IT Question; Exchange or GMail for business

[HES]

My little micro business is continuing to expand and I'm at that point to where I want to get our email off this crappy, spam laden POP3 connection. As far as my choices are I see two options; using our existing hosting service, move to a hosted exchange server for about $11 a month per inbox. The other option I became aware of recently is Google's email for business. I get to keep our domain. Does any one have any experience with GMail for business? Is $11 too much for hosted exchange?

[chadbag]

My little micro business is continuing to expand and I'm at that point to where I want to get our email off this crappy, spam laden POP3 connection. As far as my choices are I see two options; using our existing hosting service, move to a hosted exchange server for about $11 a month per inbox. The other option I became aware of recently is Google's email for business. I get to keep our domain. Does any one have any experience with GMail for business? Is $11 too much for hosted exchange?

I personally would stay away from Exchange. Exchange has a ton of baggage and you probably don't need its "features"?

Find a reputable hosting company that specializes in email services.

Or if you like Google, you can use the Google stuff.

[HES]

I would be going with Intermedia's hosted exchange offering. You are right, I do not want to administer my own exchange server.

[Gutshot John]

City of Pittsburgh recently went to Gmail so it's not just for small businesses. Email is essentially a commodity service so there exist any number of viable options.

That said Google probably has significant numbers of security/support professionals handling service far in excess of what an exchange host could offer.

I'd go with Gmail based on what you're described.

[QuietShootr]

**** some Gmail. Unless you want everything your business says and does catalogued by Google forever, that is.

[Gutshot John]

**** some Gmail. Unless you want everything your business says and does catalogued by Google forever, that is.

Uhm...no.

This is what SLAs are for, that can be easily spelled out. In fact you'd need SLAs even with any email host.

[Waylander]

Uhm...no.

This is what SLAs are for, that can be easily spelled out. In fact you'd need SLAs even with any email host.

Are you saying Google would agree to an SLA where a business can time limit their data storage by Google as in Google storing it until the point of service discontinuation at which point the data would be disposed of? Can you specify a DOD 3 pass or 7 pass overwrite?

What about during that time? Will your data be exposed to AdSense or can you opt out of that as well?

[Gutshot John]

Are you saying Google would agree to an SLA where a business can time limit their data storage by Google as in Google storing it until the point of service discontinuation at which point the data would be disposed of? Can you specify a DOD 3 pass or 7 pass overwrite?

What about during that time? Will your data be exposed to AdSense or can you opt out of that as well?

First business email retention is governed by statute and regulation so any SLA will have to be compliant with those requirements.

Second, you can write an SLA that specifies your network is made out of green cheese if you're willing to pay for it. Within a more reasonable price point, if they don't want to do what you want for the price you want to pay...you don't have to sign. That's the awesome thing about free markets., they're optional.

Third, there is a difference for gmail between a paying customer and your average webmail user. For the average (non-business) gmail consumer you are getting a free service with gmail, you don't have to pay, which means they're absorbing all of the cost. They have to do something to make it worth their while. If they don't you get no service for free. So you decide what you want.

Fourth for $12/month for an Exchange host, I doubt very much you're getting anywhere close to what you specified. Factor in how much money Google spends on information assurance and I'd bet it's a pretty decent bargain.

[Evil Bert]

I setup Gmail for business for a local Non-profit. The benefits are you can use IMAP which allows you and your employees to check email from home, portable devices, and work and keep all the email synced up between the devices.

Now, if you have blackberry's etc that you wish to use (probably not as you mentioned pop3) then you would need exchange. If you plan on using BB's in the future you will want to go with exchange.

Nothing wrong with using Gmail @ $5/mo for 25GB of space, etc. However, exchange can provide more features for businesses and Sherweb.com offers the same space, etc for $7.95/mo.

[chadbag]

Personally, unless I needed, really badly, any of the special features Exchange has, I would avoid Exchange. I am not big on GMail but if those were the two choices, I would go the GMail route myself, personally.