Users Flock to Exchange 2010 Migration? -- Redmond Channel Partner

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Users Flock to Exchange 2010 Migration?

Exchange 2010 is so great that nearly half of enterprises will migrate to it in the next year and a half? Who says so? A Microsoft messaging partner, of course. It's not a Microsoft partner per se, but a report from Osterman Research which was paid for by Azaleos, a Microsoft e-mail services company.

While 44 percent of shops plan the move, the remainder claim budget pressures are holding them back.

The fact that Azaleos paid for the research does not negate the findings. A good research company won't risk its reputation doing shoddy work, nor would Microsoft risk the black eye.

My bigger concern with researchers is not the numbers, but that sometimes their opinions are informed by whomever they are working for.

Exchange 2010 is about six months old, and many shops are waiting for the first Service Pack later this year.

Are you moving to Exchange 2010? Why or why not? Or do you use another vendor? Which one and why? E-mail your answers to dbarney@redmondmag.com.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 05, 2010 at 9:23 AM

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Reader Comments

Wed, May 12, 2010

We are watching Exchange 2010 closely for possible fixes to solutions that came up in 2003. We have more than a 1000 users and though the Cloud Computing is tempting, the numbers are still not justifiable. However, will consider both avenues for the eventual upgrade we will need to do sometime soon.

Mon, May 10, 2010

I disagree that Exchange is no good for small business. Microsoft Small Business server (SBS) includes Exchange at a great price for SMB. Exchange 2010 will show up in Small Business Server soon enough. A hosted solution can work as well but if you are in need of a local server anyway, we usually go with SBS.

Mon, May 10, 2010 Andre S.

We have left Exchange behind. We were using a hosted solution but the hosted solution just wasn't working well for us. I looked into getting Exchange training but realized that we would be investing over $5,000.00 between training and purchasing the software and licenses. That was just too much for a small business like ours. I started looking around thinking that there had to be a better option that would meet our needs and still be reasonably priced. It also needed to be something I could install and manage. For us Kerio Connect was the answer. While it may not meet everyone's need, it certainly met ours. Easy to install and manage. Great anti-spam and built-in anti-virus. It performs well and we are very happy with our choice. Exchange may be great for larger companies but smaller businesses are better served by something like Kerio Connect.

Thu, May 6, 2010 Chris D http://www.apptix.com

Another factor that could boost this number is the availability of an official hosted Exchange 2010 solution, which Microsoft has not yet released to their partners. With enterprises starting to the take the “SMB” approach to e-mail, by which I mean contracting with a hosted solutions provider, once Exchange 2010 is available in the cloud, the budget argument starts to become weaker and many organizations holding off because of price might change their minds and make the leap.

Wed, May 5, 2010

Not yet, Exchange 2007 is working fine for us, we have not been on it that long as it is. 2010 changes some things so upgrading is more complex, so no hurry at this point.