Microsoft discontinues Windows Essential Business Server

Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Windows Essential Business Server (EBS), to be effective June 30 this year. EBS shipped in November 2008, and is aimed toward businesses with between 250 to 300 desktops. Microsoft has hoped to replicate the success of its Small Business Server product with EBS, which is catered toward smaller businesses of less than 75 desktops.

However, demand for EBS must have been far less than expected for the Redmond company to abruptly discontinue it barely 16 months after it was first launched.

In an email, Microsoft wrote that this decision represents "a natural market shift" in which mid-size businesses are creating their own IT solutions. Microsoft has pledged that it remains fully committed to small- and mid-size businesses as a whole, and that this has no bearing on any other Windows Server products and solutions, "including the next version of Windows Small Business Server."

For more on this story:
- check out the article at Ars Technica
- check out this post at Windows Essential Business Server Team blog 

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