Need advice NAS acquisition advice for sam_bam_cunningham: small biz, unknown but customer will spend it USD

[sam_bam_cunningham]

Usage type: small biz

Preferred form factor any

Number of bays: 2-bays

Do you have any existing drives that you plan on using? No

Prefered RAID array setup for this NAS: RAID 1

This NAS will be used for: business (virtual machines, mail, office, etc.)

Max budget for this setup: unknown but customer will spend it USD

Number of users that will utilize this NAS: 30

Any preferred network connectivity? 1G

Where will this NAS be used: LAN and over the Internet

Any special network requirements: /

Special cloud provider connectivity: /

Additional information:
first time trying to use MailServer Plus. Customer currently uses Rackspace for hosting their Exchange accounts, and thinks they can save money using MailServer Plus. Currently spending $500-600 /month with Rackspace. Is this something worthwhile to do?

 

[Shadow]

So they are thinking of going from a managed onprem exchange environment to MailPlus?

I'd say this would be quite a downgrade. Sure with side-packets like Calendar and Contacts and sync it for the users on their desktop and laptop devices with DAV protocols can work to minimise the downgrade, but the amount of increase of setup time, maintenance and support cannot be I be overlooked at.

Wouldn't taking an O365 subscription be cheaper and easier?

 

[Rusty]

Just so we stay on the topic of the requested question regarding HW device. In this case, anything below 720+ will be a problem. Even that device for VM (and I see VM's are mentioned) will be a huge problem.

My recommendation would be 1621+ (or the same XS+ model) for this scenario. There will be room to grow and that model packs a much more acceptable CPU for these scenarios then the 720+

 

[Shadow]

My recommendation would be 1621+ (or the same XS+ model) for this scenario. There will be room to grow and that model packs a much more acceptable CPU for these scenarios then the 720+

Ye I agree. Multiple VM's (especially with a GUI?) will exhaust the CPU+RAM capacity of a DS720+ quite quickly.

 

[sam_bam_cunningham]

So MailServer Plus will not emulate Exchange? Does it just act as an IMAP server? Again, have never used MailServer Plus so I'm in the dark. I have used the Synology Mail Server - how does it compare?