Today, Microsoft announced the decision to streamline our server product portfolio and that we will discontinue future development of Essential Business Server, effective June 30^th, 2010.  A few points about this announcement:

• Microsoft remains fully committed to small and medium-sized businesses and the Partners who serve them
• This decision not to ship future versions of EBS will not impact any other Windows Server products and solutions, including the next version of Windows Small Business Server (SBS)
• This decision not to ship future versions of EBS does not come lightly
• The technology capabilities many midsize businesses are turning to (such as virtualization, management, and cloud computing) are already available through other offerings, including: Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)
• We are going to provide a limited offer (June 30, 2010 through December 31, 2010) for all EBS 2008 customers where they can get the individual component software from the EBS 2008 suite for free (local taxes, shipping and handling charges may apply)
  • Customers with Software Assurance will be offered an open agreement to receive the license for many stand-alone products that would have been included in EBS 2010.
• Current EBS customers can look forward to a support cycle that holds true to the Microsoft five-year mainstream and five-year extended support lifecycle
• All service packs will also be supported according to lifecycle support
• We would like to sincerely thank everyone who provided feedback, participated in the development of, and/or used Windows Essential Business Server

For more information about this announcement, including an FAQ and more, please take a look at:

• Windows Essential Business Server 2008 page
• Windows Essential Server Team Blog post
• Windows Essential Business Server FAQ

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights