Hello,

I manage my wife's company SBS2003 Std server which is currently at 5
users. We have it kept it very simple, so I'd like to know how
migrating to 2008 or 2011 may affect the handful of tasks we do.
1) Exchange: We host the email on our SBS server. We use direct
connection or web interface. (No POP3 connector)
2) Software VPN support: handy for users to connect from home.
3) File sharing: There are a couple of shared folders on the server.
4) Backup: I've been using NTBackup to daily back up onto portable
hard drives, with the odd forced shutdown and full disk image backup.
Right now the NTBackup files are under 50GB, to give you an idea of
size. Is it true I should plan for a 3rd party backup software?

As you can imagine, with such a simple setup I'm concerned with
reliability and cost. So while it would be unfortunate to upgrade to
2008 and then later to 2011, the hardware requirements for 2011
currently are double our budget and may force the matter.

On a related note, if 2008 and 2011 are relatively similar, why are
the hardware requirements radically different?