Can Hosted Exchange Work for Your Company?

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mcpmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=426' target='_blank'>http://mcpmag.com/features/article....ditorialsID=426</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Can hosted Exchange be cheaper? Can it lower your total cost of ownership?... Can hosted Exchange be better than going it alone? Can it enable you to focus on your core business? 'The answer here is simple,' explains Walter. 'We started out trying to bring up our own Exchange 2003 and VPN environment, and it became apparent very quickly that it was taking our focus away from where it needed to be. We are a small business and our time is better spent serving our current customers and acquiring new ones.'"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/ekkie_hosted_exchange_200607.jpg" /><br /><br />Over the past 5 years, the market for ASP (Application Service Providers) solutions has really exploded and anyone with lengthy experience running an IT department or making IT decisions for a company should be quite familiar with the ASP question by now. Every year, more and more types of standard back-office solutions are being offered in this manner; corporate email is just one example. In this article, the author looks at the pros and cons of a hosted Exchange service. Take a look and let us know your thoughts, especially if you've had any exposure to such a service.

[Marcel_Proust]

I'm trying www.themessagecenter.com right now, and finding it working very well. don't forget the wireless activesync. wondering if anyone has tried their goodlink service.
i had been a long time user of mailstreet, which is also very good, but costs more, for less.
i would stay with established players like these two.

[paschott]

We're currently on MailStreet. Not too bad, but 100 MB is pretty small for a mailbox size. As far as I know, they don't support Push Email via Exchange SP2. Does The Message Center support that?

I don't have any major complaints about the service other than the general trouble of setting up Outlook to work with an ASP as opposed to a local server. It's not hard, but it is quite a few steps to walk through.

I can't speak for the cost too much, but for $10/month/person, it's not a bad deal to get e-mail hosting with your domain name and normal Exchange functionality. I don't know if the cost would be more/less effective as it scales up. I can definitely see the value for small businesses or startups who don't want to spend unnecessary time and money buying, setting up, and maintaining their own e-mail server.

-Pete

[Marcel_Proust]

We're currently on MailStreet. Not too bad, but 100 MB is pretty small for a mailbox size. As far as I know, they don't support Push Email via Exchange SP2. Does The Message Center support that?

I don't have any major complaints about the service other than the general trouble of setting up Outlook to work with an ASP as opposed to a local server. It's not hard, but it is quite a few steps to walk through.

I can't speak for the cost too much, but for $10/month/person, it's not a bad deal to get e-mail hosting with your domain name and normal Exchange functionality. I don't know if the cost would be more/less effective as it scales up. I can definitely see the value for small businesses or startups who don't want to spend unnecessary time and money buying, setting up, and maintaining their own e-mail server.

-Pete

i have not set mine to push so i don't know yet. but the mailbox is 300. their set ups i found easier than mailstreet's for my purposes as they provide you with vbs code.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I don't know if the cost would be more/less effective as it scales up. I can definitely see the value for small businesses or startups who don't want to spend unnecessary time and money buying, setting up, and maintaining their own e-mail server.
You hit the nail on the head. For smaller companies, the ASP option makes a whole lot of sense and this is also the market that Bill Gates was targeting with his "software-as-a-service" vision that he layed out before stepping down.

ASPs can make a lot of sense for larger companies as well, but it's usually better suited for applications that are only going to be used by a smaller subset of users. Overall it's a cost/benefit assessment that has to be revisited for every application where an ASP is being discussed.

IT departments are becoming more and more commoditized every year with ASPs and offshore development. The overriding goal is for businesses to be able to focus more of their time and money on their objectives as opposed to the technological support required to help acheive them.

[Edgar_]

Not just size is a factor, diversity of staff location is a huge factor

We use ASPONE/BizatLarge for about 100 staff in US/UK/Denmark and Ukraine.

Works really well and its nice to turn on anywhere, even at a wifi hotspot, and have native Outlook not Evil OWA to use. But, on a slow connection we also get OWA access if needed. Server AS/push is also availbale for an extra upcharge per seat.

Price is reasonable - and I have no staff to manage beat or feed!

-Edgar

[dma1965]

I have been using 4smartphone for our hosted exchange for about 6 months now, and it has worked out very well.

[scs_ppc]

I have been using 4smartphone since January and I am very happy. They support Exchange 2003 SP2. With my T-Mobile MDA and the version 2.24 ROM, I love Direct Push email. I am also using Outlook 2007 Beta 2, which has great functionality but unfortunetely it is not ready for prime time. Read more about my MDA and Outlook 2007 experiences on my blog (www.mydigitallife.us).[/url]

[Marcel_Proust]

I have been using 4smartphone since January and I am very happy. They support Exchange 2003 SP2. With my T-Mobile MDA and the version 2.24 ROM, I love Direct Push email. I am also using Outlook 2007 Beta 2, which has great functionality but unfortunetely it is not ready for prime time. Read more about my MDA and Outlook 2007 experiences on my blog (www.mydigitallife.us).[/url]

i tried 4smartphone for a little while but found them down a lot. is that still happening? maybe it was just a bad patch. but i didn't continue past the trial with them. so far so good with themessagecenter, and i also found mailstreet very reliable.

[scs_ppc]

i tried 4smartphone for a little while but found them down a lot. is that still happening? maybe it was just a bad patch. but i didn't continue past the trial with them. so far so good with themessagecenter, and i also found mailstreet very reliable.

It has been very stable, other than an outage for several hours on April 1st. I remember the date because I thought it might be an April fools joke, it was not they lost a controller and the systems did not failover correctly. I just signed up my wife, great to be able to share calendars, contacts, etc in Outlook.

[beq]

Does anyone know if 1and1.com's hosted Exchange supports SP2 push email?

Anyways, for personal/family use, what's the most cost-effective hosted Exchange service that lets you upgrade above 1GB mailbox space? I'm satisfied with 1and1, but they don't let you purchase extra space beyond the standard 1GB user mailbox space (or 50MB Public Folders space).

Family members keep exceeding their mailbox space and having new emails rejected...

[Underwater Mike]

I couldn't get a straight answer out of them WRT the push option, but I don't think it's currently enabled. That pushed me (no pun intended) to 4smartphone.

4smartphone has been pretty good, although there have been a few glitches over the past couple months since I signed up. Better than nothing, tho.



Does anyone know if 1and1.com's hosted Exchange supports SP2 push email?

Anyways, for personal/family use, what's the most cost-effective hosted Exchange service that lets you upgrade above 1GB mailbox space? I'm satisfied with 1and1, but they don't let you purchase extra space beyond the standard 1GB user mailbox space (or 50MB Public Folders space).

Family members keep exceeding their mailbox space and having new emails rejected...

[topps]

I have been using 4smartphone for our hosted exchange for about 6 months now, and it has worked out very well.

We've been using 4SmartPhone for nearly a year. VERY happy with the service and flexibility. Jason first mentioned here on PPCT last fall - I reckoned if he was happy with it, and he is quite selective in what he recommends, then it was good enough for me.

Previous attempts at setting up a hosted Exchange solution that would work with a PDA were fraught with frustration and not stable. 4SmartPhone has put a lot of thought into how to make Exchange work really well with a mobile device, especially on getting it set up in the first place.

Now that we've moved over to Win Mobile 5, it is even better but it is still perfectably usable with a 2003 device.

We have some pretty demanding users - the 4SmartPhone support team has been very responsive in solving unusual configuration challenges or non-standard needs. Highly recommended.

(I have no relationship with the company and no vested interest. We are just very happy with their service and happy to endorse it).

[ronsloane]

I use Intermedia.net (http://www.Intermedia.net) with their 1 GB email box plans (for 10 users or more, only). It has been great - very good support and service. the other day they emailed me about free ActiveSync and how they support push email on Windows Mobile 5. So if you bought a Q or a new device, give them a try. I think most Exchange hosts charge extra for ActiveSync.

[ronsloane]

By the way BEQ: Intermedia lets you upgrade above 1 GB - there is no maximum mailbox size that i know of.

[emmfan]

I had been using 1&amp;1 for a couple of years without any complaints. They started off with very responsive customer service. Then this year, when I got a windows mobile 5 phone edition device, I setup for direct-push which worked for about a month, then at the end of July it just stopped working. I tried contacting customer service but kept getting the run around via e-mail and phone. It sounds like their support has been outsourced and I just couldn't get any answers.

I am now trying out 4smartphone and aside for a few minor hiccups which their support answered very promptly via e-mail, everything is working. 13 more days in the trial to go.

[SteveHarrisn]

We're also using Intermedia's hosted Exchange in our office and I love it. We just started using their service on our BlackBerrys as well!

[SamanthaBlaine]

we originally went with mailstreet only to realize that their service was kinda shady. we eventually switched to intermedia and haven't looked back!:D