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The Windows 8 wave of products is resulting in some significant changes in Microsoft's portfolio. One significant departure is the venerable Small Business Server, made obsolete by licensing changes in the Windows Server product range, and by the arrival of the company's cloud-based Office Even so, there's still a need for a small-business server platform — to host applications, and to manage directory services. For despite all the hype, it's still impossible to do everything in the cloud.

That's where Windows Server Essentials comes in. Building on the current Windows Small Business Server Essentials , the new server mixes business and consumer features, while providing a gateway to both Microsoft's and third-party cloud services via cloud directory federation.

Microsoft's recent changes to its cloud licensing schemes for resellers should allow them to build small-business packages around Essentials and Office , offering the combination as a managed service. You don't need a hefty server to run Windows Server Essentials, either. The base system requirements are a single 1. Getting started Microsoft has done a lot to simplify the server experience in Windows Server Essentials. Installation is easy, with minimal user intervention. All you need is an administrator account and an initial user account, and you're ready to begin.

Then it's a quick click from the Metro Start screen to desktop and the Dashboard. The built-in Dashboard is the heart of Essentials, with tools for managing your server and your users. It's also where you'll finish setting up your server, with seven simple steps to finalise the built-in updater, set up user accounts and manage the shared folders for an office. User accounts can be given different levels of access to the shared folders, with the default being read-only.

It's now easier to ensure that user files are kept backed up, thanks to Essentials' support for one of Windows 8's new features — File History. User PCs running Windows 8 will be automatically configured to store file history information on the server — so you'll need to be sure you have enough disk space set aside for users' file snapshots.

The process is transparent, so it's a useful tool for system administrators trying to keep user data secure.

Windows Server Essentials still uses the LaunchPad client to handle full device backups, to simplify access to shared resources and for remote access to a server as well as giving administrators access to diagnostic information from PCs. Microsoft has said that is developing a Windows 8 Metro application to support additional remote access scenarios, along with a Windows Phone client.

Connecting to the cloud Email drives the modern business, and even though Essentials doesn't come with a mail server, it's designed to be the heart of any email system, as it gives you a simple way of managing an Active Directory. You can quickly connect to an Office account using a simple wizard that handles domain federation or to an Exchange Server running elsewhere in your network. You can add as many servers as you like to an Essentials-managed network — just make sure that the Windows Server Essentials system is the only Active Directory server in the network.

The Dashboard isn't the only way to manage Windows Server Essentials: although it's not visible from the Metro Start screen or from the desktop, Microsoft has included the full Windows Server Manager. With support for many of Windows Server's more complex features and for managing more than one server , the Metro-designed Server Manager is a powerful tool that turns Essentials into the heart of a Windows network and gives small businesses the tools they need to grow their server with their business.

Like all Microsoft's current server products, there's also support for PowerShell, so you can use Server Manager to create management scripts that can be used to control your server from desktop PCs. Perhaps the most useful is support for Microsoft's new Storage Spaces technology.

Storage Spaces uses server virtualisation techniques to build thin-provisioned storage pools that can be used to replicate the Drive Extender features of Windows Home Server, with an easy-to-manage storage pool that stores data redundantly. Of course redundant storage is no replacement for a backup strategy, but it goes some way to delivering a resilient single server solution for a small office.

Microsoft has built-in backup tools that work with external disks, and with its own Online Backup Service available as a server add-in for Essentials. Both server and client backups now support bare-metal restores, making it easier to get users back online after a hardware failure. Growing a network has always been issue for Microsoft's small-business servers, and migrating from one to a full-blown Windows Server network used to be challenging especially when dealing with Active Directory.

That all changes with Windows Server Essentials, and when you reach its user limit, you can just do an in-place upgrade to Windows Server Standard. The majority of the Essentials features continue to be supported up to a limit of 75 users , giving you time to migrate to alternatives and to design and build a larger Windows network.

You might not expect to find consumer features in a small-business server, but Windows Server Essentials has another role to play, as a successor to Microsoft's range of Home Servers. That's why it includes a media server — so you can use it to store music, photos and videos, and then make them available as a shared media library for use with desktop music players, as well as with network-connected music appliances.

Those consumer features also include full access to the Windows Store, so you can install and run Metro-style applications on a Windows Server Essentials system. Conclusion Windows Small Business Server Essentials was something of a damp squib, but there's a lot to like in its successor. The advent of Office made sense for Microsoft to rationalise its server product line, and replacing Small Business Server with an updated and improved version of Windows Server Essentials was the logical thing to do.

Microsoft has given it more features, with support for Windows Server functionality like Storage Spaces. Improved backup tools also make it easier to make Windows Server Essentials the heart of a small-business network. Some may lament the end of the bundled server products that were part of the Small Business Server package, but Office fills that niche neatly — without requiring additional hardware.

The result is a small file-and-print server, with integrated systems management and backup tools that's ideal for a small business or a home office. Unfortunately it's also a change that will affect the business models of many small software consultancies, which will need to consider how they can capitalise on a simplified server linked to the cloud and the new Office reseller plans.

That's a big change to digest quickly, and it's the biggest stumbling block facing Windows Server Essentials. Microsoft will need to get its partners on board if its latest entry-level server isn't to go the way of its predecessors.

Why you can trust ZDNet ZDNet independently tests and researches products to bring you our best recommendations and advice. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Our process. Home Business Enterprise Software. Windows Small Business Server Essentials was disappointing, but there's a lot to like in its successor, which provides a small file-and-print server with integrated systems management and backup tools that's ideal for a small business or a home office.

Written by Simon Bisson on July 31, Microsoft Windows Server Essentials Not yet rated. The Dashboard is where you'll configure and manage your server and your users.

A setup checklist helps you get a system ready for users, and helps ensure you're ready to take a server live. For more WS Essentials screenshots, see our gallery. Motorola Moto G Raspberry Pi OnePlus Watch. Setting up directory federation with Office can be complex, but Essentials simplifies the process, giving you a wizard that sets up the connection and configures domain names appropriately. Storage Spaces give Windows Server Essentials a simple-to-setup resilient file system, using the Windows 8 wizard rather than the more complex tools that ship with the full Windows Server.

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