SBS 2011 To Hit the Action Pack

(Editor's Note: The SBS 2011 isn't close to hitting the Action Pack, after all. See the update to this item here.)

Partners with Action Pack subscriptions can look for Windows Small Business Server 2011 at the Digital Download Center right about now, according a Microsoft blog.

"I've had a lot of questions [from partners] about SBS 2011, and it is scheduled to be added to the Digital Download Center at the end of February," said Julie Golding, a Microsoft partner marketing manager, in a Q&A last week on the Microsoft U.S. Partner Team blog. Golding is the U.S. lead for the Microsoft Action Pack Solution Provider, the IT version of the Action Pack subscription, which was split into IT and developer editions last May.

Small Business Server 2011 is the next version of Microsoft's general-purpose server for organizations with up to 75 employees. The product was released to manufacturing in December and posted in a 180-day trial version in January.

It is one of several small office/home office servers nearing general availability. Release candidate versions of Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Home Server came out at the beginning of February. Home Server supports up to 10 PCs and Essentials tops out at about 25 users.

Action Pack Solution Provider subscribers get one internal-use license for Windows Small Business Server and 10 client access licenses, among the dozens of products and hundreds of licenses in the Action Pack. Microsoft Small Business Specialist partners get a specialized version of the Action Pack called the SBSC Special Edition Toolkit that has a shorter list of products but which includes 15 SBS CALs. In the United States, the Action Pack Solution Provider costs $329 per year. The developer edition, Action Pack Development & Design, costs $429, and has most of the same software plus an MSDN subscription and developer tools.

Posted by Scott Bekker on February 28, 2011 at 2:46 PM