The next version of SBS “Cougar”

There is finally some public information about the next version of SBS code named “Cougar”. The information can be found at this blog.

http://ts2blogs.com/blogs/larrylentz/archive/2007/05/27/8792.aspx

and another post here

http://sbs.seandaniel.com/2007/05/hey-wheres-my-next-version-of-sbs.html

but in a nutshell

Finally Some Public Info on Cougar

Cougar is the code name for the next version of SBS. The SBS team, lead by Group Product Manager Dean Paron, just gave a presentation here in NOLA. Here are some interesting, public, points:

1. Because Cougar includes Exchange 2007 which is 64 bit only, Cougar will be 64 bit ONLY.

2. Because it is 64 bit only, in place upgrades from earlier versions will not be supported. There was a discussion of how migration will likely take place by Product Manager Chirs Almida. You won’t be able to do an in place upgrade EVEN FROM 64 bit hardware. There will be a migration too that will take you from your current SBS to Cougar on ANOTHER BOX. Surely there will be other third party solutions. Can you spell www.SBSMigration.com?

3. The backup will be very interesting and robust. However, it will NOT support tape. It will be fast and incremental backups can be scheduled as often as every 30 minute. There will be a read only version of NTBACKUP to allow for reading data from backups on your old system. Third party backup solutions may still support tape, but not the built in solution in SBS.

4. The current user cap of 75 users will likely remain.

5. Cougar will need to be installed behind some kind of firewall and the single NIC model will be the standard.

6. Cougar will be based on Longhorn server now officially called Windows Server 2008. I think we all figured that but now Longhorn has a real name.

Published Sunday, May 27, 2007 10:56 AM by LarryLentz

The beta program has started but all Beta Testers have signed NDA’s and cannot talk about it. All I can say is that the last bit of my X64 hardware is due to show up on Friday and I am building a new server this weekend!