Lion Server Address Book vs. iCloud

I'm happy with iCloud with only one, big exception: Address Book.
I have 5600+ entries (growing) and managing large groups with Adress Book/iCloud always gives me pain but I need to have my contacts library sinchronized between Mac-iPhone & iPad.
Therefore I am considering various solutions like Exchange, Google Contacts and using a mac mini with Lion Server for my contacts.
I'm very doubtful about it because buying such a new device only for managing my contacts sounds exxagerated for me but it's clear that the iCloud Address Book is not designed for large libraries.
My question: In this case, managing a large Address Book on Lion Server will REALLY give me a better service than iCloud?
Thank for comments/suggestions!

maybe you found a good solution for your company with FM2LDAP. Take a look at
www.dircard.net
You can manage your Contacts with Filemaker, and put it on your LDAP-Server. From here, you can acsess your contacts from anywhere. Also can you manage access-rights to your Contacts with Server ACLs.

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    Nathan Miah wrote:
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  • Address Book empty iCloud is empty too?

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