Hosted Exchange

[DwarfData]

Hi Everyone.

I was hoping you guys would be able to give me some advice.

The company we work for is based in the UK and our parent company is based in Sweden. We have a dedicated 2mb leased line connection to their head office where, amongst other things, our Exchange Server is based. This leased line is costing us in excess of £13,000 per year.

I've been tasked with costing how much it would be to not be reliant upon our Swedish parents and therefore allow us to get rid of the leased line.

In the UK we have several servers already, but would look at buying a dedicated server for Exchange. We would obviously require sufficient CAL's for the UK staff, which is currently approximately 25, backup solution, etc... This would cost us several thousands of pounds, not including support costs. However, the capital expenditure would easily pay for itself by getting rid of the leased line.

Another option is to go with a Hosted Exchange solution. I've been looking at prices for this and they range from £5-£15 per user per month (£1,500 to £4,500 per annum) but we wouldn't have to worry about backups, support, etc.

On the whole, which solution would you guys recommend? Does anyone else use a Hosted Exchange solution, and if so, have you any recommendations as to which company to use (preferably based in the UK)?

Cheers

 

[LordOfLA]

The company I work for is not far away from launching a hosted exchange 2007 package. If you want me to provide contact details for the sales folks send me a PM.

 

[kcnychief]

I have been using Hosted Exchange for awhile now for similar reasons you describe. I recently switched from 1&1 (crap!) to Sherweb and couldn't be happier. I would highly recommend them in every single aspect of the business

http://www.sherweb.com/hosted-exchange

 

[SteveHarrisn]

Hosted Exchange is your best bet. With that in mind, there are a lot of hosted service providers out there to choose from. We use Intermedia, whom I highly suggest. They have a large list of included and optional features including hosted Blackberry email.

 

[kcnychief]

Hosted Exchange is your best bet. With that in mind, there are a lot of hosted service providers out there to choose from. We use Intermedia, whom I highly suggest. They have a large list of included and optional features including hosted Blackberry email.

I spent a great deal of time looking for a hosted exchange provider. The hours I spent researching, no one had more crap written about them than Intermedia. If I were you, I would ad least spend your own fair time researching before going with anyone, and probably steer clear of them.