Thursday, November 11, 2010

Small Businesses: Oursource MS Exchange Hosting or go Gmail?



As soon as a few years ago, if a small business wanted professional and reliable MS Exchange services to push to mobile devices and work with Microsoft Outlook, the easy decision would be to pay for MS Exchange hosting with its annual fee per mailbox.  In a business that had a handful of employees (i.e. a small mortgage or real estate firm that lived and breathed with email), this was a smarter business decision compared to having your own Exchange server and hardware.

Recently, Gmail's email services (including calendar, etc) have encroached on the small business email territory.  Gmail is free and works with mobile devices.  The storage space increases everyday (it's up to approximately 8GB now).  However, a downfall to using Gmail for business is that each account is independently owned by the Gmail user, so the email account cannot be shut down by the employer and reviewed.

Ultimately, serious small businesses will stick with MS Exchange hosting, while small "mom and pop" shops will use Gmail.  The gap between the two services in the business world is still wide, but at least Gmail provides a robust and feature-rich service for free.

105 comments:

Sykefu said...

yeah, that's quite great :)

Christie Klein said...

I actually think you can get a domain for a company and just use the gmail client. My university switched to using gmail for all students, and they kept the @schoolname.edu suffix. They did it to give more email storage space and to let graduating students retain their school email.

I have no idea how expensive it was though, so that might be a mitigating factor.

SuciƓ Sanchez said...

May be compliance reasons for having to go exchange in-house. Otherwise, for <5 people, I'd go gmail.

Mamin odabir said...

I like gmail more.

Anonymous said...

"this is cool"

Chris f said...

i like gmail, and google in general. they made my phone

Donkote said...

i feel like a lot of people will use the gmail because well...its gmail

Gurney said...

I love gmail.

rebekillah said...

gmail!

Anonymous said...

gmail rocks

. said...

interesting,ty

MRanthrope said...

my small business, everyone will use type writers and standard snail mail. It will be called Retro Bankruptcy

NarwhalMinded said...

I love Google for my small business email

Someone said...

how much does the ms exchange actually cost?

Ben Dover said...

I'll always be a gmail fan

Sugar said...

great stuff

Hitchcock said...

thanks for sharing

Classically Trained Nub said...

I know a lot of universities have started to use gmail for student email addresses.

Seion said...

I'd go with Gmail as far as I can.

Sebastian said...

Great info!

Bart said...

lol nice profile pic. is that you?

Anonymous said...

I'd stick with Gmail

Shimizu said...

all hail the power of google
HAIL GOOGLE

Jurba365 said...

great post!

poorfags said...

Yahoo ftw.

Nostalgist said...

i wonder how much MS costs though

HondaX said...

interesting man...cool

Velkon said...

useless for me :P

Brandon said...

I'm a fan of Gmail, I like having everything bundled and neat

rominoutozor said...

That's great :)

PlanetBen said...

Gmail is not distunguised. Use outlook

Anonymous said...

oh i think you have to pay around $50 for that

taemkariur said...

Gmail ftw!

iMonei said...

love it, learn stuff everydat

Unknown said...

I rather Gmail.

caretaker said...

gmail is cool

Anonymous said...

Google will rule all soon. At least, it will rule everything that Apple doesn't iRule.

LoneIslander said...

Seems logical.

killah said...

I like gmail more.

Amberclad said...

it will be gmail for me...

Lepoidim said...

Gmail is awesome !

Unknown said...

Well, I believe using Gmail would look unprofessional for any decent sized business.

textileengineer said...

which one is cheap and best for them.

Chris said...

insightful and true

Monster Madness said...

Nice post man. I actually didn't know this.

Joebloggs said...

What an excellent application for the modern world...

unintentional critic said...

Gmail all the way!

What are you doing here. said...

i need that..

What are you doing here. said...

i need that..

dous said...

That is pretty awesome!

woshdatosh said...

well gmail for business...hmm remember google reads always with you ;-)

stoneycase said...

wow i didn't really know about the mailbox ownership deal - are you sure about that? that's kinda odd, really...surprised google would do that, corporate email is well, corporate!

Sam said...

i would go with MS Exchange hosting

T.dot said...

i really enjoy reading your blogs

Quinn Electronics said...

I'm a bigger fan of gmail

TravisTouchdown said...

i vote gmail! it seems so much more reliable and secure than server-based outlook and exchange

Chui said...

Nice post, bro! I follow you! Can you follow me?

Anonymous said...

gmail is the best imo

level85nerd said...

difficult thing... :\

Kimokik said...

I love gmail, use it every day, got everything I need.

kokojesta said...

hey nice, that'll come in real handy

Maxwell said...

great stuff here

Alex said...

think GMail is going to win some wars.. easy to setup and still very profesional

Unknown said...

Sorry Google, turn left your head please and don't read this.
I don't liek gmail D:

JRam said...

Gmail always seem more unprofessional. I think it's because gmail is too easily accessible by everyone and is free. Gmail being used by scammers and spammers doesn't help too.

Pancho Martinez said...

GMail FTW!!!!

Mellisa said...

Im still using Hotmail. >.<

Matte said...

Wow cool! Thx!

Insurance Advice Guy said...

looking forward to your post tomorrow

Bubbles said...

yeah great information
keep up the good work

Anonymous said...

In 2030, Earth will be renamed into Google.

Astra said...

i love gmail

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Gmail is a great tool, but I guess at some point its worth it to upgrade

Anonfourtwenty said...

Im a Gmail fan

MoneyNaoPlz said...

That sounds like it would actually help alot of people.

Insurance Advice Guy said...

cant wait to see what you have tomorrow

Insurance Advice Guy said...

thanks for sharing :)

Fred said...

Gmail FTW!

Rezden said...

My company was thinking of switching over to Gmail.

aZZo said...

i think gmail

Rand.oM said...

I disagree, I think that Gmail, coupled with a more serious address could very much do the work.

Like: buisnessx@seriousdomain.com rebounds to funny@gmail.com the messages are archived via gmail and then answered by gmail via buisnessx@seriousdomain.com

Its what I do and it works like a cherm. the person on the receiving end doesnt see anything of that....

El Trombone said...

My mom and pop do exchange...

Jeff said...

small biz owner/operator here, gmail all the way. Fast, free, functional.

JohnnyShams said...

I was part of Gmail's beta test group, been a supporter ever since.

Willow said...

I prefer G-mail. Just a bit more private.

Das Auto! said...

i don't know anyone that uses MS Exchange. G-mail is where it's at!

Cpt Pownzor said...

if its free why not! Many business mail clients are slow and difficult to use, not to mention you have to pay licensing fees occasionally..it just makes sense to use gmail.

Thrasher said...

Google reigns supreme.

Das Auto! said...

text-based e-mail services are the best imo

KTOTHES said...

I LOVE GMAIL, I don't remember using any other email service.

The Game Store Guy said...

Your article makes it a point...and it makes me wonder if gmail really has considered this. It seems logically possible (and relatively easy) to enable a small business focused mail design where a singular primary account could have multiple surrogate accounts that allow for employer access and control.

000 said...

disturbing info, man

Kartoffeln said...

I prefer Gmail, seems good working for me.

ego_rko said...

gmail

Ken said...

Gmail is awesome

Unknown said...

Google all the way.

SC2 Strats said...

i'm a fan of gmail myself.

icequeen100 said...

Hmm. Unless there was a huge advantage to paying for a service, you'd think businesses would go for the free one.

Unknown said...

that is really great

Michael V said...

gmail is great but I clearly prefer Exchange for a business with more than 20ppl

Telia Tuli said...

Gmail
Hate em or love em
It's more efficient

gMusic said...

Gmail is the best.

kennett4 said...

yeah, that's quite cool

hindenburg said...

Gmail FTW!!! I use gmail

Anonymous said...

great post i like it ;)

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