Use exchange server as personal email server

Question

Does anyone use Microsoft Exchange Server as your personal/small biz email server (< 20 users)? Is it hard to configure? Is it resource intensive?

Answer 1

I used to do this using a virtual machine on a HP ProLiant pedestal server, running Exchange 2007. While it was a good learning experience, I do not any more for the following reasons:

• It used a lot of RAM, which could be better used for other VMs
• Running the server 24/7/365 used far too much electricity
• In the event of downtime, losing emails can cause serious stress
• It's an unnecessary admin headache which I would rather somebody else do

Even with SBS customers, I no longer set up Exchange for small firms. I use Exchange Online instead, which also comes part of BPOS. BPOS will be replaced with Office 365 some time early next year, where the upgrade will be seemless for existing users.

Answer 2

I never used it for that small of a deployment(it was always SBS for that size). With a scale that low it isn't resource intensive. With the UNC network 1 linux mail server was able to replace 3 exchange servers in a clustered servers campus environment. So yes, linux mail servers scale better(sendmail/postfix/etc).

Answer 3

wouldn't be more cost effective to use google apps or office365 or a hosted exchange solution? you will not worry to maintain and administer the servers.

some links: http://www.microsoft.com/online/exchange-hosted-services.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/online/business-productivity.aspx http://www.office365.com http://google.com/a