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AE_JBFlag for United States of America

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SBS 2003 + Office 365?

Can a business running SBS 2003 coexist with office 365 without issue?  I have heard conflicting reports, mainly that the terms of the SBS package say that all the packaged services need to be running.  If this is a licensing issue, the only solution would be to first migrate the SBS server to server 2003 or 2008 standard..
If it is a configuration issue, local Exchange services would have to be reconfigured and disabled.  
The main reason I ask is that the current SBS server is running a 32 bit OS on older hardware, and a new server is not in the budget.  Perhaps upgrade to Server 2008 R2 software is an option if coexistence with SBS 2003 is not advisable.  
Does anyone have experience with 365 Cloud Identity + Dirsync running SBS 2003?
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Vasil Michev (MVP)
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If dirsync is your concern here, you can search for older version and use it instead (the newer ones are all 64-bit only). Dirsync doesnt really require much horsepower, you can use a normal office machine to run it, but you will need server OS on it.
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Cris Hanna
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Dirsync would be installed on a second server that is 64 bit.  

As for the wizards, I agree.  I have worked with SBS for several years and the golden rule from day one has been to 'use the wizards'  
365 would be cost effective for the client, the issue comes back to how they would migrate over and upgrade after the change.  They would need onsite AD, but again, currently no server to support a newer 64 bit server OS, which is preferred for an upgrade.  
About 40 users.
Depending on the O365 plan chosen, it could actually be more expensive than getting a new server with SBS 2011 which could support them until about 2020
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They are a non profit, so it is practically free.
I think you need to be looking beyond this month or even 3 months.  In April 2014,  SBS/Server 2003 will no longer be supported by Microsoft with monthly patches and so on.  now is the time to get them migrated on to a platform that they can be supported on for the next few years and will play nicely with newer Microsoft products
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Thanks.  I knew end of life was soon, but did not have the exact date.