Replacing MS Exchange?

equus

Hi,

To some this may seem a very basic question but it is one I am hoping to gain the answer for from knowledgeable people!

Very small business with a MS SBS 2003 and MS Exchange for email. I know SBS 2003 and 2007 are no longer supported but have served the business well and economically require the hardware to be upgraded before upgrading software.

There is a need to purchase new laptops for staff members, and they will be loaded with MS Windows 10 Pro. The plan was also to use MS Office 365. It is now known that Outlook 2016 will not connect with older versions of Ms Exchange.

So the question, the server is predominantly used for MS Exchange for email and as file storage. File storage and backup can be done elsewhere, so upgrading both hardware and software of the server just for MS Exchange does not seem to be sensible financially. So what options are there for email, with the same funtionality as Exchange, but without a server? Hosted exchange or similar is not an options due very slow and intermittent broadband is very rural area. Having used Exchange for so long, the other email protocols (other than POP3) have passed us by! As a small business we do not have dedicated IT staff to ask!

Thanks in advance for help.

E

jshm2

You've been misinformed.

Outlook 2016 connects with older versions of Exchange fine. It's just that you have to setup an Autodiscover Record first.

Microsoft's thinking was that most printers, servers, and peripherals will no longer be supported on Windows 10. So most businesses will be upgrading to newer Win 10 hardware and thus Office 365 and Cloud will take over.

Obviously it's not gone smoothly and a lot of backtracking is having to be done and hence why there are a lot of little fixes for certain things.

You should be looking to move to Sharepoint or Cloud soon though. Security and compliance issues will start to crop up the longer you stick with older stuff. As for Exchange alternatives you've got Ubuntu Server and also the popular Open-Xchange. They are free and open source but obviously the main cost will be migration and setup.

Maybe speak to your finance department to get yourself a cost analysis for keeping with what you have vs moving.

ThemeOne

I can't comment on the Exchange question, but as far as file storage goes, if you do decide to go for a cloud storage system do test it thoroughly before committing yourselves.

I know a small business who went to cloud storage using Box a few years back, and it was absolutely useless (endless syncing problems) as was the support. I believe Sharepoint is much more reliable, although there's a learning curve to using it.

equus

Thank you very much for the replies, I have noted the info of problems with syncing.

Pleased to hear Autodiscover records does allow connection of older versions of MS Exchange, I am hoping if we do decide to proceed down this route it will be something we can setup ourselves.

The financial side of a new server or upgrading the exiting hardware/software is an issue. We are prepared to invest, however the employees using email is now only 4, so a new server and exchange we are questioning as to is it overkill for the small amount of people actually using it? Would we be better to have no server for email? If yes, then I come back to the question of what is best for push email for each employee?

Thanks in advance for help and replies.

E.

Jivesinger

As other have mentioned, there are Cloud products available, and Microsoft's version of Exchange Online is
https://products.office.com/en-gb/exchange/compare-microsoft-exchange-online-plans

Currently it costs £2.50/user/month, although obviously this price could change in future.

If you're using Outlook 2016 (or earlier versions), I think it should connect to that fairly easily.

However I'm not sure how you migrate emails across from the existing server - I imagine some work would be required there.

To get Sharepoint as well for file storage, you could go to Office 365 Business Essentials, currently costing £3.10 per user per month

Note that neither of these products include Office 365 desktop apps such as Outlook and Word/Excel although there is an Office 365 Business version which includes the desktop apps and the Exchange and Sharepoint services as well.

I have to say I'm not totally convinced by Sharepoint for file storage though - it certainly has its foibles.

Other options are available as well as Microsoft of course- Google have a similar product for businesses, and there may well be free services out there which offer similar email services suitable to a small number of users.

bsod

use your isp's/someone's pop3/imap/managed services for email, use the old server for file storage.

eg

https://business.bt.com/products/packages/

http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/c/1995,2003,2946,2995/a_id/8766/kw/transfer%20domain

lack of 'support' doesn't stop things working. If all you are using the server for is a networked disk, any PC is capable of that, it doesn't have to be a server.

If you need more file storage space, archive old data, install a new disk, or use a nas.

office 365 will probably work out to be an expensive option over the long term

slow internet connection doesn't affect you holding/downloading emails locally on each pc.

equus

Thank you everyone again for the replies, I certainly now have other options to think about which is great!

I may be back with more questions though, but so far I have plenty of research to do with the various suggestions.

Thanks again.