling economical NAS, FC and iSCSI deployments. The N3000 Express system functions as a "unification engine, which is designed to enable you to simultaneously serve both file-level and block-level data across a single or multiple networks-demanding procedures that for some solutions require multiple separately managed systems. The flexibility of the N3000 Express allows it to address the storage needs of a wide range of organizations, including distributed enterprises and data centers for midrange enterprises. The N3000Express also supports sites with computer-intensive and data intensive enterprise applications such as database, data warehousing, work-group collaboration and messaging.

N3000 Express storage systems can offer significant advantages for distributed enterprises with remote and branch office sites. These organizations and others can use the SnapVault® and SnapMirror® software functions to implement a cost-effective data protection strategy by mirroring data back to a corporate data center. N3000Express systems can help improve data availability and simplify backup and restore operations by implementing centralized backup via a single methodology. This helps reduce tape management requirements and the need for remote systems administration. Recovering data backed up on IBM SystemStorage N3000 Express systems can be faster than recovering from tape.

N3000 Express systems support a low TCO with an affordable price point, easy installation and configuration and ease of ongoing maintenance. Standardization on the IBM SystemStorage N series unified storage architecture can help your organization take advantage of staff IT skills and reduce complexity. The innovative design of the N3000 Express results in a small form-factor appliance that conserves scarce and valuable space in data centers or remote office locations. In addition, the ability to support unified storage networks enables you to make the most of your current network investment while deploying a long-term, highly scalable and easily upgradeable storage solution.

Contact Broadview Networks Enterprise Storage Sales @ 204-984-9897
# * Lease pricing is example only based on 3 year term with 10 % buy out. National Leasing. OAC.