Upgrade From Windows Server 2003 To 2008

[tree]

Hi folks

I'm new to this forum and also pretty new to windows server in general so hello to everyone!

I recently took over the IT side of things at my company and we are currently using windows server 2003. We have a total of 22 people within the company so we are quite a small business. We have roughly 8 office users and about 14 working outside the office so most of the company rely on connecting to our network remotely. However we are also looking to employ about an another 20 staff over the next 5 years.

The spec of our current server looks something like the following:
Intel (R) Xeon (TM) CPU 3.20 GHZ
3.50 GB RAM
can't remember the capacity of the hard drive but we have roughly 150 GB left.
Within our server we have the usual stuff like exchange server, web server, terminal server, virtual private network, sql server, etc etc.

The IT company that supports us recently proposed that we need a new server and should upgrade to windows server 2008. They beilieve we should do this very soon as they don't think our current server will last very long (i think its 4 or 5 years old)

The reason i'm writing this email is because my boss wants to know whether or not the new server and upgrade to server 2008 is necessary. I know that one of the main benefits of server 2008 is the virtualisation of the server which can significantly improve performance. Our system does appear alot slower than it used to and users both within the office and connecting remotely have complained about this.

I basically want to know is it necessary to buy a new server in order for server 2008 to reach it's potential and also what are the benefits of server 2008 such as virtualisation?

Sorry for the long email. If you could even point me to the right resources if this seems like a too much information to answer!

Thanks
Tree

 

[RSchwarz]

There is no direct update path from 2003 to 2008. Clean install required.

The benefits of 2008 over 2003 alone make the upgrade worth while.

 

[tree]

There is no direct update path from 2003 to 2008. Clean install required.

The benefits of 2008 over 2003 alone make the upgrade worth while.

I see, so i would require completely new hardware in order to install server 2008. Well thats solves one problem!

Unfortunately in the current economic climate we don't have much of an IT budget.

I think however its probably not a matter of should we upgrade to 2008 but a matter of when.

Thanks for your help.

Tree

 

[RSchwarz]

You will not need new hardware. 2008 will run fine on the hardware you have. You'll lose all your current user settings.

 

[tree]

You will not need new hardware. 2008 will run fine on the hardware you have. You'll lose all your current user settings.

Thanks for the reply.

I think there has been talk of either buying a new one or upgrading the existing one. We have various accounts packages which take up a considerable amount of memory so we would probably need to purchase more memory, additional hard disks and possibly a new raid controller.

Do you think in the long term would it be more cost effective to purchase a new server or simply make the necessary upgrades to the server?

Thanks
Tree

 

[RSchwarz]

For long term buy new hardware and set the server as you like.

For short term use what you have.

 

[tree]

Ok thanks for the help!

Tree