Trojan Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Hi All, I'm after some advice or thoughts on this. We are imminently moving away from our current email system (Link2ICT (Bham) Zimbra). The way I see it I have 2 choices, On premises Exchange or Office 365. I have been doing some research on the pro's and con's of both but I would like some input from this forum on any previous experiences you may have had with this. (I will have to explain to Leadership the various differences between the services and need to explain it in as simple terms as possible, because it seems they all think that Outlook = Cloud and that email = website and the the broadband is email (garrrghh!). An actual quote from an SMT member "if the internet goes down we'll still be able to access Office 365 because it's in the cloud (facepalm) - I can deal with this and hopefully get them to understand what exchange actually is and how this all differs including that if the internet fails then there will be no access to an email platform anyway.) Some background: I have neither installed or managed an exchange environment before. The schools I have worked in have always used hosted email of one type or another. I can (hopefully) resource the exchange server in our existing virtualised environment without too much difficulty so infrastructure cost would be negligible. Although I am worried about future mailbox growth in terms of storage. (I have about 3TB free and unallocated on the SAN) We have EES in place so I can get the exchange licenses / CAL's through that. On the other hand O365 = free (at the moment) 150 Staff, 1000 Students - Secondary School. Any help or thoughts gratefully received. Thanks, Nick.
Michael Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 I wouldn't bother with an on-site Exchange Server - I'd stick with Office 365 on A2. I've done this for numerous schools in Birmingham. Let Microsoft do the managing/hosting for you, allowing you to manage users/devices day to day. Put it this way - even with all the problems with Zimbra 5/8, all the schools I've migrated to Office 365 have had zero problems as a result. 1
Boredguy Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 We choose to go down the 365 route as it was less local management of space to worry about. We have an ADSL backup that will provide a reasonable level of access in the event of our main fibre connection going down, added to the fact that the SMT have iPhones which can connect to 365 mail over 3g if both connections fail (not to mention that most staff seem to have a smart phone in this day and age) 1
sonofsanta Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 I have neither installed or managed an exchange environment before. The schools I have worked in have always used hosted email of one type or another. Then go Office 365. I am just (as in, next week) migrating everyone away from an onsite Exchange 2007 server to Office 365. Four years of administering Exchange have convinced me that, more than anything else in IT, keeping email working is a dark art that requires sacrificial chickens and funny dances with bells on sticks. Spam filtering is either rubbish or costs more money, though it may be improved in 2013 (I hope to god it is, I just counted our spam quarantine and it's had 52,5000 emails in the last year, and that's only what it caught). Office 365 is free, is less complicated to set up and administer, works identically with regards to Outlook etc. and comes with other benefits - Student Advantage! Yes, if your net connection goes down you lose email - but equally, if a disaster strikes the school, webmail will still be up for everyone as it's hosted offsite. 1
featured_spectre Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 We have an onsite one, purely for the fact that it served our purpose better at the time, however I should note that we are not an educational establishment here. 1
3s-gtech Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 I weighed both up, and went for on-site. Our internet connection/filtering is not reliable enough to depend on anything through it, and we wanted to keep data on-site. It was also easier to sort out backup procedures etc with our own box. O365 is very appealing, but didn't suit us at the time. Migrating to it from Exchange is supposed to be pretty straightforward so we kept it as a future option. 1
woody Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Definitely O365 if you have the choice. We will be migrating to it hopefully over the summer. You will need to brush up on Powershell if you want to do anything beyond the WI that Microsoft give you. 1
Trojan Posted February 13, 2014 Author Posted February 13, 2014 Put it this way - even with all the problems with Zimbra 5/8, all the schools I've migrated to Office 365 have had zero problems as a result. How many have you migrated if I may ask ?
Trojan Posted February 13, 2014 Author Posted February 13, 2014 Definitely O365 if you have the choice. We will be migrating to it hopefully over the summer. You will need to brush up on Powershell if you want to do anything beyond the WI that Microsoft give you. Hi, Can you elaborate on the Powershell requirements please? Thanks.
woody Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Basically as I understand it - (we haven't yet migrated and we will also need to learn powershell), with a local Exchange implementation, you have the choice of using the Exchange Management Console (UI) or Exchange Management Shell (Powershell). With O365, you don't get the full Exchange Management Console, you get a cut down basic web interface. Therefore, to access the more in-depth features of Exchange, you will need to use Powershell. As I said, this is on our list of things to learn, but someone else who is already using it may be able to elaborate. 1
sonofsanta Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Unless MS reversed the direction they began in Exchange 2007, on-site Exchange is also very Powershell heavy, and the GUI is limited in what it can do. You will need PowerShell one way or another, and in all honesty O365 has a more capable GUI than 2007. I don't know 2013 though. 1
Simcfc73 Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 On site here. Powershell is very powerful but so is the right click on the GUI. No idea why everyone gets carried away with command lines. Exchange 2010 with outlook which hasn't missed a beat in over 3 years and its very easy to manage. 1
Michael Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 How many have you migrated if I may ask ? Good question... I'll have to check, but it's more than 10 (top of my head). 1
Trojan Posted February 13, 2014 Author Posted February 13, 2014 Thanks for all the comments, lots of food for thought to say the least.
3s-gtech Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Unless MS reversed the direction they began in Exchange 2007, on-site Exchange is also very Powershell heavy, and the GUI is limited in what it can do. You will need PowerShell one way or another, and in all honesty O365 has a more capable GUI than 2007. I don't know 2013 though. 2013 is dominated by PS. It's not a terrible hardship, and you can do some cool things (like build your own GUI to run the PS commands which can be useful for bulk mail-enabling). It's not exactly web interface driven though.
Jobos Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 All of my schools have onsite Exchange servers but as one school is due for a new server next year I've been thinking about moving to 365 as well. I expect 365 has distribution lists but a number of our users have access to a second and third mailbox so I use the management console to automatically add said mailboxes to the users account without any user interaction. Can 365 do this and can 365 allow the user to send as?
sonofsanta Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 All of my schools have onsite Exchange servers but as one school is due for a new server next year I've been thinking about moving to 365 as well. I expect 365 has distribution lists but a number of our users have access to a second and third mailbox so I use the management console to automatically add said mailboxes to the users account without any user interaction. Can 365 do this and can 365 allow the user to send as? In short: yes. You can add alternate emails as an alias in Active Directory (under proxyAddresses) or you can set up (shared) mailboxes and delegate permissions so people can have multiple mailboxes open in Outlook or OWA, including Send As. 1
FragglePete Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 We're looking to migrate to Office365 over the Summer, if not before. Currently have Exchange 2007 running locally which I installed 5 years ago; first time doing an Exchange Server and was a learning curve in getting the domain ready for it but went quite smoothly. It's been faultless ever since and is now a critical feature for the likes of SMT and Heads Of House that I have to admit to being nervous in moving it to Office365. But, the costs make it a no brainer. I won't have to worry about a the server hardware, battery backup, licensing, warranty - result. Pete 1
the_dude Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 just a quick reply, but we moved to Office 365 a year ago and couldn't be happier. To note: -MS manages backups -if you get in a pickle you can call Microsoft for free support, and my experience has been very good. I usually get a call back within an hour, and they are very knowledgeable. -don't let powershell intimidate you. There are lots of scripts on the internet, and powershell itself is fairly user friendly with good documentation. -like someone else said if your internet goes down, everyone with a mobile device can still get email (these days, that's everyone) -storage, microsoft gives you 50GB per mailbox, and a 25GB Skydrive -free -updates, it's rare that a local exchange admin will keep up with the latest exchange flavors. We were still running exchange 2003 when we upgraded! 1
Jobos Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Can I link Outlook 2010 to 365 or is it OWA only?
Colindean2000 Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Hi everyone, would anyone be able to clear up a question I have about how 'free' office 365 is, I've been told that A2 is only free when our staff members are enrolled into A3, can anyone confirm if this is the case please? Thanks
the_dude Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Can I link Outlook 2010 to 365 or is it OWA only? yes, Office 2007 and up will connect Hi everyone, would anyone be able to clear up a question I have about how 'free' office 365 is, I've been told that A2 is only free when our staff members are enrolled into A3, can anyone confirm if this is the case please? Thanks no, our staff and students are A2. We pay Microsoft $0. 2
vikpaw Posted February 14, 2014 Posted February 14, 2014 I can confirm freeness and use with Outlook. We have major internet issues and so opted to keep exchange in house. If I was anywhere else I'd love to use it, but people rely on internal emails so much that we'd grind to a halt without it. 2
jamesbmarshall Posted February 14, 2014 Posted February 14, 2014 I've been told that A2 is only free when our staff members are enrolled into A3 Who told you that?
Jobos Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 yes, Office 2007 and up will connect no, our staff and students are A2. We pay Microsoft $0. Can I use group policy to configure Outlook to connect it to 365?
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