Official versus 3rd-Party Exchange Hosting

Clients have been asking me lately about if Exchange Hosted Services (EHS) is a generic term that anyone who hosts Exchange 2007 and 2010 servers can use, or if it is specific to Microsoft?  The answer is that it could be either, but for the most part the term Exchange Hosted Services – spelled out as such – is a Microsoft product that they sell, host and maintain.

EHS is a relatively new product line from Microsoft Online Services (MOS), which has been offering workspace hosting for the rest of the Office platform for a while. You can store and share Word, Excel and other documents online and control them either personally or via a company controlled platform.  You can also rent Dynamics components and other products through the MOS program, but email was something that didn’t immediately become available.

Last year, Microsoft rolled out the ability to create an Exchange infrastructure, hosted in the cloud and based on Exchange 2010 technology.  This meant 25GB mailboxes, multiple-site resiliency for server failure events and the ability to allow centralized administrative control via the MOS consoles.  The concept has been around for quite a while, of course, but now there is a significant difference.

While any Microsoft Partner in the hosting business can host Exchange servers along with anything else, they cannot offer EHS by that name.  EHS is entirely controlled by Microsoft directly.  They own the datacenter space, control the servers, client management, billing and everything else.  Since Microsoft owns the overall experience, they have a very tight control over what features are offered, but also provide direct support for each of those features. So the trade-off is that you may get more feature sets from a 3rd-Party vendor, but not direct support via Microsoft Support Services.

3rd-Party partners cannot call their solution “Exchange Hosted Services,” at least not in those exact words.  Many partners will call their systems Hosted Exchange platforms or something along that vein, in order to differentiate.  You will probably be able to get the same level of service and redundancy, but be sure to always read the fine print.

When in doubt, ask the sales rep if the systems are hosted in Microsoft Datacenters or in independent, 3rd-Party datacenter facilities.  Only EHS is hosted in Microsoft Datacenters, and so this is an easy way to determine if you’re dealing with Microsoft’s EHS or a 3rd-Party.

Addendum:

A mea culpa is in order.  This article is not meant to give the impression that EHS is superior to 3rd-Party Hosted Exchange Servers.  Each has significant benefits and also at least some limitations, and you should explore all options before deciding which you will use for your email solutions provider.  For example, EHS is supported and managed by Microsoft, but does not give you any direct control over your Exchange Server, as you are instead leasing Exchange Services on Microsoft’s servers.

I’m a strong believer in the fact that no single solution can provide the right fit for every organization.  3rd-Party vendors (including the one I work for – see the disclaimer at the end of the blog) provide strong solutions with multiple options and feature sets.  Many also work in conjunction with Microsoft’s own products and services, so you might not have to give up one to use the other.

I’m glad this blog is part of your investigations, and I’m glad I can be part of your search for a solutions provider that includes multiple sources for reviews, features and functionality.  Always do your homework; only then can you make the best choice based on the needs of your company and the features of the various providers.