If you’ve ever used Microsoft Exchange you’ll be aware of all the benefits it brings to your organisation. But if you’ve ever run your own Exchange Server though, you’ll know that there’s a significant amount of effort that needs to go into managing and maintaining both your users and your server infrastructure. There is an option however that will give you the best of both words. Use a hosting Exchange platform sitting out in the cloud somewhere.
I’ve been thinking about the subject because I came across a hosted Exchange offer by Rackspace which seems to offer all the benefits without the pain. It costs $12.50 per mailbox that they host for you; which really means that if you have a small company you can make use of their service at a low cost, and then scale the capability as your organisation grows. They currently have over 6000 companies that make use of their service and they also add some extra functionality that helps make their offer more compelling. You get free anti-virus and anti-spyware scanning in the offering, a web-based control panel and you don’t have to be tied into a long-term contract. If you’ve never heard of Rackspace before, they’re one of the top hosting companies in the world, so you do know that your data will be secure.
So there you have it, all the benefits, none of the pain.