Small business server or storage recommendations please

[computermick]

Hi - I have 4 employees in an environmental consulting business. We run SBS 2003 on a xSeries 225 server. I'm running out of storage capacity and feel it it time to update the server and build in a few failsafes. We have a domain and the server runs our email as well as file storage and print server functions. We occasionally use outlook web and remote file access. I'm considering Raid 1 or 5, + carbonite cloud backup

Does anyone out there have any favourite server solutions that may be applicable?
Would I be able to use my SBS2003 software on new hardware or is it just too outdated?
Do I even need a server? what about Office365 combined with NAS?

Any comments, specific recommendations or other help greatly appreciated.

thanks

 

[NoUserBar]

Eh, the only thing I can think of would be this kind of harddrive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148868&name=Internal-Hard-Drives
It has a wonderful 5 year warranty.
I wouldn't buy a $900+ dollar harddrive if I was a millionaire..(today's tech standards anyway)

-blink- I saw a "fat twin" add about intels harddrive racks -blink-

I have no other info, hope other people can help better :?

Otherwise not sure if this site is the best place for server info, it's mostly enthusiast, try cross posting this to other tech websites?

edit: Since harddrives are harddrives I see no reason why you can't run your software as long as the drives are formatted right..

 

[ss202sl]

^^ If you replace or add drives, you have to know what is in there. Recommending a SAS drive without knowing that you can support it makes no sense.

When you start talking about server level drives, you want low latency fast drives. 10K and 15K drives are common in servers, and not as common in workstations so there is a difference in price.

If i was going to replace the server, I would keep the old server as a second domain controller, and maybe even some file storage.

 

[NoUserBar]

I looked up Office365 combined with NAS on google and got this: http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/04/26/dumping-the-home-network.aspx

A persons report on how they changed their mail server to the Office365. Not sure if helpfull lolz

 

[computermick]

^^ If you replace or add drives, you have to know what is in there. Recommending a SAS drive without knowing that you can support it makes no sense.

When you start talking about server level drives, you want low latency fast drives. 10K and 15K drives are common in servers, and not as common in workstations so there is a difference in price.

If i was going to replace the server, I would keep the old server as a second domain controller, and maybe even some file storage.

Yeah, you're right about the drives. The internal ones to suit my server are way pricey. I was thinking of keeping the old server as a backup.

 

[computermick]

I looked up Office365 combined with NAS on google and got this: http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/04/26/dumping-the-home-network.aspx

A persons report on how they changed their mail server to the Office365. Not sure if helpfull lolz

OK thanks I'll check it out