The Challenge: Collaboration without Complexity
If you require collaboration - and any organization with at least a few employees does - Exchange Server with Outlook client is your best option. Unfortunately, an in-house installation and maintenance of an Exchange Server is too costly and complex for small or even medium companies. Exchange is a server-based application that requires an Active Directory infrastructure. An investment of thousands of dollars is required for hardware, not to mention knowledgeable IT personnel to support it. Research shows that managing a typical e-mail system for a 100 person company takes 85% of a senior technician's time. Due to its advanced features, Exchange takes more effort to configure and manage, especially when you require features like Internet access.
The Solution: Exchange Hosting
Up until a few years ago, small and medium companies had few options for enabling business messaging for their organization. Now, with Mi8 Exchange Hosting, any organization can take advantage of the same tools and benefits previously reserved for large enterprises. For a low, fixed and predictable per user monthly fee, you can reap the benefits of Exchange for comprehensive messaging and collaboration, in an enterprise-class infrastructure with guaranteed service levels.
| In-house Exchange | versus | Hosted Exchange from Tempest |
| Thousands of Dollars |
Cost of Software |
Included |
| Thousands of Dollars |
Cost of IT hardware |
Included |
| Days or even weeks |
Time to get up and running |
Instant |
| Unlikely |
24x7 maintenance |
Yes |
| No |
Guaranteed uptime |
Yes |
| No |
Server located in advanced datacenter |
Yes |
| Time Consuming, often skipped for other tasks |
Regular Backup |
Yes |
| Time Consuming, often skipped for other tasks |
Anti-virus, anti-spam |
Yes |
| Seperate Licenses and Servers Required |
Wireless Options |
Yes |
| In-house Exchange | versus | Hosted Exchange from Tempest |
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All items must be purchased. Total cost for a small installation = $20,000 or more |
Servers |
All items included as standard. Total cost for a small installation = $11.95 per month for each user |
Storage |
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Backup |
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Software License |
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Email Security |
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IT Staff for Deployment |
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IT Staff for Maintainence |
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Quality Physical Environment, Cooling and Power |
| In-house Exchange | versus | Hosted Exchange from Tempest |
| One server - all emails depend on this |
Servers |
Cluster of servers - if one stops working, the others take over |
| One or two hard disk - all email depends on these |
Data Storage |
Large cluster of drives which automatically share workload if one fails |
| Manual - sometimes slips due to time pressures | Backup |
Automatic and frequent |
| Updates not always made frequently enough | Email Security |
Continuous 24 x 7 updates |
| Single data line to the Internet | Data Connection |
Multiple connections, direct to Internet backbone |
| Low-quality environment, power, air conditiong systems | Physical Environment |
Tier-4 data center |
| In-house Exchange | versus | Hosted Exchange from Tempest |
| Purchase seperate (expensive) servers and software licenses, install them manually | Wireless Email |
Add instantly through online control panel |
| Either a time-intensive in-house effort or another external service to manage | Archiving |
Add instantly |
| Purchase and install additional disk drives |
Extra Disk Space |
Add instantly |
| Additional cost for software and maintenance | Advanced Anti-Spam |
Add instantly |
| Additional cost for software and manitenance | Anti-Virus |
Included Standard |
| Seperate service to manage or self-deploy |
Fax via Email |
Add instantly |

