New IT Trends Bring Change to Mid-Market Product Line

Four years ago, we committed to building an infrastructure solution for the mid-market. Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) which was the first of its kind to meet the unique needs of mid-market IT pros. Since that time the market landscape has naturally changed.

Today, we announced the decision to streamline our server product portfolio and will discontinue future development of EBS, effective June 30th, 2010.

Since the launch of EBS, several changes have occurred that drove our decision to streamline our server product portfolio. First, midsize businesses are rapidly turning to technologies such as management, virtualization and cloud computing as a means to cut costs, improve efficiency, and increase competitiveness. Those capabilities are already available through other offerings, including Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

Secondly, Microsoft remains fully committed to small and medium-sized businesses. We recognize that ending future editions of EBS could result in additional cost and complexity for our EBS customers. Therefore, we are going to provide a limited offer for all EBS 2008 customers. Beginning on June 30, 2010 through December 31, 2010, current EBS 2008 customers can get the individual component software from the EBS 2008 suite for free (local taxes, shipping and handling charges may apply). To learn more about this offer, EBS customers can visit https://www.microsoft.com/ebs.

This decision not to ship future versions of EBS does not come lightly and will not impact any other Windows Server products and solutions, including the next version of Windows Small Business Server (SBS).  As a matter of fact, we are working hard to build the next version of SBS and look forward to a second decade of success with this award winning small business offering.  

There is a tremendous amount of talent and expertise on the EBS product development team and Microsoft is committed to transitioning members of the EBS product team to work on other projects within the Microsoft Server and Cloud division.

Finally, in building these products for midsize customers we’ve had the unique opportunity to work closely with customers and partners worldwide. We would like to sincerely thank those of you who provided feedback, participated in the development, and used Windows Essential Business Server.

We look forward to continuing to provide world-class Microsoft solutions for the future!

More Information:

Current EBS customers can look forward to a support cycle that holds true to the Microsoft five-year mainstream and five-year extended support lifecycle. All service packs will also be supported according to lifecycle support. For more detailed information, please visit https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.

For customers interested in transitioning off of EBS, we will offer a six-month promotion where customers can migrate to many of the stand-alone products included in EBS 2008. For more details on the offer, please go to https://www.microsoft.com/ebs.

Customers with Software Assurance will be offered an open agreement to receive the license for many stand-alone products that would have been included in EBS 2010. Customers who do not have Software Assurance will have the option to take advantage of the offer which begins on June 30, 2010 through December 31, 2010. For more details on the offer, go to https://www.microsoft.com/ebs.

For more information about this decision, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/ebs.