We recently extended our hosted Exchange 2010 service to the UK market. Our industry-leading new offering is the first to deliver Exchange 2010 with clustering and redundant server infrastructure – technologies critical to the high reliability businesses expect for email service.

According to Michael Osterman of IT analyst firm Osterman Research, “Businesses are increasingly using hosted Exchange for their email given the lower cost of ownership that it can provide – not to mention the very high availability that comes from the use of clustering and redundant servers in a carrier-grade environment. Exchange 2010 offers a number of important benefits, particularly to remote and mobile workers, not least of which is a much-improved Outlook Web App experience. As one of the leading providers of hosted Exchange, Intermedia is well positioned to help organizations drive down their cost of providing email, as well as provide a variety of additional, value-added services.”

Our announcement comes on the heels of a strong 2009 performance for our London-based UK operations. We tripled our UK customer base last year with a product line that includes hosted Microsoft Exchange, Office Communications Server 2007, SharePoint 3.0 and support for BlackBerry, iPhone, Droid and other smartphones.

We have also secured space for an additional datacenter located in the UK. Like our four US datacenters, the UK datacenter will feature redundant Tier-1 Internet connections and hardware from Cisco, Dell and EMC – investments that assure high reliability and the fastest round trip for email. The UK datacenter will also provide in-country email service and storage for UK companies that prefer this option.

“Small- and mid-size businesses in the UK require hosted services that give them the same capabilities as much larger competitors,” says Serguei Sofinski, chief executive officer, Intermedia. “We deliver enterprise-class service in a way that’s incredibly simple for our customers to use and manage. That’s why we’ve been successful in the UK market and expect additional growth with hosted Exchange 2010.”

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We announced last week that our hosted Exchange services (including Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007) are available on Google’s newly launched Nexus One smartphone. Using Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Intermedia is able to configure the new Google Nexus One – as well as the Motorola Droid, Palm Treo, Motorola Q, T-Mobile Dash, Samsung Blackjack and the iPhone – so users can take advantage of the same enterprise-grade Exchange services they are used to in the office. Those capabilities include email, calendars, tasks and instant messaging.

A key feature available in Nexus One, according to Google, is the ability to have not one, but multiple Exchange accounts fully configured with ActiveSync – including syncing of contacts, email and other information to and from the phone and the Exchange accounts.

Intermedia also fully supports BlackBerry® Wireless Solution hosting for hosted Exchange. The company provides users with BlackBerry® Enterprise Solutions (BES) connectivity – for true wireless “push” email. Customers get two-way wireless synchronization of email, calendar, contacts and tasks.

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With the year 2010 now underway, and hosted Exchange 2010 now available, why not resolve to:

Improve the productivity of your workforce with Exchange 2010’s new Outlook Web Access (see it to believe it). Top tech journalist Paul Mah of IT Business Edge tweets, “Exchange 2010’s web interface is nice, very nice. Works just like the fat client version of Microsoft Outlook and behaves on Firefox too!”

Keep email and business-critical communications data safe in a world-class data center, just as you keep money in a bank. “Exchange repositories don’t just contain simple e-mail threads; they also include PowerPoint presentations, business contacts, and details of contracts,” says top ZDNet reporter Ed Bott. “[That's why] Intermedia has multiple replicated platforms in data centers on opposite coasts, with rapid restore capabilities and a 100% Data Protection Guarantee.”

Eliminate Exchange administration headaches. We manage the service and make it headache free – no more than six minutes of downtime per year, guaranteed. “I have never been down in the years I’ve used Intermedia and their customer support is rock solid,” says Ramon Ray, Smallbiztechnology.com and author of Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses.

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As we enter a new year, I made a decision to change how my personal e-mail is handled. I transitioned from running my own Exchange server to becoming a paying customer of Intermedia’s Exchange 2010 hosting earlier this week. One reason I opted for Intermedia is due to it being the world’s largest provider of Microsoft Exchange hosting; the company is also one of the first few providers to offer hosted Exchange 2010 service in November.

As most are probably aware, Exchange 2010 is the latest release of Microsoft’s flagship messaging platform. What is less known is how Microsoft first designed Exchange 2010 for use in a hosted environment before working on the traditional server version; the development path taken by the team is markedly different from how earlier versions of Exchange were created.

In a way, today’s blog is about why hosted Exchange works for me. I believe that these same reasons are also relevant to smaller SMBs who might be deciding if they should switch over to hosted Exchange 2010.

Maintenance is not optional

I starting using Exchange a number of years ago by acquiring the SBS (Small Business Server) build of Microsoft Server 2003. Installed on a virtual machine with 20GB of storage, the SBS rarely crashed, and has served my needs well. Problems with disk space cropped up recently, however, no doubt courtesy of my virtually non-existent maintenance.

Now, I set up the Exchange 2003 at a time when I worked as an IT professional. While I am confident of getting things patched up properly, I was sorely cognizant of the amount of time and resources required. After much deliberation and tallying up the monetary and opportunity costs, I realized that it just makes no sense for me to run such an important service by myself. This is a similar situation to that faced by SMBs in general.

As hosted services increase in reliability, it simply does not make sense to run one’s own e-mail servers, especially since the cost of Internet connectivity continues to drop. Indeed, the cost of hardware, software licenses, upgrades, and maintenance can stack up quickly. Done correctly, the per-seat cost reductions gained by going for a hosted service can be significant for smaller businesses.

Conversely, running one’s own servers entails a certain overhead in terms of maintenance and management that is simply not optional. This is especially pertinent given that many small and medium-sized organizations do not have dedicated IT staff to maintain them.

Superior Web and mobile access

Exchange 2010 offers superior Outlook Web Access, with an experience matching that of Microsoft’s Outlook client. E-mails can be dragged between folders, while calendar entries can be moved around and resized. In fact, doing a right-click over various items will bring out relevant context menus instead of the standard browser options.

On top of default OWA features, Intermedia also support BlackBerry and Exchange ActiveSync. I was able to activate my BlackBerry with my new account without having to bother with installing BES or perform any additional configuration. Should I lose my device, the custom controls mean that I can bypass Intermedia support to perform a remote data wipe directly from the Web interface.

Access to the newest technologies

Finally, using a hosted e-mail service allowed me to enjoy the features found in Exchange 2010 without having to invest in new hardware or pay for an Exchange license. Because my hosted service also includes the relevant client access license for Outlook 2007 – this is normally the case for similar service providers – I also have one fewer piece of software to pay for. Ditto that when the next version of Exchange comes along.

To summarize my experience, the service has been rock stable to date. In addition, I am left impressed by the stellar and prompt technical support – the support folks at Intermedia certainly know what they are talking about.

Ultimately, if the above-mentioned points make sense for your SMB, then do seriously consider switching to Exchange 2010 soon. Alternatively, I have also written about some possible reasons that SMBs should migrate to the non-hosted version of Exchange 2010.

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In today’s market, minutes of downtime costs a small business thousands of dollars. Intermedia’s highly redundant environments with built in business continuity and disaster recovery solutions guarantees less than six minutes of downtime per year.

Intermedia’s hosted Exchange 2010 environment includes:

• 100 percent Data Protection Guarantee ensures customers’ data is safe;
• Industry-leading 99.999 percent SLA;
• Premium hardware from Dell, EMC and Cisco;
• Four Tier-4 datacenters located on both the East and West coasts.

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EChannelLine, 12/2/09

Intermedia launches hosted Exchange 2010 reseller program

Microsoft Exchange hosting solution provider Intermedia has opened its industry-first hosted Exchange 2010 service to its existing and future partners. These managed service providers, value-added resellers and other technology providers can sell and support hosted Exchange 2010 under their own brand as members of Intermedia’s Private Label Partner Program. p<> Intermedia launched the first hosted Exchange 2010 service on November 9. The service includes a 100 percent Data Protection Guarantee in addition to Intermedia’s longstanding 99.999 percent uptime service level agreement.

“With Intermedia, I can offer clients Exchange 2010 with a 100 percent Data Protection Guarantee, giving me an edge over competitors that offer only Exchange 2007,” says Etorre Dragone, president, Micro Technology Groupe. “I’m always looking for new solutions to help me expand my customer base — Exchange 2010 is definitely one that will help me close more deals with new prospects. Intermedia has proven to be a leader and a valued partner that focuses on offering us the latest in technology, security and reliability so that we can have best-of-breed offerings for our customers.”

According to an Osterman Research survey commissioned by Intermedia, nearly 50 percent of IT decision makers surveyed were on an Exchange 2003 or older platform. Of all IT decision makers surveyed, nearly 65 percent were likely to deploy Exchange 2010 within the next six months — supporting the notion that customers are eager for the new platform.

“Managed service providers and other technology providers looking for a competitive advantage can get one through Intermedia’s Private Label Partner Program,” said Bob Leibholz, vice president of sales and business development, Intermedia. “Hosted Exchange 2010 is the most up-to-date service, and our partners are the only ones in the market reselling it. The competition is one version behind, giving our partners an edge with the tens of thousands of businesses looking to migrate off legacy versions of Exchange.”

Intermedia private label partners generate recurring revenue from existing and new customers with high margin Exchange hosting services, all under their own brand, while Intermedia maintains, monitors and upgrades all hardware and software. Intermedia also offers an Affiliate Program for partners that prefer to promote Intermedia solutions and earn a commission for each sale they make. All partners can sell Intermedia’s full suite of hosted communications and collaboration software, including Office Communications Server 2007, SharePoint 3.0 WSS and both Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007. Intermedia enables resellers to sell not only Microsoft products, but a full ecosystem of related offerings including full support for Blackberry Enterprise Server, fax lines and more.

“End-user adoption of SaaS reached a tipping point this year with more and more businesses beginning to ask their IT service providers for hosted solutions,” said Jason Beal, director, services sales, Ingram Micro North America. “We see an increasing sales growth opportunity for our channel partners who sell hosted Exchange 2010 and are pleased to be working so closely with Intermedia to bring this technology to market so quickly.”

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Channel Insider, 12/8/09

Intermedia Offers First and Only Hosted Exchange 2010

For now, Intermedia is the sole source for hosted Microsoft Exchange 2010. And it’s pressing that advantage to its full benefit by creating a private-label reseller program for its channel partners that offers infrastructure, speed of deployment and protections against service disruptions.

Hosted Exchange 2010 is expected to be one of the best sellers coming out of the Microsoft stable this year and into the first half of next year. According to a survey of IT decision makers commissioned by Intermedia and conducted by Osterman Research, nearly 50 percent of businesses are running Exchange 2003 or older versions. Of those surveyed, 65 percent of IT decision makers are eagerly awaiting new features and performance improvements in Exchange 2010, and plan to deploy the new platform within the next six months.

The Intermedia Exchange 2010 offering is impressive, given that it provides its resellers with access to a hot cloud-based application without the expense of building infrastructure for hosting and supporting numerous clients. The company built a special platform just for Exchange 2010 to ensure reliability. And, the private-label Exchange 2010 program is coupled with the existing referral program through which partners can earn money by selling Intermedia’s other hosted services—SharePoint, Communications Server, Exchange 2007.

Speed of adoption is one of the reasons Ingram Micro’s Seismic program is supporting the Intermedia private-label program. As Ingram’s Jason Beal said in a statement, “We see an increasing sales growth opportunity for our channel partners who sell hosted Exchange 2010 and are pleased to be working so closely with Intermedia to bring this technology to market so quickly.”

But if this is such a rich and rapid opportunity, is there a benefit in working with a hosting provider such as Intermedia, or is it more advantageous for solution providers to build their own capacity and deliver it independently?

Intermedia makes the value to solution providers clear: faster benefit, lower risk. Rather than having to make the investment in expensive servers and integrating Exchange for service delivery, Intermedia makes the service practically plug-and-play. Additionally, Intermedia assumes the costs of monitoring and maintaining the infrastructure. Both are good value propositions for solution providers, who often can’t afford the initial capital outlay for infrastructure.

However, the world is increasingly turning to hosted services as an alternative to expensive on-premises solutions. Many solution providers are circumventing the two- and three-tier channels for hosted services by building their own data centers or pooling resources with peers to build their own services offerings. They assume more risk this way, but they capture more of the reward.

So, in this context, is it better to build, buy or partner in the delivery of hosted Exchange services?

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Interesting articles from the day.

Small Business Trends, Email Marketing in Small Businesses.

EWeek, IT Has Huge Impact on Business During and After Recession 

Click to read more about hosted Exchange.

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Interesting articles from the day:

Redmond Channel Partner, Microsoft: We Will Steal Google’s Lunch: A Microsoft corporate vice president talked about the company’s business prospects, including competition with Google, at a Barclays event on Tuesday.

CIO, IT Manager Explains Groundwork Strategy for Major SharePoint Rollout: The Richardson Company has spent six years building out a SharePoint infrastructure and the 2010 version of the Microsoft server, which ships next year, is shaping up to be the next major step.

Windows IT Pro, OWA vs. Outlook in 2010: OWA with Exchange 2010 provides a complete mail client experience in the browser—no longer playing second fiddle to the desktop version of Outlook.

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Intermedia makes Exchange 2010 available to channel, adds new partners

Philbert Shih

Intermedia has extended the hosted Exchange 2010 service to its reseller channel. With Intermedia early to the market with 2010, its resellers will get a nice head start on the competition, enabling them to capture customers that have been waiting for Exchange 2010 and are either ready to adopt hosted Exchange now that the new version is out or make the upgrade. With another iteration of Exchange on the market, Intermedia is set to capitalize on a wider market opportunity.

Intermedia’s reach into the market includes a disclosed 4,000 reseller partners ranging from newest partner Ingram Micro to much smaller IT shops, service providers and hosters. The company recently secured partners in the emerging Latin American market, adding Columbia’s Solosoft, a systems integrator, and Venezuela’s Soto Networks, a managed services provider. Soto Networks signed on a 1,000-seat account shortly after becoming a partner.

Intermedia’s Exchange 2010 business comes with a data protection guarantee powered by its own proprietary technology, DataEcho. With DataEcho, customer data is replicated in real time within the datacenter that the customer is hosted in, while also being replicated over the network to another datacenter in a separate geographical location (Intermedia has four datacenters across California and New York). With the data protection, Intermedia is able to deliver disaster recovery services to customers and make for a nice marketing angle that can and should be monetized.

Intermedia continues to push forward in the hosted Exchange market, which has been under pressure through this recession as businesses cut back employees and freeze hiring with the implications this has for mailboxes. However, the hosted Exchange (and hosted email) sector as a whole has performed admirably as organizations continue to see the logic in moving on-premise Exchange servers into third-party datacenters. It makes too much sense from a cost, performance and efficiency perspective, while allowing customers to easily and affordably consume value-added services like archiving, security and disaster recovery. These facts have helped offset customer churn created by the economic environment and kept growth moving in a positive direction.

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