thanks chief I'm going to look into it. Have you thought about having your own exchange server set up at your home or something like that?
I was wondering about setting up a virtualized server on my system at home with exchange set up?
Your thoughts?
I gave that a great deal of thought too as it is always good to do something yourself vs. paying for a service. In addition to what Fitz already mentioned, here are a few other points to consider:
-I'm hardly ever home, so if there is a problem with my server it could be hours upon hours until I can look at it, let alone fix it. My work places block most e-mail sites so without access to my phone I could be in a dark zone until I can get my problem resolved.
-Don't have to worry about hardware, and not very likely you keep parts in stock just in case. If there is an issue with the vendor they fix it, and fast.
-Unless you are using some type of VM, there is added electrical and hardware cost as well.
-I don't have to worry about maintenance, downtime, patches, etc.
-Your ISP could go down. Residential ISP's can be a bit*h sometimes and who knows how long that will go down for
-Power could go down, ISV's have redundant power and Internet backbones in most cases.
Really if you think about all the advantages you get out of it for $8.95 a month, money well spent IF you are going to take full advantage of it. For example, I would recommend some type of WM device or similar (iPhone if it is your preference). I hardly ever use Outlook or OWA - these devices are so efficient it's great. I don't even know how I would survive without my WM phone.
Some cool things about that, if you receive an e-mail (instantly with direct push of course), the person might have a signature or may have sent you a phone number in the message. Scroll to the number, call it or add it to your contacts. Or, go into Outlook or OWA, add someone to your contacts or a calendar entry and it's on your phone almost instantly.
Productivity-wise, if you will use it enough, best money I spend every month is on my data plan and hosted exchange.