I'd like to know what advantage your server folks find that SBS offers over Microsoft Office 365. 365 offers cloud-based Exchange email using your domain name, shared calendars, instant messaging, PC-to-PC calling, video conferencing, web-based viewing and editing of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files, a team site for sharing files, an external website and antivirus and anti-spam filtering for $8 per person per month. And you don't need a hardware server.
The internet goes down for the day. O snap, can't access anything.
Comparing Office 365 and SBS Essentials is like comparing Office 2010 to Windows 7. They serve completely different functions. One is an office suite, while the other is an Operating System.
Lets think about this web-based viewing and editing of files. That means everything you have must be on the internet. You will have to upload everything.
You don't get a custom domain name. I'm pretty sure you have to purchase one if you don't want to use the default name.microsoft.com. Also, if you read the fine print under the $8 plan, it says " Please note: with E1 you can only view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files online. With E3 you can both edit and view these files online." So with the $8 plan you can't even edit documents. Why not just use google docs or better yet, Open Office. The web-based versions of these aren't the same as the complete version which is only available in the $20/month plan. By the end of one year, you could've had all of those professional licenses for life. Amazon and Newegg both do financing to spread out the payments too.
I believe the email is also limited to 500 emails/day. For everyone.
Office 365 was designed to be used in conjunction with SBS 2011 Essentials. You get the AD synchronization which manages the logons for the computers and users on the network as well as the Office 365 subscription in the cloud.
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