Exchange server advice?

[chemwiz]

I work for a company that has about 30 emails, plus 5 on another domain. They also want an entirely separate company with 5 emails to coexist with the other 2 (35 total but 2 domains) emails (they're for the same company and will have shared contacts/ public folders). One needs to be on it's own account, it's owned by a partner but is totally his own company. I'm currently using Rackspace for the email but it's $3 more per user for exchange, so it's about $105 month more for exchange services. Should I/can I set it up on server 2008R2 more cheaply, and also maintain it? The last time I set it up was on on 2003, so I'm pretty much a newbie. Any and all suggestions are appreciated!!!!

 

[Chiefcrowe]

With that many users I am not sure it's worth it to set up exchange locally. Perhaps if you already have all the hardware/infrastructure already there? I'd probably go with 2012 R2 if you do end up doing that, but personally the headaches and cost of setting all of it up yourself would not be worth it to me.

 

[KillerBee]

If you had a lot of experience maintaining one I would say go for it
build your own just for the job security and explain how you saved them $1200

In reality though it would be best for the company to keep farming it out to experienced professionals rather waste time/money for you to be learning it all over again

When something goes seriously wrong - you may even end up getting fired.

 

[chemwiz]

Thanks for the input. I probably will farm it out.

 

[gsaldivar]

Personally, I would just have it hosted. Google Apps can do this for $4-5 per user/month you won't have to worry about purchasing servers, licenses, and handling maintenance. Google takes care of everything. You can have multiple domains with Google Apps and only pay for mailboxes (not email addresses), so if you have people on more than one domain, or group aliases, etc. there is no charge for those.

 

[chemwiz]

Right now I have their email on Rackspace, for $5 a month instead of $2 I can put the ones who want it on Exchange.That really seems to make more sense, thank you all for the advice! It'll make my life much easier!