Small Business Central Storage

[Marshall]

Hello all,

Currently I am using a IBM Xseries server, running Microsoft small business server and Microsoft Exchange, as my central storage.
This server is running as a file and mail server.
Recently the company that use to service this server, is no longer servicing small business.
We are moving over from windows Pc's to Apple iMac in the next month, and will require a central storage NAS, which will replace the server.
There is only three PC's connected to the server and three printers connected to the network.
For Backup our server has a VXA320 tape drive which I what to replace with a portable external hard drive.

My question is which is best to use for central storage.
1. Purchase a budget range NAS which has Raid 1
2. Purchase a second hand Power Mac, and setup as central storage with Mac OSX Leopard.
3. Use one of the Old PC's which are running WinXP pro, these have a ASUS P5 Deluxe board and 3GB of Ram.

I will be needing about 500GB of Storage space, and will be requiring to upgrade the drives later, which is why I thought a Power Mac G5 would be good. (Seen these on ebay around $695)

Also can anyone recommend the best way to back up email from Microsoft exchange so I can reload it on to our iMac.
I should mention the iMAcs will be running Windows Vista Basic, with OSX.

Kind Regards
Marshall

 

[thiggins]

"Best" is what works for you. Why would you not just reuse one of the PCs that you have?

 

[Marshall]

Thanks, I though about using one of the old PC's.

I would keep our server but I know nothing about MS Small business server or MS Exchange.

I think I'll keep the WInXP Pro machines, although I had read somewhere that WinXP Pro wasn't very good for using as a central storage.

Kind Regards.

 

[thiggins]

Windows desktop OSes have a limit of 10 simultaneous connections. Won't be a problem with 3 users.

 

[Kiwi]

Hp ex485/7?

Marshall,

Your requirements are not clear, (i.e. are you looking to replace the SBS and MS Exchange server?), however if you are looking for a solution that handles Mac OS X and Vista then the HP EX485/7 may be a good fit. It also allows for convenient portable eSATA backup, provides a complete backup solution for Vista and allows you to use Time Machine for OS X backups, though there is some limitation to doing a full system restore using the Time Machine backups.

The HP EX485/7 is a simple system to administer and very reasonably priced however it does have limitations if you need Active Directory capability.

Regards,
Robert

 

[bliko]

Repurposing an old xp machine would be the most flexible solution. If you still want to use exchange but don't want an in-house server you can always use an exchange service provider....of which there are many. Alternatively there are various outlook syncing programs about which are ok for small workgroups. i.e. sync2