Re: isaserver.org gets SBS friendly

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Excuse me?

Do you see an MCSE hanging off my name?

Dvord Direwood wrote:

"Steve Flynn" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:OA$tu$hqFHA.544@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


"Dvord Direwood" <dvord@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ui9XRRcqFHA.3516@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Personally I won't recommend Microsoft products to ANYONE. I will suggest they get Linux because they'd get 100% of the features for less than a fraction of the price.


This would not be a good move for most Small Businesses. It's easy to fall into the value for money trap with Linux with its low/zero up front cost. But the ongoing costs or TCO if you like do mean you would get anywhere like the features for 100% of the price. Would you also suggest Linux on the desktop as well? I don't know of any flavours of Linux that come close to SBS 2003 / Win XP package for small businesses never mind match the feature set 100%, and if there was then I would seriously consider offering it as a solution to my clients - I'm pretty agnostic in the long run about what sofware I use and if there was a better offering available I would want to know about it.



Apparantly despite 2 years of in-depth use and administration of SBS2000 doesn't qualify me to have any knowledge of the product whatsoever from another MVP on this forum.

Considering that the "acceptable" level of skill for deploying such a solution is an MCSE (easily a $10,000 cost in training) added to the already inflated price of a Microsoft solution, one can easily make TCO work for Linux. Spend HALF of what you would for the Microsoft solution in terms of professional Linux training, and your TCO drop DRAMATICALLY, and come directly in line with the same amount of features for no more than HALF the price when you include training.

I would suggest Linux on the desktop, SUSE 9.1 + OpenOffice is a really great performer. Is it for everyone? No. However, it doesn't have to be. OpenExchange and other collaboration platforms provide all the same features; public folders, calendaring and scheduling, and of course e-mail. Again, these are FREE or low cost.



And another thing - Linux has security holes too, so if you go down this route you better hope that your "flavour" is still in production and still supported and offers speedy patching.



Linux does have security holes, but again, more M$ propaganda. SANS CONTINUOUSLY tests the survivability of a Windows desktop machine versus a Linux one. Do you know what the survivability difference is? Windows is measured in MINUTES. Linux is measured in WEEKS.... At least you can wait for patches with Linux. With Microsoft, you have to load patches UPON RELEASE without testing thanks to zero-day exploits which plague Microsoft.



However, if they wished to stick with Microsoft, I would suggest not using ISA, but a hardware firewall appliance since they're more reliable. I would have them put a box for web hosting, another for exchange, perhaps one other for SQL depending on what they want to do with the database, and another as the DC/File and Print/most anything else. So I would tell them they would need 3-4.


If my client said funds were unlimited and they want the best then I would propose a multi-server solution. This is not the real world though is it?



Luckily, with Linux, 3-4 machines amounts to a fraction of what M$ does for one, so funds don't have to be unlimited. In fact they could even be less than what an M$ solution would be.



Microsoft says SBS will run your business web site. However, they do not say that this web site is more vulnerable to attack than any other IIS implementation. Other MVP's say themselves that you should not run IIS publically with SBS. It's a security risk. Why market it that way?


SBS might meet the budget needs of small business, but it snowballs technology neophytes into a product which flaunts many features but in fact only delivers on half, and does so with frequent downtime and unpatchable vulnerabilities.


In my experience of small businesses that do not have an SBS based solution in place, often what they currently have is far worse (i.e. upatched servers/workstations, Windows 98 machines still in use / Windows NT still in use, poor configuration/setup, a historical pile of software that makes everything run like a dog. SBS 2003 often presents a whole new opportunity for many small business to get their technology in order. For some its the ideal solution, for others it's the stepping stone to an even more sophisticated/higher security/scaled out setup based on Microsoft technologies.



Your example of unpatched machines, 98 and everything else won't be changed by spending a pile of money. This is the culture of "throw money at the problem" which Microsoft promotes in their business and in their products.



A healthy cynicism of Microsoft does no harm at all especially in regard to security issues, but Dvord I think a lot of what you've said shows a misunderstanding of the role of SBS 2003 (standard or premium) in the marketplace.
Regards

Steve Flynn
MCSE, MCDBA



Steve, a blind following of Microsoft without looking at other options from an unbiased point of view is very harmful. It's harmful to your customers, and worse, it's harmful to the consumer base at large.

The sooner people start waking up to how M$ CREATES these markets, CREATES business needs, then PROVIDES weak solutions which have engineered lifecycles, are undertested, and poorly supported, the sooner we will again see quality development and products.

I'm fully aware that I'm paddling a cruise ship upstream in this forum and that's fine, but maybe if one person will shake off the M$ blinders they'll realize that with a little hard work they will get what you pay for rather than be a Microsoft subscriber. When you buy Microsoft, you're not a customer, you're a subscriber; which means indefinite, significant capital expense on a tool to get your business done.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather concentrate on my business than have to keep putting M$ against my bottom line.





--
An open letter to the Security Community:: http://msmvps.com/bradley/archive/2004/12/12/23540.aspx
.

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