With the Microsoft Exchange 2010 release coming soon, Intermedia commissioned two white papers from industry research firms in order to provide additional tools to the marketplace regarding Exchange 2010 and in particular, hosted Exchange 2010. The below is the second in a series of excerpts from the white paper, “An Overview of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010” by The Radicati Group, Inc. – available on Intermedia’s web site.  

Why Businesses Should Consider Upgrading to Microsoft Exchange 2010

Businesses should have few concerns about upgrading to Microsoft Exchange 2010. Microsoft Exchange 2010 is a top-of-the-line messaging and collaboration suite that features new and cutting-edge technology. In particular, businesses should consider upgrading to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 for the following reasons:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 enhances the experience of business users on the go, offering them multiple ways of accessing their inbox, from any web browser using Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA), or mobile device using Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) or Microsoft Outlook Voice Access (OVA).
• Archiving and retention introduced in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 gives IT administrators greater control over historical email records, necessary for compliance with government rules and regulations.
• For the first time, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 was developed with built-in hosted capabilities, allowing service providers to offer a reliable Microsoft Hosted Exchange service to subscribers. Also, enhanced high availability and disaster recovery features minimize of unplanned downtime, ensuring that businesses will have continual access to their email accounts.

With Microsoft Exchange 2010 launching soon, Intermedia commissioned two white papers from industry research firms in order to provide additional tools to the marketplace regarding Exchange 2010 and in particular, hosted Exchange 2010. The below is the first in a series of excerpts from the white paper, “An Overview of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010” by The Radicati Group, Inc. – available on Intermedia’s web site.  

Microsoft Exchange 2010: Four Key Areas of Functionality

With the release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft is greatly enhancing many of the features it was already delivering in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and for the first time, the platform is developed with built-in hosting capabilities, providing subscribers with a more reliable Microsoft Hosted Exchange service.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 focuses on four key areas of functionality:

1. High Availability and Disaster Recovery (DR) – While some organizations may still be skeptical about hosted solutions, especially due to concerns over possible outages, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 has greatly improved high availability and disaster recovery features on the backend to ensure business continuity in case of an unexpected event.
2. Control of Information Overload – As email users are oftentimes overwhelmed with the large number of emails they receive each day, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 now includes features that will help control the amount of information overload that builds up in users’ inboxes.
3. Anywhere Access – Business users increasingly need access to email when they are outside the office, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 offers multiple ways for business users to access their email, whether it be from other computers while traveling or from a mobile device.
4. Archiving and Compliance – Many businesses nowadays are required to comply with government rules and regulations for information retention. Microsoft’s new archiving and retention features, built-into Microsoft Exchange 2010, will help businesses address this need, providing IT administrators with the necessary tools for storing historical email records.

We’re announcing today a new partnership with Ingram Micro Seismic. Under the new alliance, Ingram Micro Seismic will co-market and sell our hosted Microsoft Exchange 2007, Office Communication Service (OCS), SharePoint 3.0 and Dynamics CRM to its rapidly growing reseller and MSP partner base. The private label hosted services are available now as part of Ingram Micro Seismic.

We operate the world’s largest hosted Exchange service, hosting more than 225,000 premium Microsoft Exchange mailboxes. The alliance with Ingram Micro Seismic marks a growing demand for hosted solutions and is, for us, a major resale agreement with a worldwide distribution partner.

Ingram Micro’s confidence in our hosted solutions offering is a direct result of our commitment and demonstrated record of providing unsurpassed service and uptime to our customers. We are looking forward to working with the Ingram Micro Seismic team and helping their partners grow their businesses and increase their recurring revenue streams by leveraging our portfolio of hosted Microsoft solutions.

Intermedia is making Exchange hosting upgrades simple and cost-effective with our proprietary tools and Exchange Concierge^™ service. When Exchange 2010 launches we’re offering free migrations to our hosted Exchange 2010 customers.  Migrations will be performed by our Exchange Concierge^™ team using proprietary tools we developed for hosted Exchange 2003 and 2007. The tools are being readied for use with hosted Exchange 2010, in part through the hosted Exchange 2010 beta we launched in May 2009.

The free migration offer will be open to  new customers as well as existing customers that choose to upgrade to an Exchange 2010 hosting plan.

We forsee free migration to hosted Exchange as of particular interest to the many small and medium-sized businesses that require upgrade from Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003.  The proprietary tools Intermedia custom-built are critical to the successful outsourcing of email for small and medium-sized businesses. We are able to handle migrations at no additional cost to our customers, minimize disruption to their business and preserve the value of their existing Exchange set-up.

Today we provide the Exchange Concierge service as part of its hosted Exchange 2007 offering. The service uses proprietary tools, including:

• Intermedia’s PST Manager– which enables importing and exporting mail data directly from HostPilot® Control Panel, Intermedia’s proprietary control panel
• Intermedia’s ROH Data Manager – which allows the seamless pull of mail data remotely from an in-house Exchange environment securely over the Internet
• Mass User Creation Wizard – which enables rapid creation of an Exchange account, including mailboxes, contacts, distribution groups, email addresses and contact information that match what exists within the client’s current in-house Exchange and Active Directory

Click here for information on our Exchange 2010 beta.

With mega-hype – such as the incessant promotion of ‘the cloud’ in IT – inevitably comes a mega-backlash. Witness today’s public relations disaster, where T-Mobile USA has suspended sales of the Sidekick and offered those customers the option of ditching their contracts without penalty because of a ‘cloud failure’ – the servers lost all the data (eg personal contacts) stored on the Sidekick devices with apparently no hope of ever getting it back.

This ‘cloud failure’ has of course led to some nasty headlines from IT writers, like ‘When the Cloud Fails’ (GigaOM) and ‘Cloud Goes Boom’ (InformationWeek). But there’s the problem: there are so many different clouds. Some of them may well be shoddy and some are highly secure and reliable – but they all get lumped under this same ‘cloud’ umbrella.

It is a bit like saying that ‘hobbies are dangerous’ – even though some hobbies are not dangerous at all (playing bridge) but some are very risky (free-climbing the North Face of the Eiger).

Over time, as more – in fact, most – businesses come to rely on ‘cloud’ services, such as hosted Exchange, they will need to discern one cloud from another. Is it a nice, shiny cloud with multiple tier-4 datacenters and multi-site backup, like Intermedia, or is it a drizzly, wispy cloud with questionable reliability and backup? Until that time, we software-as-a-service businesses will need to keep explaining that not all clouds are the same.

Today we enhanced our hosted Exchange 2010 beta offering – the world’s first – with two new features. This feature set leaves us positioned for a production-ready experience. Michael Osterman of industry analyst firm Osterman Research comments that Intermedia “…is leading the charge for hosted Exchange 2010…” Read more about the new features and more on what Mr. Osterman has to say here.

Intermedia congratulates the Microsoft Exchange 2010 team on completing the code as announced yesterday.

We have decided to extend the Microsoft Exchange 2010 beta we debuted on May 27, 2009. As the leading provider of Microsoft Exchange Hosting, we’re receiving an increasing amount of inquiries about Exchange 2010. As it’s not yet available for sale from Microsoft, we’re looking for more feedback so we can generate an excellent production-ready experience.

Exchange 2010 and its Outlook Web Access interface introduce several features designed to enhance the user experience, such as conversation-style email formats and full compatibility with Safari and Firefox browsers.

As the Exchange 2010 beta is hosted, no software downloads or installations are necessary. Visit ourbeta Exchange 2010 hosting web-site to take part.

Intermedia’s Brent Rich (Director of Operations) will be a guest speaker at The Radicati Group’s Microsoft Exchange Server E2010 web conference today (Thursday September 17^th).

At 12.30pm (EST), Brent will join speakers from Microsoft, EMC, HP and USA.NET to discuss the impending Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 release. Due in late 2009, Exchange 2010 will add powerful capabilities for archiving and compliance, increased flexibility and reliability, and anywhere access.

The Radicati Group will provide a brief overview of Exchange 2010, and a speaker panel of Microsoft partners will discuss how they see it meeting evolving market needs.

Representing the world’s largest provider of hosted Exchange, Brent will of course discuss issues related to hosting Exchange 2010. We can’t give any sneak previews here, but the web conference is free, so please join:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/650454993

This week at Microsoft’s World Wide Partner conference in New Orleans Intermedia announced an expansion of its highly successful private label partner program in Latin America. Solution providers in Latin America can now offer their customers Intermedia’s Business Productivity Suite of hosted Microsoft products, including hosted Exchange 2007, Outlook 2007, hosted Office Communications Server 2007 and hosted SharePoint 3.0. Providers can offer the turnkey service under their own brand and manage it with a private label version of Intermedia’s end user control panel – now available in Spanish and English. Intermedia also offers Outlook 2007 in Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and 14 other languages.

Continue reading…