Office 365 & SBS 2011 Essentials:
The perfect blend for small business
Although Office 365 provides a comprehensive set of features for all sizes of business, there are some IT issues which still need addressing. Below I have listed some common concerns:
File Data:
Although SharePoint Online is a great tool for collaboration it is not ideal as a file server so:
· If our file data is not stored in the cloud, where do we keep it?
· If our file data is not stored in the cloud, how do we back-it up?
· If our file data is not stored in the cloud, how do we access it remotely?
Network/Remote Access
· How can I provide internet access and network connectivity for my internal staff?
· How can I provide remote staff access to applications on their office computers?
· How can we provide a secure, simple to use printing solution?
Applications
· How can we ensure that our ‘line of business’ applications (Sage, etc) are available for all users? How can remote users access this?
· How can we back-up the data for these line of business applications?
Security/Access
· Can we increase our control over user security and access to our services?
Blending
For the majority of business, it is likely that at least one of these issues will mean that a local server of some sort is still essential. This is where a blended approach makes perfect sense.
If your company has 25 or less employees and you are interested in the benefits offed by Office 365 then SBS 2011 Essentials is the perfect solution. This will provide you with a low cost local server which is specifically designed to integrate with Office 365 and provide the functionality and guaranteed uptime of hosted services with the security, management and performance with an ‘on-premise’ solution.SBS 2011 Essentials will provide all of the following
Integration; SBS 2011 essentials is designed to integrate with Office 365 seamlessly, allowing you to make local changes and for these to be replicated to the cloud automatically. For example, if you delete a local user account the associated Office 365 account will also be removed. It also provides ‘Single sign-on’ meaning that users only have to log in once, and will have access to all of their local and hosted services.
Active Directory; to help you to manage your user accounts, permissions, passwords, etc, linked seamlessly with Office 365.
Files and Folders; can be stored, secured and backed-up locally or remotely and linked directly to your SharePoint Online service for collaboration.
3rd party Application Support; allows you to install your important business applications onto a fast, reliable and secure local infrastructure
Remote Access Services; allowing users to view files and folders remotely and access applications installed on the server
Cost Effective; there are no user licenses (CAL’s) required in SBS Essentials 2011, just the cost of the hardware and the server license.
In summary, if you have 25 users or less and are interested in moving to Office 365, you should definitely consider a blended approach using SBS 2011 essentials.
More information can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/products/servers/Pages/windows_sbs_2011_essentials_overview.aspx
Or email Office365UK@gmail.com
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