Exchange Hosting

What is Exchange Hosting?

Exchange hosting is a hosting service that caters to the exchange line of products from Microsoft.  The use of the server system is controlled by programs and applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and other email systems.  The server also allows the use of other shareable objects such as shared folders and calendars, contact lists and more.  The server is easy to set up and can be integrated with the appropriate software for immediate use.

It is important for exchange servers to make use of Microsoft validated, tested and approved platforms before using.  This will help to not only protect your data, but ensure that compatibility is possible between the platform and the software that will be connecting to it.  If the exchange hosting is supposed to be a dedicated server, it is important to look into the uptime guarantee that the company has to ensure that there are no problems with your exchange software and system.

Most exchange hosting options will be solely used for exchange servers.  It is possible that a variety of the options will be available for use with additional services such as hosting on the side or other types of non-specific hosting.  This is not a good thing to do when the server is meant to be used for a specific purpose but is being outsourced to another purpose.  This slows down the server and makes it less possible to get the exchange processes completed and may actually slow down the server for other things as well.

Exchange servers need to be an adequate size to really make a difference in how they perform.  Most of the options that are available will usually have a generic amount of bandwidth and storage which is okay in several of the applications for the servers.  The true test for the servers comes when they are actually uses.  A test should be performed to ensure that the quality of the connection is actually useful enough to make some email conversations possible as well as testing out a few more of the exchange hosting functions as well.

The ability to look into the available options for users is important as well.  A large exchange server will be able to accommodate a few hundred people easily.  Very large options are not necessary unless there will be a very large group of users on the server.  It is important to create policies and rules for the groups that can access the server to ensure that no one gets out of line or makes changes on the system which could cause damages to the server databases.

Whatever the case may be, it is also important to remember that support is always very important with Microsoft products and services that are based on them as well.  The selection of exchange servers should be researched with support options to understand whether or not this type of service is useful for an exchange hosting option that a company can use to connect to.