Hosted Exchange Server to the rescue
This morning started like it was going to be a fine Friday, until I tried to connect to my hosted Exchange Server (ES) via Outlook 2007. There was an obvious problem with the login as Outlook couldn’t connect to the server. This meant I couldn’t get to my business email, something that turned my fine Friday into something totally different. MailStreet, my server provider, also provides access to my server via Outlook Web Access which allows me to work with the server using the web browser just like with Outlook. OWA was working fine so I wasn’t cut off from my business email and PIM data after all, it’s just not as convenient to use OWA as it would be with Outlook. But it drove home for me how good my hosted Exchange Server is, even when it’s not working it’s still working, if you follow me.
I was still unable to connect via Outlook several hours later so I emailed a support ticket to MailStreet, hoping they’d get to it quickly. After doing that I realized something amazing, my BlackBerry was working with the server just fine. MailStreet offers a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) option that creates a BES and hangs it off the Exchange Server for BlackBerry users. It means that individuals like me have the same advantages using a BlackBerry that big corporations have running their own BES. The BES at MailStreet was able to talk to the Exchange Server just like OWA so in essence I wasn’t cut off from the ES at all. That struck me as very cool indeed. I should point out that MailStreet had my Outlook connectivity restored within five minutes of sending the support ticket request. Now that’s pretty awesome and it’s a fine Friday once again. So far. 
I love exchange. I tried it after seeing both you and Kevin post so much about it and have been using it for about 7 months now. My business partner and I both agree it’s a life saver and we honestly don’t know how we lived without it. I have everything synced on all devices. My business partner actually just bought and iMac last night and thanks to exchange, setting up his e-mail and contacts will be a breeze. Now that I’ve tested exchange 2007, I know I am a lifer with HTML e-mail support on WM6.
Yep, I’ve run Exchange since 5.5 was released in the pre-2000 era (seems so long ago). It’s always been one of the most dependable Microsoft products, and I wish some of their development team had worked on Windows Vista, lol.
Anyway, the company I’m at now also runs Exchange, and it has had only one hiccup in the year and half we’ve run it (and never due to the server itself, just network glitches preventing access). We’re getting ready to start upgrading to Exchange 2007 this month, and we’re really looking forward to it.
Yes, Hosted Exchange is a viable alternative especially if infrastructure costs are barrier for most small and medium size businesses.