Hello, Forgive my low level of knowledge on Exchange etc. I would need some suggestions or advice regarding installing potentially Exchange on a small network. Here are the facts. Main office has about 25 users. All are for the moment on a POP mail server. They have a local server for filesharing etc they do not use AD. They just opened a bransch office with 3 users.They do not have a dedicated IT person, the IT is run by a non experienced office worker and they do really not want to hire one either, just for the initial installation but not for daily maininance. Is really Exchange the best option for this setting? What is the Small Office Edition? VERY thankful for ANY input. Thanks! Annie

You haven't mentioned what functionality they're looking for. Without that, it's impossible to know if Exchange is even necessary. There is no Exchange "small office edition". There is a Windows 2003 Small Business Server. That is basically Windows 2003, Active Directory, and Exchange, and you also get SQL and ISA Server built in if you get the Premium version. This all runs on one server, and it is limited up to 75 users. http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsSer... "Enough, enough bowing down to disillusion! Hats off & applause to rogues & evolution! The ripple effect is too good not to mention. If you’re not affected, you’re not paying attention!"

The main function is just to be a mail system to get all the mails stored on a central server instead of POP as they today store on the local PC. They already have other SW for calendar, scheduling and what not. Thanks.

I am in the same boat. But I want to go the other way. I have 40 exchange users I want to take off and put on POP3. I see no reason to invest $10,000 in a Server, Exchange, Server License, CALS, and administration. Nor do I know much about Exchange. Right now, all our email goes threw a filter for SPAM and Virus protection that we pay for on each email. Having someone like GoDaddy host 100 usable emails for $30/year including virus and SPAM protection seems like the better option. This is $.30 per email per month VS about $10 per email per month to go with an exchange setup. For backup, set each Client to archive to the server once a day.

Keep in mind there are other advantages to Exchange, such as leveraging Active Directory as a directory service if you already have it. Other considerations could be possible industry regulation compliance, use of mobile devices for email, etc. Perhaps you need availability of intra-office messaging should internet connectivity go down, etc. To throw another option out there, you can also have Exchange services provided to you just as godaddy can provide you plain old email. This is called Exchange Managed Services. If you were going to run your own messaging server, I would highly recommend SBS2003, especially in light of gained functionality you get with Active Directory anyway, such as centralized account storage, single sign on, managing your other servers and desktops with Group Policy, etc. SBS2003 also is geared for non-IT to be able to easily accomplish common tasks such as managing accounts, etc. But no, it's not cheap. Make sure you get someone competent to set it up properly with the right security precautions, such as antivirus/antispam for incoming email, etc. "Enough, enough bowing down to disillusion! Hats off & applause to rogues & evolution! The ripple effect is too good not to mention. If you’re not affected, you’re not paying attention!"

That said, the cost is a BIG factor. Also, to learn how to administer it is another. Installing Exchange alone is half the battle. Now dealing with mailboxes growing to big, policies, and dealing with recovery when something goes wrong, can be cumbersome. If your not using all the calendar sharing, task lists sharing, and OWA. Then why using it for 40 and less emails? Something like GoDaddy provides you with SPAM filters, Virus filters, webmail, remote administration, next to %100 uptimes, and somewhere for your email to go incase your personal web link goes down. I admit, you can't administer all the mailboxes from one centralized exchange server, automatically set up mailboxes threw active directory, and have all your policies (which I don't use (or change) in this small company) and passwords tied to AD. But I think that is a small price compared to the cost and time an exchange server takes for 40 and under clients. Loosing interoffice email is the only thing I would hate to happen. But how many times has my Internet gone down in a year? Maybe once for about 1 hour. Piece of mind not worrying about a big cumbersome exchange server is worth the switch to hosted email.

I'm not going to debate you on this. What works well for your business works well for your business. Cost is a big deal for you, but it may not be a big deal to someone else. They may find the added functionality gained from Exchange to be well worth it. I will say that you are grossly blowing out of proportion what it takes to manage an Exchange server. If implemented correctly, Exchange is easy to manage, especially within Small Business Server. If you don't want to learn how to deploy it, hire a competent consultant to do it. Managing Exchange is not half the battle. Implementing Exchange correctly is 90% of the battle. If it is poorly planned and poorly deployed, it's a disaster waiting to happen. That's why it is far more important to hire someone competent to deploy it for you than finding the cheapest person to deploy it for you. "Enough, enough bowing down to disillusion! Hats off & applause to rogues & evolution! The ripple effect is too good not to mention. If you’re not affected, you’re not paying attention!"