MS exchange server - rent/dedicated/managed?
- Thread starter JGBR
- Start date
What is the level of expertise in your company? Can you manage an exchange server? Would your time be best spent on the business or managing your IT infrastructure?
You can start with a provider purchasing mailboxes until such a time when having your own server makes sense.
Why do you need exchange?
You can start with a provider purchasing mailboxes until such a time when having your own server makes sense.
Why do you need exchange?
Associate
Hosted exchange is fairly cheap and seems to be making sense for small business at the moment, but as mentioned above what is wrong with A N Other POP3/IMAP service?
If you go with Hosted exchange have a look at CobWeb. They seem to offer a decent service at an ok price point.
If you go with Hosted exchange have a look at CobWeb. They seem to offer a decent service at an ok price point.
Makes sense.
Take a look at tsohost.co.uk and serverstream.net. I've dealt with both companies and they'd be good candidates for a dedicated exchange server. You could also visit www.webhostchat.co.uk to receive a wider range of host quotes.
Take a look at tsohost.co.uk and serverstream.net. I've dealt with both companies and they'd be good candidates for a dedicated exchange server. You could also visit www.webhostchat.co.uk to receive a wider range of host quotes.
Sorry for not really answering but you could look at http://www.zimbra.com/
Exchange + Server 2008 + CALS + HW is quite a lot for a small biz, just my 2C
Exchange + Server 2008 + CALS + HW is quite a lot for a small biz, just my 2C
Soldato
I work for Cobweb, we offer hosted exchange so effectively your users can have mailboxes/mobile devices/OWA without you having to manage any servers. Also get antispam chucked in from Message Labs.
I'd imagine it's fairly typical but our users get a control panel they can use to add accounts, email addresses, mailbox permissions etc.
If you want the above at a fixed cost you can predict then i'd say hosted exchange is a good idea, if for whatever reason you need to manage your servers or want more control it may not be the best thing to take up.
Trying to be impartial here we do offer good service at a decent price, i'd personally have no problems taking up our services if I was running a business. We have some pretty big names on board too such as Innocent Drinks and All 3 Media.
But - if i get your system right - you pay a couple of £ per email address? how does that work when mail services/web hosting with another provider etc?
Not being able to host our own servers has put me down a route that i have never tried, of outsourcing some of my ICT.
Not being able to host our own servers has put me down a route that i have never tried, of outsourcing some of my ICT.
Soldato
Got some answers for you:
1) You pay per user/mailbox rather than email address, so if you wanted a user/mailbox to have multiple email addresses there is no extra cost for this. For example you can have a user with [email protected] and [email protected] for no extra cost.
Per user the cheapest you will get without discount is £3.29 per month and that is without premium support and on a 36 month contract. 12 month contract on the same is a bit more expensive but you're not tied in as long.
2) If you have your domain hosted elsewhere it's OK, all we generally need to get you up and running for mail flow is the following DNS records on your domain(s):
- MX Records pointing to our Message Labs cluster.
- Autodiscover CNAME record pointing autodiscover.domain.com to our autodiscover A Name record.
- TXT record for SPF.
None of these affect your web hosting or domain registration settings, so your websites can remain live where they are. We don't try to take control of customer domains just for the sake of getting mailboxes to work but we do require the above is setup.
the CNAME and TXT record should have no real impact on anything, the MX records ensure that mail to your domain from the internet hit our mail servers correctly.
Gonna kip now but probably on tomorrow if you have any other questions
Last edited:
Associate
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2003
- Posts
- 442
It will probably work out that way,
My question is why you dont run a local exchange server in house, so people on site get normal outlook access and people offsite can use either outlook anywhere or Webmail?
My question is why you dont run a local exchange server in house, so people on site get normal outlook access and people offsite can use either outlook anywhere or Webmail?
google apps all the way, there is not way any crappy outfit is going to be more secure than google
£35 per mail box per year, 25gb storage, imap, full contact and cal sync to outlook and mobile devices, web mail
if you have a hosted exchange box you are relying on a single (though probably virtual) machine to be workign correctly, with gmail as long as the multi billion $ data center is not struck by a nuke your service will be up...
£35 per mail box per year, 25gb storage, imap, full contact and cal sync to outlook and mobile devices, web mail
if you have a hosted exchange box you are relying on a single (though probably virtual) machine to be workign correctly, with gmail as long as the multi billion $ data center is not struck by a nuke your service will be up...
Associate
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2003
- Posts
- 442
I would go with this if you dont want an in house server tbh, I use google for message continuity and its fab.
if your BB line dies you have no email, if your office burns down you have no email, if windows / exchange go wrong you have no email, if you get a virus you have no email, if the server hardware dies you have no email, if your router dies you have no email, it costs you £300 - £500 a year on electric to keep the server running, the initial cost of the software and setup is going to be £1500+... dont forget the massive support overhead and pain in the ass backups that will keep going wrong
I cannot think of any plus point for exchange over google apps for a small setup
I would only consider local exchange for >20 users