How Do You Want To Host Microsoft Exchange Server?

If you are familiar with the benefits of Microsoftand Good Link Server.
Exchange Server, and you are considering deployingShared Hosted Exchange has its share of drawbacks.
this robust messaging & collaboration platform,Email accounts for your users are hosted in large
you should become familiar with your installationcumbersome information stores, commingled with
options. They include:users from all over the world. Many times your users'
- Self hostedaccounts can be spread among many different
- Shared hostedservers, leading to long delivery delays.
- Privately hostedThese systems are a one-size-fits-all approach,
Many large companies and organizations have mademeaning that your organization has no control over
the investment in hosting their own Microsofthow the massaging system is configured. If you find
Exchange Server environments. What they havea great piece of software that integrates with
found is that the costs associated with purchasingExchange Server, you can forget installing it. If you
equipment and licensing, installing the messagingwant to enable a protocol or integrate with a great
system, and maintaining it over the years can beanti-spam solution, there is no way to do it.
prohibitively expensive. That doesn't mean thatManagement of your email system is limited to
self-hosting is always a bad option: if you have acumbersome, web control panels. System
large, well-trained IT staff and your users are highlyadministrators prefer to have the flexibility of using
centralized, you may find that self-hosting is the bestActive Directory Users & Computers, System
choice for you.Manager, and other integrated management tools.
Why is Self-Hosted Exchange so Expensive?Plus there are hundreds of specialized management
A properly configured Microsoft Exchangeutilities available for Exchange and Active Directory, all
environment requires two dedicated Active Directoryof which are off limits to shared hosted customers.
Domain Controllers and at least one dedicatedSingle Sign-on is another great feature of Exchange
Exchange Server. All three servers must be licensedserver that is unavailable to shared hosted
for Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and the mailcustomers. In a traditional Exchange Server
server must be licensed for Microsoft Exchange.environment, users login using their Active Directory
Additionally, you must license each user for bothuser account, and this account is also used to access
Windows Server and Exchange Server. So beforetheir email system. That means that a single login, a
you even consider hardware and implementation, asingle password, gives them access to all of their
20 user system costs between $4000 & $5000applications and data. This level of integration is not
in licensing alone. Even if you decide to get the leastpossible with Shared Hosted Exchange. So for
expensive hardware available, it is hard to conceivecompanies that are public or thinking of going public,
you could get the entire system installed for lessor those that are subject to IT audits, this service is
than $6000.not even a possibility.
The system described above is just the basic buildingPrivately Hosted Exchange: Get the benefits of
blocks of your messaging system. There are severalShared & Self Hosted
important components missing from the configuration,Privately Hosted Exchange by Infinitely Virtual
including:overcomes all the shortcomings of both Shared
- Data Backup& Self Hosted Exchange environments. Using our
- Anti-virus / Anti-Spamstate-of-the-art virtual server hosting environment,
- Internet connectivitywe create for every PHE customer a complete
- Ongoing support and maintenancemessaging system, including two dedicated Active
A more realistic price for installing this state-of-the-artDirectory Servers and a dedicated Exchange server.
messaging & collaboration system is roughlyAnd we do this for a flat monthly fee per user.
$10,000.Customer designated users have access to
So why would any organization install Exchangemanagement utilities. Every feature of Active
Server?Directory and Exchange Server may be customized
Large companies get the benefit of economies ofto meet your organization's needs. All third-party
scale. The incremental cost of adding a single user toapplications are supported.
this environment is around $100. This means thatYou can add VPN to any PHE plan, and with that we
systems with hundreds of email accounts can spreadsupport single sign-on. We can establish a trust with
the equipment and licensing costs among a larger poolan existing Active Directory or you can join your
of users. Also, they tend to have IT staffs equippedservers to your Active Directory in our datacenter.
to handle the day-to-day management of aEither way, you can enjoy all the benefits of an
sophisticated email system.enterprise AD environment without having to design
What is Shared Hosted Exchangeand implement it.
A number of companies have sprung up on the webIf any of this sounds complicated, you don't have to
that have created large Microsoft Exchange Serverworry. Our engineers provide free user account
infrastructures capable of supporting thousands ofmanagement, free implementation plans, and of
users. They offer a simple solution for single users orcourse we can provide professional services to
small companies to host Exchange email. Theyintegrate your email system with the rest of your
generally offer their customers a flat fee per user.network.
Their plans include a specific amount of storage forHow we protect your organization and your data
each user account, and they charge a nominal feeEvery virtual server is hosted in our Enterprise
per user per month.VMware Virtual Infrastructure environment. Servers
There are many benefits to a shared hostedare clustered using VMwareHA technology, ensuring
Exchange Server environment. The most obvious isthat hardware failures won't lead to significant down
cost. A small organization immediately takestime. All data is stored on our clustered SAN and
advantage of the economies of scale only largeconnected to the Internet over our redundant
enterprises enjoy. And since the monthly fees areswitching fabric. We take six snapshots of your data
fixed, there are no surprises. In addition to havingper day. And every server in our environment is an
access to all the features and capabilities of MicrosoftHP Proliant with redundant power supplies, connected
Exchange Server, most hosting companies offerto our fully redundant power system, backed up by
access to services like Blackberry Enterprise Serveruninterruptible power Supplies and generators.