Re: [OT] Office X-serve vs windows standard server 2008

["Paul Bendall" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting argument about cloud. To me surely it comes down to the=20
data your company produces and how important it is to you. One thing=20
I always try to explain is the business own the data, IT only=20
provides the facilities to access it. Backup and restoration really=20
can't be under estimated in terms of time, effort and size. A 7GB=20
mailbox is great but how long will it take to restore for a=20
accidental delete, investigation, etc?=20

People say disk is cheap but it isn't if youconsider total cost of=20
ownership. Storage is connected to a server, it draws power, it needs=20
cooling, it needs redundancy, it needs to be highly available and=20
recoverable, someone needs to maintain and support it. How long can=20
your business survive without email or files? What would happen if a=20
workman goes through the power cable outside your office or the=20
internet connection?

Even if you get your data back what is the impact on your reputation?

Paul

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Mark McCall" <lists@...> wrote:
>
> > We are a 45 strong office looking to expand. Currently we only
run
> > Windows PCs, but we many have a couple of Macs later.
>=20
> I was specing new hardware and SBS for our small office LAN (20=20
machines).
>=20
> In the end though I moved our people onto Google apps, after having=20
some
> (UKHA_D) friends recommend it, and then reading how the Telegraph
> newspaper were moving 1,400 Exchange seats onto it too.
>=20
> We've had it runnng for a month now.  We're on the free version and=20
even
> this gives a 7GB mailbox for each user.  Most people are using the
> webinterface - using Google Chromes save-as-app feature, one or two=20
are
> using iMAP to outlook, and I am using on Mac, PC, iPhone etc. We're=20
using
> shared calendaring too and it's great.  Only thing missing is a=20
shared
> central set of Contacts, but I've just imported our Outlook=20
contacts into
> each persons setup so we can work around that.
>=20
> There are of course issues with having your email in the cloud,=20
what if
> you internet connection goes down for example (we have a Vigor 2820=20
with a
> 3G USB modem as backup).  What about backing up your email?  Privact
> issues etc.
>=20
> It may not be for everyonem but so far for our use its been=20
spectacular.=20
> And at =A30.00 you can't really argue with the value.
>=20
> M.
>



------------------------------------