Archive for 'Hosted Exchange'
Exchange Hoster’s Pain points with bandwidth
Exchange Hosting industry is becoming popular day by day, with growing number providers everywhere provide Messaging & collaboration services to customers around the world, these customers are mostly SME’s. Microsoft Exchange being the core component of this service, it has been evolving from old versions consistently to provide better functionalities, features and user experience. Now with Exchange 2007 server, users can do even better. However, what about the performance? Customers by and large work from different locations, such as on the road, in a meeting with their customers, while commuting etc. And these users often complain about slowness in accessing email client (e.g. Outlook). In exchange hosting scenario, all your customers have internet connections and this could high bandwidth ADSL or slow connections depends on customer’s location and internet infrastructure readiness. So, no matter the hosting providers increase the bandwidth and no of servers in its datacenter, customers still stuck with this basic performance issues - Latency, a nightmare word for every customers as well as hosting providers. Read more here.
AppRiver LLC (www.appriver.com), a leading provider of email messaging solutions, has been selected as one of the Red Herring 100, the most innovative private technology companies based in North America. The Red Herring editorial board selected AppRiver as one of 100 winners from a pool of more than 1,500 applicants. Nominees were closely evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem.
“We can see the exciting evolution of the technology sector reflected in the quality and variety of exceptional companies that we had to choose from in putting our list together,” said Joel Dreyfuss, editor-in-chief of Red Herring. “It was tough to choose just 100 winners from such a large list of excellent contenders, and we are very happy with the quality of the companies we selected as finalists.”
The 100 winning companies were announced today at the Red Herring North America event in San Jose, California, where the CEOs of the winning startups have been presenting their innovative ideas and technologies to an audience of leading entrepreneurs, financiers, and corporate strategists all week.
“We are pleased to be among the high-tech industry leaders and innovators represented by the Red Herring 100,” said Michael Murdoch, CEO and co-founder of AppRiver. “We got here by anticipating our customers’ needs and providing them with cost-effective on-demand solutions. That will remain our primary focus in the years ahead.”
About AppRiver
Founded in April 2002, AppRiver - based in Gulf Breeze, Florida - is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider offering secure messaging solutions to businesses of all sizes. In addition to spam and virus protection, the company provides a complete managed service for Microsoft Exchange. With more than 30,000 customers around the world - and an impressive 97% customer retention rate since its inception - AppRiver is one of the largest email security managed service providers worldwide. In 2006, Red Herring magazine named AppRiver one of 10 private security companies to watch, and more recently the company was named to CRN Magazine’s 2007 Emerging Tech Dynamos list. For more information, visit www.appriver.com.
AppRiver Contact:
Michael Hamstra
Director of Marketing
850-932-5338
mhamstra@appriver.com
About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company which unites the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. More information about Red Herring is available on the Internet at www.redherring.com.
Red Herring Contact:
Anam Alpenia
Red Herring, Inc.
650-428-2900
aalpenia@redherring.com
groupSPARK, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and the leading provider of private label hosted software services including hosted Exchange Server 2007, hosted SharePoint Services v3.0, and hosted Dynamics CRM, announced today that groupSPARK senior executive officer, Ravi Agarwal, will be speaking at the ISPCon Spring 2008 conference and trade show.
ISPCon Spring 2008 will be held at the Donald E. Stephens (Rosemont) Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois from May 13-15, 2008. The event brings together 2500+ internet industry professionals including ISPs, webhosting providers, VoIP providers and numerous other internet industry professionals to discuss all facets of internet business including ways to increase revenue and develop new business opportunities.
Ravi Agarwal, groupSPARK senior executive officer, will speak to attendees on Thursday, May 15, 2008 on ways for ISPs and the service provider community to successfully compete in the expanding hosted services arena. His presentation titled SaaS vs. Software + Service: How You Can Survive Microsoft’s Entry into the Hosted Services Market, will speak to the trepidation now felt by resellers of hosted services worldwide regarding Microsoft’s decision to enter the market with their own hosted services offerings. Mr. Agarwal will address the explosive growth in the market and offer strategies resellers can employ to stand apart from the competition and provide value added products and services to their small and mid-size business customers.
“The hosting industry is growing dramatically as more and more SMBs discover that they can pay a small monthly fee and achieved the same level of productivity as large companies by using enterprise class messaging and collaboration tools in a hosted environment. As a result, resellers are looking to take advantage of this trend and offer these services to their customers. However, the recent press surrounding Microsoft’s entry into the hosted Software as a Service market is making many resellers reconsider their decision as they are unsure whether they will be able to compete,” said Ravi Agarwal, senior executive director, groupSPARK division of mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc. “This fear is completely unfounded. There are many ways resellers can differentiate themselves and continue to thrive in this rapidly growing market. There is enough room for everyone to be successful.”
One of the ways that groupSPARK continues to thrive in a competitive market is to offer a full breadth of private label hosted software services through their reseller channel to SMBs who would otherwise be unable to deploy the applications in-house due to their significant cost. Services include hosted Exchange Server 2007, hosted SharePoint Services 3.0, and hosted Dynamics CRM as well as 2-way wireless synchronization with BlackBerry Enterprise Server®, Windows Mobile and Good Mobile Messaging. groupSPARK also offers all resellers live 24 x 7 technical support via phone, email and online chat which is staffed by experts based in the United States.
About groupSPARK
Located in Burlington, Massachusetts, groupSPARK, a mindSHIFT company, is a leading provider of SaaS services, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services v3.0, and Dynamics CRM, which can be completely private labeled and resold by partners as a part of their own product offerings saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in development and support costs.
Its partners utilize groupSPARK’s turnkey private label platform to provide hosted services to their users in minutes. Partners are able to address scalability and uptime concerns by leveraging groupSPARK’s 100% uptime SLA, private label 24×7 U.S.-based support and proactive hardware and software monitoring capabilities. For additional information, visit www.groupSPARK.com.
IKANO Communications Inc., the nation’s leading aggregator of IP services, and DSLExtreme, California’s leading Internet service provider and a division of IKANO, announced today the launch of DNAmail.com. The new service will help small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and organizations utilize web-based communication and collaboration tools including Microsoft Exchange 2007 Email, SharePoint Intranet , and Blackberry Enterprise Service.
“IKANO is now offering more solutions for businesses as our customers have asked for more,” said George Naspo, CEO of IKANO. “We are dedicated to delivering a variety of solutions that allow mid-sized businesses to utilize the same computing technologies as large enterprises, without the hosting costs. This is important launch for IKANO as we embrace ‘cloud computing’ in collaboration with leading technology companies for the benefit of our partners and end users.”
DNAmail provides Microsoft Exchange 2007 email technology to enable businesses and organizations a communications platform to enhance collaboration and productivity. Connecting employees to a secure central area for messaging, calendaring, and contacts also enables freedom for multiple office locations, employees and devices. DNAmail is a Blackberry Alliance Member and a Microsoft Certified Partner, with IT professionals that specialize in maintaining guaranteed uptime, spam filtering, and reliability of communication services.
“We are excited about the launch of DNAmail since we realize small businesses have evolved with the use of new technology and are looking for providers to help their email evolve as well,” said George Mitsopoulos, VP of DSLExtreme. “What business owners want is a mail server and communications platform they don’t have to manage or worry about. DNAmail will help businesses reduce technology and support expenses and maintain their existing branding.”
Small businesses can now have the same advantages large organizations do with Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Blackberry messaging support for everyone in the office at a low cost. DNAmail will also provide live and local phone support for employees. Plans start at $9.95 a month, with a 30-day free trial.
DNAmail also announced today a wholesale offering for organizations interested in reselling Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint intranet portals, and customer support services under their own brand.
“IKANO has invested serious time and technology to ensure the Exchange Email and Blackberry services are solid for our customers,” said Bonnie Bird, Director of Sales and Exchange Evangelist at DNAmail. “More and more companies are seeing the benefits of outsourcing their mail to specialists who can guarantee uptime and spam avoidance.”
DNAmail will also be launching additional services this year to assist SMBs with network productivity and maintenance. Visit DNAmail at HostingCon 2008 (Booth #322) on July 28-30 in Chicago. Call Bonnie Bird at 818.435.1107 or visit DNAmail.com to find out how DNAmail can help your business evolve with you.
About IKANO
IKANO, founded in 1999, is a provider of IP solutions including Internet access, billing, customer support, hosting, portal, and email services. IKANO makes it easy for service providers to maintain a unique brand while eliminating the hassle of maintaining network contracts, servers, and call centers. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company has offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Toronto and offers services in the United States and Canada. IKANO is backed by leading industry investors, including Insight Venture Partners. Companies interested in learning more about IKANO should contact info@ikano.com, or call 877.492.0121. For more information, visit www.ikano.com
About DSLExtreme
DSLExtreme is the largest private DSL service provider in California. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Los Angeles, DSLExtreme offers a suite of online products and services for consumer and business customers throughout the United States. Services include broadband Internet access, email, Web hosting and data circuits, with superior quality connectivity and minimal drop-off. The DSLExtreme network serves tens of thousands of clients in over twenty-one major metropolitan areas across the country. For more information, visit www.dslextreme.com.
First of all, don’t confuse with the wording between “Exchange Hosting” and “Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services“. In a previous post, I have written service offering from MS Exchange hosted services, you can read it here.
In this post, I would like to show the cream of service benefits from MS Exchange Hosted Services (EHS). This offering from Microsoft is to help its customers in meeting complex e-mail compliance requirements, which includes hosted services for e-mail filtering, encryption, archiving and recovery. These key services really help the organization to communicate with minimum risk.Read more here
Del.icio.us : EHS, Microsoft_Exchange_Hosted_Services
This is the final part of my previous postings and I would like to conclude this series by mentioning some nitty-gritty facts before choosing your preferred hosting company. If you have missed reading my previous posts on this series, do visit them at the below URLs:
- Are You A Growing Small Business? Exchange Hosting will bring peace of mind! (Part I)
- Exchange Hosting: Factors which can bring peace of mind to your growing small business (Part II)
Introduction
After all the initial studies, now you are considering the hosting company to outsource your e-mail infrastructure. Wait! Aska few more questions… Dave Grantz recently published a nice article where he advises customers to ask some essential questions. Why would some of the hosting companies rush with an attractive deal while compromising reliability and customer support? Customers should realize that not all the hosting companies offer redundant infrastructure, stable backups and efficient support. While offering down to earth lower price per mailbox, they might be eyeing on various extra fees for services. Who knows, there might be some hidden clause where customer will be stuck with the hosting providers for a certain period once signed up.
Know the difference: Managed Hosting & Non-managed Hosting
Managed Hosting – In a managed environment, the following tasks should be performed by the hoster:
- Server maintenance, related facilitation in the datacenter & physical security of the whole infrastructure.
- Data backups, patch management, support related issues & escalation which occurs from time to time.
- Related software license management and further procurement of hardware/software, if any.
In a Non-Managed Hosting environment, you can rent a server in its datacenter rack space. The way servers are being managed and maintained is not the hoster’s headache. If something happens to these servers, you literally have to worry about how to bring this back online not the hosters. In other words, you crush your business continuity by outsourcing the server.Read more here
Which one makes sense to outsource first out of all the infrastructure components in your organization? I vote for email systems (guess it’s based on MS Exchange too). The first benefit which comes into picture is reduced cost; let the hosting providers carry the headache of the most difficult responsibilities such as operation, keeping the infrastructure up-to-date with latest technologies, customer support, complying various regulations from government, etc.
Away from complexity
Managing e-mail server needs expertise; if it’s Microsoft Exchange Server, the magnitude of complexity is drastic and needs real technical expertise to manage it. Microsoft Exchange is being the dominated email server in the market; hence most SMBs prefer this platform due to its usability factors. Good news is there are many Exchange hosting providers can consolidate and take care of your organization’s entire email infrastructure, hosting, email management, support etc. So get rid of this unwanted complexity from your business as hosters can take care of single point of failures, reliability and high-availability.Read more here
Growing SMB’s should definitely concentrate on its own core competencies. Though email is a critical application which helps to drive business, it does not related to the product and services that you are offering to your customers.
In other words, reduce the cost of running the business/resources in order to bring revenue. I have seen that many SMBs are doing mistakes by engaging its own human resources to maintain organization’s IT infrastructure, namely, CRM, e-mail, Pabx etc. at the expense of its talented human resources who are supposed to be doing work on its core competencies. We all must agree that these are cornerstone to run the business in today’s world, but look for alternative method to manage the IT.
What’s next?
For many companies, this is a key transformation phase in terms of IT infrastructure because they realized expenses in managing IT inside the company with its own people. Therefore, an outsourcing company will be a better choice - better service than in-house at lower cost, very minimum complexities and release your staff for doing better productive job. Read more here
Technorati : Exchange_Hosting_benefits, Exchange_hosting_2007, SMB_Hosting, SMB_IT
Del.icio.us : Exchange_2007_Hosting, Microsoft, advice, email_hosting, exchange_hosting, guide, hosting, tips
Hosting providers in the market are still selling Exchange 2003 based hosting, but most of them now started offering Exchange 2007 based hosting services.
Lately If you have observed the news on the Internet, Microsoft and Google competition are heating up like any thing. Especially, both companies are dominant in the email marketplace, where Microsoft dominate in the Enterprise and Google on the public side. When it comes to Email Hosting, Microsoft still has the market edge where Google already showed the tough competition with Google Apps.
Back to the topic, if you are considering the Exchange Hosting it is good to know the current transition happening from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. These information may not be relevant for an end user, but its must know for the IT manager or consultant at the infrastructure side. Email with other collaboration tools going through the convergence and also became “top mission critical application” for many organizations.Whats the real difference and benefits you get when your hosting providers replace Exchange 2003 with exchange 2007? Read more here
Technorati : CCR, LCR, OCS, OVA, OWA, SCC, SCR, exchange_2007_hosting
Del.icio.us : CCR, LCR, OCS, OVA, OWA, SCC, SCR, exchange_2007_hosting
Buzznet : Exchange_Hosting, Messaging, OCS, OWA, collaboration
This topic is more of hosting provider’s interest. However, I thought its good idea to line up some key points on service provisioning which helps you understand its relevance.
Big data center of Exchange hosting environments is always complex, where system administrators often responsible for managing large number of servers. The outcome is, routine admin tasks becomes challenging across the large number of servers; for example, adding new users, updating directory entries, and provisioning application services across a large volume of servers are all manual administration tasks that do not scale easily.
Apart from that, customers are demanding strong service level agreements (SLAs) with increased uptime and availability, and the ability to monitor and administer their own services. Read more here
Technorati : Exchange_Hosting, Hosting_Providers, MPS, service_provisioning
Del.icio.us : Exchange_Hosting, Hosting_Providers, MPS, service_provisioning
Flickr : Microsoft_Service_Provisioning
