Moving your mail from a local installation to a cloud based solution can be a real headache, but the benefits of using a cloud based exchange system mean you need to make the move at some stage if you want your business to take off the shackles of a one-location mail box. Asking employees to forward their email to a cloud system is not just unprofessional it’s also insecure and just not practical.
Choosing your Host
This would usually be something you expect all decent cloud hosts to have a grip on and it’s reasonable to expect providers to have a system where customers can easily migrate exchange to their systems – wrong. That’s where most people make their first mistake.
Setting up exchange should be a lot easier than it is, but sadly it can be cumbersome to say the least. Given the choice, I would always opt for using your own cloud server solution and they don’t need to be expensive. See what exchange server options Dell provides. The advantage of running Exchange on your own servers is there are no middle-men to deal with and if you are reasonably tech savvy, it’s always best to take control.
Choosing your Exchange Server 2013 Licensing Options
The use of Exchange Server is split into two versions, the standard edition and the enterprise edition. The standard edition limits you to five mailboxes, which is very restrictive. Alternatively, you can use up to 100 mail boxes with the enterprise edition.
Deploying Exchange on a Cloud Server
First, you need to prepare your active directory and domains. If you need help to do this, check out the knowledge base for Exchange 2013 by clicking here or you can make sure you are prepared before you get stuck in by clicking here.
Once your active directories and domains are setup, you simply need to run the Exchange setup wizard and follow the step-by-step instructions. It shouldn’t take any more than fifteen minutes to complete and there is nothing taxing in the process.
Opting for Exchange Online
Exchange Online is a service run by Microsoft in the cloud, but you can also synchronise it with your in-house mail systems to ensure continuity. If you are not sure of the best way to use Exchange, check out this white paper from Microsoft designed to help you decide.
Some small businesses can survive with just one Exchange Online account, but if communication is important and constant in your organisation, an installation of Exchange Server is essential.
Being part of the Dell team, I know we have a great range of exchange server options on offer. Visit the site and browse the solutions on offer.
This is a guest post by Marie.
Hi Jane
I have observed advantages of cloud based servers as few of my fellow bloggers are using it. I am glad to get more knowledge about it through this article.
Thank you 🙂