When it comes to new systems and software, a Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server (SBS) might not seem like an ideal solution for a public or private primary school. But, primary schools in the United Kingdom have begun using SBS to transform teaching and meet targets set by the British government’s national education agenda; And, US schools are expected to follow shortly. Six schools in the county of Cornwall have implemented SBS and they say it is ideal for the Educational environment because it provides schools professional applications, and easy access to centralized files and data. “Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server meets the needs of our teachers, pupils and administrators, and it involves little or no maintenance,” claims a senior administrator.

SBS is an ideal solution for many small to medium sized public or private schools (the education license covers 75 computers and there is no limit on the number of students who can use them); But, if their Microsoft Windows Small Business Server fails, the disruption can be devastating because small to medium sized educational institutions rarely have skilled IT personnel on staff who can restore their OS, Applications or Data in the case of unplanned downtime. It can take a school administrator hours to days to locate a qualified IT professional and the replacement hardware required to affect a system restore and several days more for the technician to complete the restore. In the interim all school operations are compromised and valuable data will undoubtedly be lost.