Comparing Windows Home Server Vail, WSS 2008 R2 and SBS 2011 Essentials

There seem to be a confusing array of Microsoft Storage products, Windows Home Server, Windows Storage Server and Small Business Server. Its not easy to work out which features go with which products.  Andrew Edney on UsingWindowsHomeServer.com has a link to a post by Sean Daniel explaining the differences between Home Server “Vail”, Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials Edition

From a home users point of view Vial is properly the best product as the other two are focused for business use, we will have more on Home Server on this weeks podcast.

All the details are on Sean’s post

So what is the differences?

Aside from the ability to Domain Join, and the user limit increase, there are some subtle differences you’ll notice throughout the product that have more of a business “tint”, like if you choose to use WSS 2008 R2 Essentials for Remote Web Access, you’ll notice the same defaults you see in SBS 2011 Essentials, instead of what you see in Home Server. There are also some changes to HomeGroup defaults as well. The last thing to note is while you can install WSS 2008 R2 into an SBS 2011 Essentials, or WHS Vail environment, the client connector from each of these products cannot be installed on the same PC.