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Pros and cons of switching from onsite exchange to Office 365
Posted on 3/22/15 at 9:31 am
Posted on 3/22/15 at 9:31 am
Need some help as I have two IT providers recommending different things.
I manage a firm who on average has around 20 employees and I have one provider who tells me Office 365 is the way of the future and has recommended the E3 plan because I need access to ediscovery and another who says Microsoft is the devil and allowing them to have access to my data is a dumb idea. He feels the added expense of maintaining our exchange server is the way to go.
From what I have read over the weekend, which is a lot, I have found very little negative information about 365 other than a few glitches that resulted in downtime.
The questions that are relevant to me are:
As far as past employees or addittional mailboxes that I need access to for archived information only do I need a subscription?
Does 365 have any limitations when it comes to storing and accessing old information?
Any other major cons not easily discovered.
How big of a pain is a migration of 500 gb of data
I manage a firm who on average has around 20 employees and I have one provider who tells me Office 365 is the way of the future and has recommended the E3 plan because I need access to ediscovery and another who says Microsoft is the devil and allowing them to have access to my data is a dumb idea. He feels the added expense of maintaining our exchange server is the way to go.
From what I have read over the weekend, which is a lot, I have found very little negative information about 365 other than a few glitches that resulted in downtime.
The questions that are relevant to me are:
As far as past employees or addittional mailboxes that I need access to for archived information only do I need a subscription?
Does 365 have any limitations when it comes to storing and accessing old information?
Any other major cons not easily discovered.
How big of a pain is a migration of 500 gb of data
This post was edited on 3/22/15 at 9:36 am
6
Posted on 3/22/15 at 9:59 am to LSU5508
Migration of data is straightforward. For additional mailboxes - you can go the shared mailboxes route (I think) and that doesn't require a license.
Posted on 3/22/15 at 10:26 am to LSU5508
For such a small office I'd say you'd do well going to O365. It's easier to manage licensing because there is not real product key that you need to keep track of, easier to distribute, and easier to manage imo, with a good directory sync setup.
My understanding of the in-place archive is that the users will need a mailbox assigned to them in the new infrastructure, but then you're deprovisioning their license after you set up the in-place archive through the Exchange online console..so I think the answer to that is yes and no, though if they're former employees that no longer work there you won't need an E3 for them, only an Exchange license.
Here's something to read regarding archiving of old mailboxes:
In-Place eDiscovery
My understanding of the in-place archive is that the users will need a mailbox assigned to them in the new infrastructure, but then you're deprovisioning their license after you set up the in-place archive through the Exchange online console..so I think the answer to that is yes and no, though if they're former employees that no longer work there you won't need an E3 for them, only an Exchange license.
Here's something to read regarding archiving of old mailboxes:
In-Place eDiscovery
This post was edited on 3/22/15 at 10:29 am
Posted on 3/22/15 at 4:03 pm to LSU5508
Another thought is to use a non-Microsoft Exchange provider, such as Intermedia or Backspace. I have used Intermedia in the past with good results. These providers still offer the standard Office applications, but the e-mail is hosted by the third-party company and not on Microsoft's servers.
That said, my present company is migrating all of our users to Office 365 for office applications, IM and e-mail, roughly 200k users... I suppose if they can do it, anyone can?
That said, my present company is migrating all of our users to Office 365 for office applications, IM and e-mail, roughly 200k users... I suppose if they can do it, anyone can?
This post was edited on 3/22/15 at 4:04 pm
Posted on 3/22/15 at 4:40 pm to LSU5508
quote:
another who says Microsoft is the devil and allowing them to have access to my data is a dumb idea
Did he say specifically why this would be a dumb idea? Microsoft works with thousands of small businesses, I don't see the risk here.
Posted on 3/22/15 at 5:33 pm to LSU5508
The lack of backup and recovery is the biggest con of Office 365 LINK
Are these mailbox and attachment size restrictions a concern?
quote:
Microsoft has built in redundancy and backups in all of their data centers, just like Google, Salesforce, etc., but these backups are for internal data center recovery only, and not available to customers for restoring their data in the event of accidental or malicious data loss. Once data is automatically or manually purged from the recycle bin the data is lost forever.
Are these mailbox and attachment size restrictions a concern?
quote:
Get a 50 GB mailbox per user and send attachments up to 25 MB.
Posted on 3/22/15 at 9:25 pm to LSU5508
What line of business are you in ? or, how private is the data ? That should be your biggest question...
The other big consideration is simply the lack of customization and advanced control ... I've never used 365, that's just what I've read is the biggest downside ...
Besides that, I'd think a 20 person shop would be ideal for 365 .... Can't believe you have 500 GB of data for 20 people... have you considered making them clean their crap up ? Make them archive to PST and get it out of those databases...
The other big consideration is simply the lack of customization and advanced control ... I've never used 365, that's just what I've read is the biggest downside ...
Besides that, I'd think a 20 person shop would be ideal for 365 .... Can't believe you have 500 GB of data for 20 people... have you considered making them clean their crap up ? Make them archive to PST and get it out of those databases...
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