replacement options for SBS2003

Forums › IT Pro and developers › replacement options for SBS2003

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#141413 12-Mar-2014 09:45

Hi guys. SBS2003 is end of life, servers running 2003 should be replaced due to age (rather than panic if they die)
SBS2011 is now defunct..gone..ceased to be.
MS has instead given us 2012 Essentials : with NO EXCHANGE built in.

So.. for small business: say 5 user : what are the options ??
At what level (no of users) would you consider Server + Exchange a reasonable option.

I really dont want Office365 .
Hosted Exchange is a an option for email. Or even pop/imap(not the best option for Outlook) .
Some users have 10G of email. Is that realistic for Hosted Exchange ? Would I need to just archive all that email as a PST saved on the PC ??
What amount of cloud stored email would make hosted exchange/imap too unwieldy ?
I can imagine the future nightmare of new/replacement PC's trying to intially sync 10GB's of cloud stored email .

If email has to be hosted, how can I possibly justify the expense/need of a server ? Win7 would do the job of centralized File sharing , I cant see much need for a Server on small networks if Exchange is offsite

Any opinions appreciated.
Cheers

MackinNZ

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1003164 12-Mar-2014 09:54

Why don't you want Office 365? It really is the ideal solution. 50GB Mailboxes, SharePoint Online, etc.

If you need local file storage then install a good quality NAS.

Dynamic

3866 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1003165 12-Mar-2014 09:59

What are the requirements?

Hosted Exchange works well these days. I was initially reluctant but we have a number of clients using accounts on Intermedia (.net) and I have to say that Intermedia are AWESOME for communications and reliability. 4-5 years ago they had some reliability issues and got caned for them. As a result they seem to ave done a complete turnaround and their communication and reliability is now the best in the industry that I have seen.

Office365 is OK. Just OK. We have a small number of clients using it and we see annoying issues that we have just never had with Intermedia accounts. The rental of MS Office on up to 5 machines is a definite sweetener - without that we would not have any clients using it. You can of course buy the email only plans.

SBS 2012 R2 Foundation or Essentials Editions work well for file and print sharing and are at pretty good prices, especially when bundled with a server. The interface is a bit ugly IMHO though... but I'm not a Win8 fan. I use it because I have to be familiar with it.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
PocketSmith for budgeting and personal finance management. A great Kiwi company.

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1003168 12-Mar-2014 10:04

MackinNZ: Why don't you want Office 365?

Its just the sceptic in me.
I never saw the point up untill now . Office OEM isnt that expensive & its a 1 off cost over a 5 year average life .
I like the Simplicity of Office(OEM) install & setup .

Last I checked, MS by far had the cheapest charges for Hosted Exch (telecom the most expensive).
Its not all about saving a few $ though, email needs to be reliable, end user wont tolerate email downtime

Dynamic

3866 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1003169 12-Mar-2014 10:05

MackinNZ: Why don't you want Office 365? It really is the ideal solution. 50GB Mailboxes, SharePoint Online, etc.

If you need local file storage then install a good quality NAS.

If using a NAS, it is my opinion that you should back up using a Windows based PC. I've seen too many NAS-to-USB-drive backups fail to have any confidence in them at all.

Re the mailbox size, you can go nuts with large mailboxes. A downside is that when replacing a computer the whole email history is downloaded again as you can;t move the OST to a new computer as best I am aware.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
PocketSmith for budgeting and personal finance management. A great Kiwi company.

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1003176 12-Mar-2014 10:19

1101:
MackinNZ: Why don't you want Office 365?

Its just the sceptic in me.
I never saw the point up untill now . Office OEM isnt that expensive & its a 1 off cost over a 5 year average life .
I like the Simplicity of Office(OEM) install & setup .

Last I checked, MS by far had the cheapest charges for Hosted Exch (telecom the most expensive).
Its not all about saving a few $ though, email needs to be reliable, end user wont tolerate email downtime

5 users and an Exchange server locally seems like madness to me

If your internet link goes down you can't send/receive external email anyway

Dynamic

3866 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1003181 12-Mar-2014 10:35

1101:
Its not all about saving a few $ though, email needs to be reliable, end user wont tolerate email downtime

I cannot recommend Intermedia highly enough then. Their SLA's are better than Microsoft's, and I've mentioned their communication is top shelf. Reseller accounts are easy to set up and then you can invoice the client directly, white-labelling the service.

The client's broadband will most likely be less reliable than Intermedia's service. With this over an in-house solution, they can work from home or use 3G sticks etc.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
PocketSmith for budgeting and personal finance management. A great Kiwi company.

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#1004483 12-Mar-2014 18:35

hosted exchange, or office365, are the best options.

before coming to work for Microsoft, I moved an on-prem exchange install to the cloud. far more positives than negatives, especially the:
* 50GB mailboxes
* no need t run firewall/proxy to publish for smartphones/owa etc
* mail still up if office goes down
* built in spam filtering meant we ditched another product we were using, and maintaining

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1004497 12-Mar-2014 18:58

We got rid of our SBS and went to Office 365 for mail and then just a standard NAS for data.

MUCH simpler to manage for the 10-15 users we have.

Office 365 set up is insanely easily too and you can't beat the price.

nzkc

1571 posts

Uber Geek

#1004529 12-Mar-2014 20:06

I dont know why any organisation would house email internally anymore. Most would cite security as one reason but I trust the likes of Microsoft and Google to be more secure with my email than most companies I have worked with (for various reasons).

So definitely consider Office 365 as a solution to your needs. You haven't gone any further into your requirements other than "need email". Therefore its hard to recommend a particular solution for your needs. That said; I would also urge you to consider Google Apps. I've used both Office 365 and Google Apps and prefer the latter myself. Each is equally capable its just subtle differences that will make you prefer one over the other. The company I currently work for moved from Office 365 to Google because of the number of people who use Mac. There are other reasons, but that was a big one. A lot of people will say something like "If you rely on MS Office you should use Office 365" and there's an element of truth in there. However; I thought I would struggle without Office (particularly Excel) but I have been surprised how easy it has been to move away from it. The integration and collaboration features with Google Apps is much better and I've loved having several people looking at a spreadsheet at the same time making changes in real time as we discuss it in Hangouts. I think Google Hangouts is going to become Google's answer to unified communication. Its not quite there, but its getting better quickly. If you've got an Android phone then Google Apps integration with that is superb!

I have no vested interest one way or the other on which you chose. But I do urge you to consider both.

raytaylor

4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1006044 15-Mar-2014 10:27

kerio connect. i use it to replace sbs 2003 and dont bother with exchange any more.
I usually just install a server 2011 as a file server (though i still prefer 2008r2) and put kerio connect on top.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here