MS Exchange On-Prem - A Business Need
Updated July 26, 2022

MS Exchange On-Prem - A Business Need

Jerry Robinson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Exchange

On premise Exchange is the email platform for the enterprise. We do not setup it up for all users, only those who have a legitimate business need for email communication. As you would expect, Exchange provides a reliable method of business communication with both internal and external users.

Pros

  • Email delivery
  • Email storage
  • Email archival

Cons

  • Support for non-Windows clients
  • Reliability
  • Security
  • Scalability
  • I don't think you can apply this to Exchange. It's a necessary tool.
We have never used anything but Exchange.

Do you think Microsoft Exchange delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Exchange's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Exchange live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Exchange go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Exchange again?

Yes

On-prem Exchange is well suited larger organizations. Due to the cost of licensing, hardware, and the expertise required to maintain, it's not necessarily a good fit for small to medium sized companies. O365 would be a better option for those types of organizations.

Microsoft Exchange Feature Ratings

Secure Email Gateway
7.0
Anti-malware
Not Rated
Customizability
Not Rated
Data Loss Protection
Not Rated
Threat Detection
Not Rated
Sandboxing
Not Rated
End-to-End Encryption
Not Rated
Management Tools
7

Using Microsoft Exchange

2000 - Anything from clinical to business office staff to support staff.
3 - Knowledge of MS Server OS. Knowledge of SMTP transport. Knowledge of storage options.
  • Conduct of business.
It is the best, and perhaps only, email solution worth considering.

Evaluating Microsoft Exchange and Competitors

Yes - Exchange 2016 replaced Exchange 2010.
  • Price
We evaluated the potential for O365 but found that the 5-year TCO for an organization our size made on-prem Exchange the better option.
I would not change my process.

Microsoft Exchange Implementation

Implementation/conversion can be quite complex and, unless you have certified Exchange administrators in-house, you should strongly consider a 3rd party consultant for this implementation.
  • Third-party professional services
cSpire
Change management was minimal - Because there were minimal changes, there were no takeaways.
  • Conversion

Microsoft Exchange Training

  • No Training
It was not difficult. If you are a day-to-day administrator, I would recommend some formalized training.

Configuring Microsoft Exchange

I feel the configurability is about right and that will not change as Microsoft is pushing everyone to the cloud.
I don't have any specific recommendation but there are a ton of best practice documents on the internet.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
About the only customization we did was to brand the OWA page.

Microsoft Exchange Support

We have not had to contact support.
ProsCons
None
None
No. Did not feel it was necessary.
i have not had to reach out to Microsoft for support.

Using Microsoft Exchange

The product is highly functional and easy to use.
ProsCons
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
Requires technical support
  • User management
  • Distribution list management
  • None

Microsoft Exchange Reliability

The only time Exchange has failed us is when we did something to cause the failure.
Exchange is setup with multiple servers behind load balancers to provide high availability.
I would say it's the best email product I've experienced.

Integrating Microsoft Exchange

As we've not done integration I felt a middle-of-the road rating was fair.
  • None
  • None
None to offer.

Relationship with Microsoft

Negotiations were straightforward.
Support was great.
Price.
Get a solid statement of work upfront.

Upgrading Microsoft Exchange

Yes - Yes it was a very smooth transition from Exchange 2013 to 2016 with plans to finish the transition to 2019 in the near future.
  • Better security
  • Better reliability.
  • Nothing in particular other than being on the latest version.

Comments

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