October 10, 2008 - Honolulu, HI - A company called "Phase2," based out of Hawaii, has solidified their licensing agreements with Microsoft Corp. for offering Microsoft Exchange 2007 as a 'hosted' application. This new industry, known as Software as a Service (SaS), is designed to reduce or eliminate the need for hardware procurement, hosting, and administration of key enterprise applications such as Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Sharepoint.

Before you attempt to discount this innovative licensing triumph, you'll need to know what it takes to launch a new instance of MS Exchange 2007.

1) First, you'll need to buy the MS Exchange 2007 software core package.

2) You'll need Client Access Licenses.

3) You'll need to have someone install and configure the MS Exchange Software

4) You will no-doubt need new 64-bit hardware since you probably didn't have any lying around. This hardware will need at least 8GB RAM, and will most likely be the company's new 'SUPER BOX.'

6) Your new super box includes RAID and redundancy across all variables, right? It's a mail server. Tack on another $5K.

7) Wait, you're almost done. Now, after you've installed the robust hardware, you get to do your Active Directory schema upgrades. And this puts the F-U-N in fun. You see, each schema upgrade is dependent on a variety of factors including previously installed versions of Calendar modules, users that are on older versions of Windows and Outlook, so many more. The AD Schema upgrade for your Windows 2003 network as you prepare for implementation of MS Exchange 2007 is stressful, risky, implements deep-changes, and is intensive.

8) Now, assuming that you have met all the requirements to install, configure, deploy, and use MS Exchange 2007, can relish in the tasks of upgrading to the new service packs.

Finally, you'll need someone to administer that box and this is not a super-huge deal with an on-board IT staff but if you are a small business, forget it.

Bottom Line: If you can get away with upgrading your company to MS Exchange 2007, x64 under $50,000, then congratulations, you are below the average cost for this service.

Latest Gig: Would have saved thousands for customer.

"I recently consulted for a company, Greenberry Industrial, with regards to their move to Exchange 2007," said Garry Egan, an IT Consultant out of Portland, Oregon.

"We could have saved that company $25,000 on their first invoice with me. We had to buy a special 64-bit server w/ 8GB ram, RAID, redundancy, everything. It's a mail server. Heavily hit and extremely important. Then you have to purchase the MS Exchange software application with 120 CALs. Exchange 2007 by itself with 5 CALS is $8000."

As an integrator, I am always asking myself the question, "Make? Buy?" You see, when you engineer systems for a living, you can 'make' anything. I could contract out my own proprietary mail server creation if I wanted to. But, why would you do that? Microsoft has already done the legwork for you. Just 'buy' it, right?

Well, that's the same analogy for Phase2's hosted Exchange service. Why would you want to re-create a redundant, robust hardware platform when you use a service like Phase2? A business would be wise to leverage their cash flow and strongly reconsider their decision to upgrade their local MS Exchange server to the new platform.

ENTER IN PHASE2 International

Phase2 was founded in 2002. PHASE 2 delivers affordable and scalable access to high-end business software applications. This article refers to their hosted Microsoft Exchange service offering. They also offer hosted Sharepoint services as well as many others outside the scope of this article. Check out the Phase 2 website for details.

Now, let's assume that Greenberry Industrial had access to this service (or knew about it) last year when they started making the move to x64.

"We could have stopped the hardware upgrade cold. We could have went with Phase2's MS Exchange SaS," said Egan.

This means that with a simple MX record change, you can leverage a fully-configured, hosted instance of Microsoft Exchange 2007. MS Exchange runs on a 64-bit architecture and many small-to-medium businesses find themselves perplexed and wondering whether to start the dreaded hardware migration to 64-bit. Hardware costs, softare costs, compatibility issues, and a shortage of qualified staff force users of the world's largest Email administration platform.

Microsoft Exchange faced a brief rivalry with Lotus Notes in early 2000 but soon squashed IBM's mail platform in the areas of market share, adoption, and sales revenue.

Ahead of Schedule. Under Budget.

IT decision-makers: Don't take my word for it. Do you own research but you could really look like a hero by coming in UNDER-BUDGET and WELL AHEAD OF SCHEDULE with your decision to check out Phase2.

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