What is Exchange Hosting?
Is it a mystery? To some it still is. Here’s the deal. Exchange is email. If you’ve ever used Outlook, you were probably using Exchange Servers or something like them. Outlook is often the interface to a hosted Exchange Server.
I talk to people all the time about hosting SharePoint and Exchange together for them. Often times I get that blank look… You know the same one I got when I asked the best looking girl in my college marketing class to go out with me. For some reason people think that Exchange is some convoluted program that they don’t need or have the ability to comprehend. It is email, contacts, calendars – personal information management – most often used for businesses.
What’s the big deal? What does Exchange have that Hotmail doesn’t?
Why use hosted Exchange? Why do businesses need a whole server just for email? Because it’s part of the Microsoft Suite of server software, it syncs up with Outlook, SharePoint (WSS and MOSS), CRM and mobile devices like the Apple iPhone.
Personally, I would be lost without the Exchange Server we use at Fpweb.net. I currently use Exchange on Outlook and SharePoint to handle internal project management, manage sales leads and important contact information. I store sales quotes and diagrams in SharePoint and then use Outlook to sync up to my SharePoint document library. I can preview documents that are stored within our MOSS 2007 Portal within Microsoft Outlook. Without the help of our MS Exchange Server, none of this is possible.
Ok, but what is the advantage to having it hosted instead of on-premise?
So why use hosted Exchange? Well, while using Exchange within the Microsoft Outlook client is as simple as using Gmail, the actual installation, setup and administration of a Microsoft Exchange Server is typically a nightmare for most internal I.T. departments. You definitely have to know what you’re doing. Fortunately, at Fpweb.net, we have a bunch of super geeks who know Exchange better than their favorite video game.
So that’s it – I’m keeping this one short. If you want to know more about hosted Exchange: Bing it. (Yes, I’m drinking the kool-aid and I’m switching to Bing for a while to see how this thing performs.)
