We have just completed a new installation of Windows Server 2012 and Exchange 2013 for a company in Cheltenham.

The company had been running Small Business Server 2008 which combined the file and folder sharing services with exchange The server was starting to get a bit clunky and unreliable and so we replaced their old server with a new ML350p with 2 x 15k hard drives for the Operating System and 3 x 10k hard drives for the data and exchange.

Microsoft have stopped producing the Small Business Server range of operating systems and so the company had to opt for Windows 2012 and a separate copy of Exchange 2013 which made the new server more expensive than the last server.

That said, the new system is faster and Exchange 2013 is slicker and has excellent web-based email system and Apps for phones and iPads etc that help end users send and receive their business emails.

Their system is protected from viruses, hackers, malware and so on by a Watchguard XTM-Firewall which offers end users a simple and effective means of accessing company data through a secure SSL VPN connection.

There is a lot more this new system can offer but with built-in redundancy on the server, a comprehensive backup solution to an on-site NAS device and secure off-site backups to our servers, this SME has a solid IT infrastructure which will last them a fair few years to come.