How hot is Exchange 2003 Hosting?

[ITahmed]

We are thinking of doing exchange 2003 Hosting, Are you seeing a lot of demand? What is the aveage mailbox size and charges? I can do the reseach but would like your opinion. Avearge users may not care about exchange as other mail clients can do the job!!!
What type of business usually signs up, small to med or large?

[JodoHost]

Lot's of businesses use Microsoft Exchange.

[tuxish]

Businesses run their own Exchange systems if they need them, they won't outsource them.

[JodoHost]

nope, many prefer to rent from a professional company than paying for server + software + management headaches + hiring a technician to manage it.

Most business.. and many small businesses these days are moving to MS exchange. It has a very bright future

[ThinkSupport]

nope, many prefer to rent from a professional company than paying for server + software + management headaches + hiring a technician to manage it.

Most business.. and many small businesses these days are moving to MS exchange. It has a very bright future

Thats true JodoHost ...

[ITahmed]

What type of clients outsource it, small to medium size or big companies?
What is the average size of mailbox. What is the average charge?

[tuxish]

Of the three small companies I have worked for, all of them have had their own exchange server

[qwidjib0]

Seemed like there were two exchange hosting companies for every other type of company at HostingCon this year, and no one I talked to had the slightest interest in any of them. It could be worthwhile if you market it right - but personally I don't think that will be an easy task.

[serverorigin]

Exchange = Headache

[Chris L.]

Honestly...
Exchange = Microsoft = Bad Programing = Downtime.

[serverorigin]

We resell any customer who wants exchange hosting honestly...Just leave it to the certain few reliable exchange hosts out there. For us it is too much trouble and too much headache but currently Blackberry customers are kind of stuck so it's fairly needed..

[JodoHost]

Honestly...
Exchange = Microsoft = Bad Programing = Downtime.

Right. Maybe you'd like to back that up with facts? Exchange is one of the most reliable email solutions out there, with its ability to be clustered and handle huge volumes of email.

Many many companies reliable on Exchange for their emailing solution. Many many companies.

Honestly, if you do not have a clue what MS exchange is about, don't know your lack of knowledge!

[Chris L.]

I was talking about Microsoft's lack of ablity to program (like windows). If one program sucks badly, then what makes you think another will not (if its by the same author).

[serverorigin]

/shrug Not going to open up a debate on Microsoft vs whatever...

I am not saying that it isn't a very functional piece of software but when your building on top of an insecure and buggy OS then you wind up with unstable software. If the OS can't keep a high uptime, then the app definitely can't.

On average in the clustered environments I have dealt with you still reboot a windows box about 3 times more than you do a SUN/Linux box handling any service. The security updates are pushed out much faster in an open source environment and the number of hacked linux/unix boxes vs the number of windows boxes a yr is less than 1/2.

And before anyone comes back with the "but its because there are most windows boxes".

True on the workstation side but in a web server environment Apache running on a Linux/UNIX based OS is still over 65% of the server share.

And yet, I'm once again not saying this just to be defensive or one-sided because I do currently hold an MCSE but also 4 Linux certs. Fact is, windows servers aren't going away and having knowledge in both is helpful...But I do prefer Linux in a server oriented environment due to the lack of licensing needs, the stability, the security, and the flexibility.

[Chris L.]

I could not agree with you any more.