Small Biz Special: How to Save 50% on Your Infrastructure Licensing.

You have decided to implement a Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system on your Small and Medium Business (SMB) and while reviewing the system requirements with your Dynamics Partner you realize that you must renew your IT infrastructure. You’re not alone.

While most medium businesses do have a Windows Domain, the fact is that most small businesses only have a Windows Workgroup. And even though most SMBs run some sort of accounting app, most likely these are file based or running on an open source database and not on Microsoft’s SQL Server. You are now facing the acquisition of some new hardware and software product licenses.

No longer a secret, but sometimes neglected by hardcore IT pros, Microsoft offers Windows Small Business Server, a combination of product licenses in an optimized package specifically tweaked and priced to meet SMBs’ needs. In it’s current incarnations, Windows Small Business Server 2011 offers pretty much everything your SMB might require. Two versions are available: Small Business Server Essentials and Small Business Server Standard.

The following scenario proves to be a perfect fit for SBS 2011 Essentials which has just been released:

Your business has 20 PC users who need to collaborate and share files. Of those, 10 will be using Dynamics. In essence, you need to deploy two servers: one to provide essential networking services for 20 users and the other to run your line of business apps for 10 users. License wise you’re looking at these two purchasing options:

Option 1 – Standalone product licenses

• 2 Windows Server 2008 Standard plus 20 Windows Server CALS
• 1 SQL Server 2008 Standard plus 10 SQL Server CALS
• Price: USD 5,200

Option 2 – Windows SBS 2011 product licenses

• 1 Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (no CALS required)
• 1 Windows SBS 2011 Premium AddOn (includes 5 CALS)
• 5 Windows SBS 2011 Premium AddOn CALS (for a total of 10 SQL CALS)
• Price: USD 2,600

By choosing SBS 2011 Essentials you are getting the same goods for precisely half the price, and that is a very sweet deal.

As in any good offer, some restrictions apply. Thhe most obvious one is that the SBS has to be the single Active Directory Domain Controller and hence cannot coexist with another on the same network. There is also a 25 PC/User limit and SQL 2008 Standard for Small Business has also a couple of restrictions, mainly to guarantee that it is running on an Windows SBS environment.

As a matter of fact, under the SBS 2011 packaging, you will be getting more in the form of a simplified dashboard and streamlined deployment tasks that requires minimal IT knowledge to properly deploy and sustain, an important ‘feature’ for SMBs.

So if this article saved you 50% off your licensing costs, feel free to post a Thank You comment.

By ICON, Dominican Republic Dynamics GP partner