One question small businesses often ask is whether or not to have their own Exchange e-mail server or to outsource Exchange to an external hosting service? The purpose of this article is to make that decision easier by laying out the factors used to make that decision. Short-term and long-term costs, control and security are all considerations in making this determination.
Short-term costs to consider when choosing an in-house solution include the costs of new software and hardware. On-top of associated software costs you need to factor in licensing requirements. A license is required for each individual computer, mobile device or user that will be connected to the server. You will also need to protect your email server with some kind of antivirus software and may also choose to use 3rd party spam filtering. The cost of labor is also an important consideration. It is important to have a qualified professional setup your hardware and software for you. Email solutions and servers in general are very complex and a lot of attention to detail is required to make them run securely and optimally.
Long-term costs to consider for an in-house solution are increases in the monthly energy bill, monthly maintenance costs, and disaster recovery planning. It is a great idea to have your server checked over at least once a week to make sure everything is running smoothly and there are no hardware or software errors or failures. Also, having a solid backup solution, that is tested frequently, is vital to the ongoing interest of your company.
The only costs to consider when outsourcing are monthly fees, storage requirements, and features. For example, many email outsourcing solutions provide you with a per user storage limit of 3 gigabytes. If you require more than this you will have to pay extra for the accounts that require the extra space. Also expect to pay extra per account requiring services such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server and SharePoint hosting.
The biggest downside to hosting is the loss of control. You cannot control how the hosts’ servers or networks are configured or patched for security holes, you can’t control when and if the hosting company will go out of business, and you can’t dictate how and when email backups are performed. If your data is especially sensitive, in-house is probably the way to go.
One last thing to consider is whether or not the sole purpose of the server is for email. Does your company have other tasks that could be made more efficient or easier through the use of server technology? Could your company benefit from centralized file sharing and printing, a company intranet, or an easier way for employees to access company resources from home?
Now that you know what is involved, let us help your company calculate the pros and cons to each solution and determine what is right for you.
As always if you would like more information on any of our blog topics, feel free to contact us. We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have.