Question about Windows Server 2003

[morland]

Hi,

My organization currently has only 20 people but plans to have about a total of 50 people over the next 1 year.

Will Windows 2003 be enough? Would the standard version of Windows 2003 server be enough or should we consider some enterprise version of Windows 2003? Basically we do not want to buy the O/S and later find out that only X number of users/concurrent users can use the LAN.

Will be grateful for reply and guidance.

[MrJinje]

Hi,

My organization currently has only 20 people but plans to have about a total of 50 people over the next 1 year.

Will Windows 2003 be enough? Would the standard version of Windows 2003 server be enough or should we consider some enterprise version of Windows 2003? Basically we do not want to buy the O/S and later find out that only X number of users/concurrent users can use the LAN.

Will be grateful for reply and guidance.

With SBS 2003, you should be fine, all you really need is a single SBS 2003 server with CAL's for 50 people. SBS 2003 can handle up to 75 users and CAL's can be purchases separately in 5 packs. Any more than 75 users and M$ requires you to pay for a more expensive server product.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Small_Business_Server

Largest benefit of SBS is that it integrates Exchange and has some management gui's that groups a lot of basic tasks into the same gui. It is just easier to use right out of the box.

As for the Standard version of server 2003, I believe it's limitations were more hardware/domain related and not number of user related. Standard version does not come with all the goodies inside SBS, so if you are looking for a no frills servers standard is the way to go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_2003#Standard_Edition

Edited November 29, 2009 by MrJinje