Server refresh - Vista server in 2008?

[kippermitten]

Hello people.

Im looking at our Operations network budgets for the next few years and am considering putting in scope for a server refresh in 2008.

Now, were on Server 2003 sp1 and R2 on all our kit, all single or dual xeon 3ghz or over with 2gb ram min or over with a full GB network in the building to the desktops and GB backbone.

Considering Exchange 12 is on its way and vista server is scheduled next year(?)ish would 2008 be a reasonable time scale to budget for a server refresh?

I reckon we can upgrade the cpu's to the last of the xeon and max the ram out, storeage is not an issue as we have two HA MSA1000 ini SAN's which we wiont fill in the next 4/5 five years.

So, upgrade servers or replace?

Whaddya reckon?

 

[garyh]

Snip

What's wrong with the current servers?

 

[aix0]

I can't see Vista Server being that different from Server 2003. It seems to be more or less the same thing with a few niceties thrown in. Have a read through this, should give you an idea of what you will be gaining by upgrading.

 

[NathanE]

I can't see Vista Server being that different from Server 2003. It seems to be more or less the same thing with a few niceties thrown in.

People said exactly the same about 2000 Server -> 2003 Server...

 

[aix0]

Yes, and they were right.

 

[NathanE]

I'd hardly call the massively improved security of 2003 a 'nicetie' :/ It deserves a bit more credit than that.

MSMQ, a very important enterprise feature, also received a massive upgrade over the version in 2000.

 

[aix0]

It's only a re-packaged product, nothing revolutionary. They just improved on what was already there. Improvements to AD, IIS, GP, overall server performance etc, a more managable, stable and secure server operating system.

'A few niceties' was the wrong term to use really. The point I am trying to make is, it's up to you to decide whether or not it's worth being on the 'cutting edge'.

 

[NathanE]

Fair enough