RE: FYI: ISA on SBS
- From: "Wayne Small" <wayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "[ISAserver.org Discussion List]" <isalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 19:56:53 +1000
David,
As SBS2003 is not yet released, I would caution you not to assume that
Microsoft is making a responsible decision not to have ISA in the
package. Final product specifications / feature mix will only be
available at launch date (standard MS line there).
I have many sites with SBS2000 and 4.5 running that have 30+ users on
them all on a single server. Provided you use quality hardware and back
that up with the appropriate support agreements from the hardware
vendors then downtime is not a major issue. Sure you can have a total
system failure causing 50 people to be stopped, but unless you are a
real big business with multiple servers configured for full redundancy
then the potential that a server goes down will mean people stopped.
The point I am trying to make, is that I think it better to put all my
eggs in one basket and make sure that it is a real strong basket than to
have multiple smaller / less robust baskets.
Having things on a single server actually makes maintenance and
monitoring easier - not because of SBS's inbuilt health monitor, but
instead because your attention is focused on that single server and
therefore any small issue gets attended to and addresses before it
becomes a big issue. I have clients in both small business (50 users or
less) and medium business (51 to 500users) and I find that the small
business clients need less maintenance than the large clients mainly due
to the easier configuration etc that is part of SBS. Now this may not
be the case for all people but it is for me.
Backup and Antivirus are easy - I use Trend for AV (on all sites small
and medium) and either the inbuilt NTBACKUP or Veritas backup. I have
performed full server recoveries where required in less than 8hrs with
100% success. Now that's not to say that these issues are without
potential problems, but the SBS client is aware of the value they get
and security is certainly high on the list - specifically with all the
potential "hackers" out there exploiting the various holes in the base
OS. Now without ISA being on the SBS server then customers would not be
able to take advantage of features such as outlook web access etc
securely. With ISA in place it gives us even more piece of mind that no
hardware firewall at a reasonable price can give. That to me translates
to real benefits to the SBS customer both in cost and security. As I
said - I hope Microsoft does bring out an ISA server style appliance
aimed at the SBS market - or even better still the ability to have ISA
installed on another server at a small cost - that would be excellent
for the SBS customer as it would give the best of both worlds - one can
only hope that MS reads this stuff and listens to the bleats from out
here in user land.
Anyway - thanks for listening to my view of the world - hope it was not
boring.
Regards,
Wayne Small [SBS-MVP]
MCSE+I MCSE 2000
Technical Director - Correct Solutions Pty Ltd
For all the answers on Small Business Server 2000 - check out
www.sbsfaq.com <http://www.sbsfaq.com/>
-----Original Message-----
From: David V. Dellanno [mailto:ddellanno@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, 24 July 2003 10:24 PM
To: [ISAserver.org Discussion List]
Subject: [isalist] RE: FYI: ISA on SBS
http://www.ISAserver.org
Hi Wayne,
I admit that SBS2003 is pretty kewl and has everything an
admin should have at his fingertips to run a small business with super
simple wizards and Server Management Console, plus making the admin who
sets up such a box a superstar, demonstrating how fast such a solution
can be completed. I will agree that initial price of the solution is
inexpensive for a small guy that will provide a big business solution
but I don't think that the whole cost solution about SBS is being
explained to the client about the initial install to the life-cycle
cost.
-------
$$$$$ The cost factor for just the basics.
A single server solution would require a complete redundancy
(power-supply, hot swap RAID-1, RAID-5, tons of memory, mult-proc, and
etc.)
What about have a spare SBS server in cast the server were to go
down or needs to be services that might take a day or two to be
completed. This would depend on the recovery policy you have agreed on.
But if you have 50 employees down for a day, that's 50 * 8hrs = $$$$$
lost
A backup solution for 50 users plus SBS Data storage and how
long will your backup retention period be?
Lets not forget Anti-virus solution.
Not to mention the number of workstations that would also be
supported and protected!
---------
When it comes to cost for a small guy, and I might be
generalizing here, but it seems that security takes the back seat. The
company will invest a pretty penny for what we would consider the
essentials but I would go out of my way to protect the services and
resources by not putting a firewall solution on the same server it does
not make sense. Yes, this would break SBS Server Management console,
so you can't take advantage completely of their monitor reporting tool
but the advantage of having your firewall separate from the resources
you are protecting and the extra cost to implement a two server solution
would be well worth it.
I know SBS2003 is using RRAS as their firewall and I understand
the advantage of ISA's caching capability is a huge benefit for you,
but this goes to show that Microsoft is making the responsible decision
to not have ISA on the same box and are concern about their products not
being secure enough. Just looking at the basic essential cost for both
HW & SW for SBS shows the argument for the need to have a Firewall
solution (either ISA 2000 or other firewall solutions) added to the cost
of SBS2003 would not impact the whole solution cost, it may be an extra
$2k-$4k.
I really like the idea of SBS but there is a significant cost to
implement, support, and the life-cycle for this solution. Singling out
ISA should not be the factor of keeping the cost down, it should be the
last thing to consider.
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