The premium edition of Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) includes an additional Windows 2008 Standard Server licence and SQL 2008 standard license. While the three servers that make up the core of EBS are 64bit, the forth server can be either 32bit or 64bit. Here are a few ways this server can be used to enhance the network environment.

Virtualisation

With the included Windows 2008 Standard server license you get rights to run a single Virtual Instance of Windows 2008 Standard. The physical server can be installed as a Hyper-V host for a virtual server running a second instance of Windows. Additional Windows licenses can be purchased to run additional virtual machines.

SQL

SQL 2008 Standard Edition is a powerful database management system that can be used to host a wide range of SQL applications e.g. Microsoft Dynamics, Sharepoint content databases, SAP etc. It also features reporting, data analysis and replication technology and is a great platform for managing data company wide and making that data accessible.

SQL 2008 Home Page

Compatibility

In some environments it might be desirable to have a 32bit Windows server e.g. to support legacy 32bit only applications or devices such as printers that don’t have a suitable 64bit driver. Either a 32bit physical operating system or a 64bit instance running Hyper-V with a 32bit virtual machine can be useful options to get around these issues.

Client Access Licenses

When adding new users to EBS 2008 via the EBS Management Console you can choose between standard and premium client access licenses. If you have users who don’t require access to the forth server you can assign a standard CAL to those users.

EBS 2008 Edition Comparision