> I'm really ambivalent about those things. Their purpose is largely to let > people who have >no business mucking around as administrator think they know > what's going on. IT management >is not something you want an untrained > person doing, even for a small business. Just like >you don't want a small > business doing their own plumbing or electrical >wiring. And yes, many do all of that themselves. Doesn't make it a >good idea. I'm aware of the cost arguments; I argue that the money is better >spent hiring >>an outside contractor. IMO, YMMV, etc. You don't have to >agree.
Being the outside contractor, I love the Wizards. Yeah, I COULD set up all the Group Policies, seperatly install and Configure WSUS, Configure OWA and Forms bases authentication, and everything else that is considered 'best practices" on a stand alone server / Exchange install, or I could pop in the SBS CD, let it rip, run through the Wizards and in an hour or so have a fully functioning, secure, domain and exchange enviroment. Hell, SBS even automatically creates a reverse lookup Zone in DNS for you. It even emails your back up reports to you if you want. Time is money to a SBS customer. I can create a more secure network in less time using SBS install than I could ever hope to trying to do it with stand alone products. That would be an interesting challenge, I'd love to participate in on either side. Set up SBS, VS. Setting up Server2k3 / Exchange / OWA / NTBackup with FBA, WSUS, SharePoint / and All the group Policies for the firewall and such on the same box. The thing to remember here, and to not to get off topic is SBS is MORE than Exchange+Server2003. It's a full package product with a tone of bells and whistles aimed a a very spefic market. Too many people just think that its "Server+Exchange" /me off the soapbox ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
