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Hosted Exchange wins
Jonathan McCormick is chief operating officer at Intermedia.
MORE BUSINESSES ARE LOOKING TO hosted communications services to reduce costs and ease management, and the choice often comes down to Google's Gmail (the key component of Google Apps) or Microsoft Exchange 2010.
For many, the decision will hinge on the features and functions. Heavy BlackBerry and Microsoft Outlook users, for instance, may default to the safety of hosted Exchange providers and their proven ability to effectively support both tools. And while Exchange is perfect for these and other customers, it's important to look beyond features and functions in order to consider the total experience the providers wrap around their hosted services.
Hosted Exchange services are available from a mature ecosystem of partners delivering the service direct from their own data centers and, alternatively, directly from Microsoft. To be sure, there are substantial differences between the companies, but generally they have loads of experience.
Here are the major evaluation criteria to keep in mind when comparing hosted Exchange with Google Apps and why Exchange - particularly with hosted Exchange 2010 available - conies out on top:
* Ease of migrating your existing e-mail data, users, contacts and more. This is the biggest stumbling block for most organizations when evaluating hosted services. It's easier to stand pat than transition to a new service. But a sophisticated hosted Exchange providers have been dealing with these issues for years. They will have a heavily automated (ideally free) migration process that ports all that you've invested in your existing e-mail setup to the new environment. Take a minute to walk through Google's online sign-up process, and it is clear the company's preferred mode of operation is "self serve".
* Certified 24x7 support for the tools your organization relies on - BlackBerry and Microsoft software. If your organization relies heavily on Outlook and BlackBerry, and plans to continue doing so, good hosted Exchange providers can offer you the confidence that their support staff is Microsoft and Research in Motion. Likewise. Outlook was designed to run over Exchange, not Google Apps.
* Business-class reliability. SoUd hosted Exchange providers operate multiple data centers with redundancy and multiple Tier-1 Internet connections. They guarantee and deliver on five-nines availability. That translates into less...