Small Business Server help

Thanks for your response - They handle the day to day running of our computers and servers which isn't included in the price.

I understand that we should have a good idea of what we require, but when you are a charity with next to no knowledge of servers and backup it is very difficult to have a clear picture of what we require. That is why we asked for a general quote.

I think we will have to have a good discussion as an organisation before we get back to them.
 
how much data do you need to store?

are you going to use exchange? (id recomend you don't, google apps is the way forward)

are you going to use sql?

does the 5k include configuring all the PC's as well? this will take 1 to 2 days depending on how well it goes... (so is likley to cost you another 500 - 1500)

I did a spec with 2x2TB mirrored, 8gb ram, £290 UPS, 3 yr 4 hr on site support, 15 SBS user cals @ £3000 (that excludes backup solution) and is probably overkill for 12 people but it give you an idea... (you can probably shave another £1000 by going for a more basic version as well)

for backups it depends on how much data, a simple file copy to a large HDD might do costing only a few £100 (you would need 2 or 3 drives so one can be taken off site)

I was going to post it but dell's web site is jsut too slow and I lost the spec twice and gave up....

I would hope your £5000 includes installation

for a small setup I like mirrors as raids do explode and die I have seen it happen, mirrors are almost indestructable worst case pull the drive and attach it to another machine...
 
£5k seems reasonable for what they're offering

But may not be exactly what you're after.
 
If I were approaching this with an open mind and a clean sheet of paper I would consider moving these users into a hosted/cloud solution.

If they primarily share docs and use email but don't need any of the other features of server based solution, why bother?

Possibly something from Google or Microsoft Office 365 and maybe MS Intune would get you what you desire.

I realise its a bit off the wall...
 
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The cloud suggestion is quite interesting. I assume that the backup of data becomes Microsoft's (or whoever's) responsibility. We probably wouldn't need as much I.T support either.

The only potential problem would be databasing, we have a custom database software that everyone accesses. This would probably need to be migrated to a microsoft database.
 
£5k seems reasonable. It depends on exactly what your needs are but for what you have said they are supplying, it's not that expensive.

I don't know where HarryPainful got those memory prices from - for 16GB of ECC memory it's definitely not £80!

Give me a couple of minutes and I'll knock something up from our Dell Premier page.

Edit: Right, for just under £2450, this is roughly the spec you have mentioned:

PowerEdge T310 Tower Chassis, Up to 4x 3.5" Hot Plug HDDs, LCD Diagnostics
Intel Xeon X3430, 4C, 2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 95W TDP, Turbo, DDR3-1333MHz
16GB Memory, DDR3, 1333MHz (4x4GB Dual Ranked LV RDIMMs)
3x 500GB, Near Line SAS 6Gbps, 3.5-in, 7.2K RPM Hard Drive (Hot Plug)
PERC H700 RAID Controller, For Hot Plug HDD Chassis - Set up for RAID5
16X DVD-ROM Drive SATA with SATA Cable
Microsoft SBS 2011, Standard Edition, English, Including 5 CALs, Factory Installed
2x 5-Pack of Windows® Small Business Server 2011 User CALs (Standard)
Dell UPS, Tower, 500W, 230V, incl. Cable Pack ~6 min Runtime

I'm not saying this is what you would need but it's how much it's roughly going to come to.
 
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Dribbles said:
The cloud suggestion is quite interesting. I assume that the backup of data becomes Microsoft's (or whoever's) responsibility. We probably wouldn't need as much I.T support either.

The only potential problem would be databasing, we have a custom database software that everyone accesses. This would probably need to be migrated to a microsoft database.
Click to expand...

You could look at SBS 2011 Essentials. That drops Exchange from your in-house server with the idea that you use a hosted solution (eg Office 365). Office 365 (and 3rd party hosted Exchange) can tie into the SBS 2011 console to try to make things neater / seamless.
 
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