I work at a company where we host our own e-mail server (currently, we are running Groupwise on a Novell Netware server). Our hardware is getting old so we need to get a new server. At the same time, we are considering moving to Microsoft Exchange. I really don't know much about Exchange (yet) but I can only imagine that the software is large and needs maintenance (since it is from Microsoft, I'm sure it is a target).

Today, I received an email advertising outsourced email (MS Exchange) from Rackspace and wondered if anyone here uses this service and what their experience has been.

If you do outsource your email but don't use Rackspace, who do you use and do you like them?

thanks....................matt

Hey Matt,

Exchange is a very powerful and highly configurable server package, but have never heard of Rackspace.

We use Domino (Lotus Notes) which is also very powerful and probably even more configurable. It even has it's own designer and language, but requires more maintenance. It also costs a heck of a lot of money and you are charged per user basis. Some Outlook users find it hard to adapt to a Lotus Notes client.

Another one to consider is MailEnable. If your just using POP and SMTP, then you can download the Standard version which is completely free, altough much less configurable than the above, as it's a much smaller package. It runs on any version of Windows including non server packages such as XP, and requires virtually no maintenance. It's well worth a look. MailEnable Downloads (you can also purchase Standard and Enterprise versions of the software if you require more for your company).

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Thanks. Here's the link to Rackspace:

Exchange Server Hosting - Dedicated Exchange Hosting Server - Exchange Hosting Server by Rackspace

I never really thought about outsourcing email servers, but it does seem like it deserves consideration. We could buy a new server and the software, pay the outside IT company to install and configure, and then pay for periodic maintenance (we don't have an inside IT department). OR we could outsource and let someone else worry about the hardware/software headaches of keeping things running.

Does anyone out there outsource their email services and if so, how's that working for you?