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We currently have an Exchange 2007 server installed locally in our data center, and are considering moving to a hosted email service. We support both Blackberry's and IPhones on our existing exchange server.

We are trying to decide between using Google's corporate email services, or using a company that provides hosted Exchange services. We have talked with Google, and on the surface their offering seems to meet all of our needs.

Feature-for-feature, hosted exchange services and Google seem very similar -- are there any obvious reasons that we would want to select one solution over the other?

Thanks...

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I've just started using Microsoft's Online Services product. For $10 per user per month, you get exchange hosting (both via web, outlook, and mobile), sharepoint hosting, Live Meeting, and Office Communicator.

Very easy to setup and use. Depending on what products you already have, this suite may be a good deal for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/Online/default.mspx

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Also you can easily setup alias email addresses for users such as firstname@company.com and firstname.lastname@company.com. You can also setup distribution lists and conference rooms that can be scheduled on the calendar. – RSolberg Jan 28 '10 at 19:43
Thanks - I looked at this, and the "suite" seems to fit all of my needs. – Steve Hawkins Jan 29 '10 at 1:27
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I can list a few points that will help you decide. I know Exchange better than Google for Domains.

Does Google offer things like the Free/Busy calendar and scheduling resources (projector, meeting rooms, etc)? Exchange does that, I honestly don't know if Google does. But if it doesn't, and that's valuable to you, then that's a reason to prefer hosted Exchange.

I don't know what sort of GAL (Global Address List) Google offers either, and how well it works on mobile devices. That sort of thing can be important for some businesses.

If all you need is email, Google for Domains is probably a better fit, especially if it's less expensive. I love my Gmail and prefer it to anything else for my personal needs. For a corporation, it can get a lot more complex if you use (and are used to) a lot of Exchange features.

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Yes, google offers free/busy and resource scheduling. Google address list easily syncs to mobile devices. – Chris_K Jan 28 '10 at 19:18
One other decision point to consider: Outlook integration (Calendar & all the Bells+Whistles). Exchange is obviously the gold standard for Outlook integration. I believe Gmail for Domains works too, but may have more steps than just "Exchange Account; Here's my Username & Password; Done". If that's a consideration a Hosted Exchange solution may be a better fit... – voretaq7♦ Jan 28 '10 at 19:42
Not to be a Google fanboi/apologist... but Google Apps offers an Outlook plugin that integrates it all quite nicely into outlook at the desktop. – Chris_K Jan 28 '10 at 22:02
Google has a exchange server setup so mobile devices like iPods/iPhones can easy work with the systems which works for google app accounts as well, I would assume this also works on outlook and the likes, – p858snake Jan 29 '10 at 2:44

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