Microsoft Exchange: To host or not to host

To host or not to host: cloud is the question. With the recent release of Exchange 2013 and Wave 15 of Office 365, you probably have a choice to make in the near future, particularly if you're one of the huge number who also use Exchange for messaging. Do you migrate to the newest version of Exchange, migrate to the cloud and …

[ecofeco]

So, yeah

How's that cloud thing working out?

[Rob 62]

Re: So, yeah

I've always been very sceptical about the cloud, but recently 365 and hosted exchange seem to be ideal for my OH's business. There are only a few people so they don't want the hassle/cost of maintaining their own infrastructure. By using 365 they get online shared storage and online emails/calendars etc plus word and so on. pretty much ideal for what they need.

[Brian Miller]

Re: So, yeah

If you have a lot of people, it can be much slower than hosting it on-premises. But Exchange isn't exactly lightweight, so good luck with whatever you do.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So, yeah

"If you have a lot of people, it can be much slower than hosting it on-premises"

You missed out 'and are incompetent / incapable of specifying the required Internet bandwidth'

[Anonymous Coward]

@Rob 62

Welcome to the Register.

[P Taylor]

Re: So, yeah

Well, given the 6 Office 365 "Reversals" I have personally done this year. Not so good I would think.

Small companies have been quick to realise the additional support Office 365 requires, especially if you have a high staff turnover.

Also...Need an important email recovered from a backup from say 3 months ago. Yeh, good luck with that too as one of my customers found out.

In House, all the way.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So, yeah

Because that's not how it works. You have to specify how long to keep deleted items. The default retention policy removes items from the Deleted Items folder after 30 days, (but organizations can customize this setting).

[Anonymous Coward]

What exactly are the differences between hosted and on-premise Exchange?

Presumably this is some kind of trick question?

It's been made perfectly clear what the differences are, "hosted" means the NSA/CIA/FBI are reading all your emails, "on-premises" means you can at least attempt to keep your business communications private.

[Peter2]

The substantive difference of course is that you pay for it every month instead of just paying once for buying the server. Adding up the yearly costs demolishes most business cases for hosted exchange.

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't it be "on premises"?