Webinar Wrap-up: Cost Comparison of Hosted Exchange and In-House Deployment
By Ray Hagen | July 17, 2009I want to thank all who attended our webinar, Microsoft Exchange: Comparing Hosted vs. In-house Deployments this past Wednesday. The questions that followed the presentation were excellent and I’d like to thank all those who contributed. Two topics really resonated in the questions that I wanted to reinforce with this blog post. One, how are mobile Blackberry devices are supported and two, what if variables in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) example were different.
Blackberry devices are an increasingly valuable tool for connecting a mobile workforce. A few things to keep in mind if you want full push-access between Exchange and a Blackberry device. Integration needs to take place between Exchange and a Blackberry server to experience the full push. A hosted Exchange provider includes this integration, without the purchase of Blackberry or Exchange server licenses, in the monthly device fees.
A TCO model is a good baseline to understand all the elements required to purchase, implement and operate a system. It is well applied in looking at Exchange, as it is more than just buying a server license and hardware. To make the right decision for your organization, you need to understand all the costs - direct, indirect and opportunity - associated with an in-house Exchange deployment. All costs structures are different and the TCO model used in the webinar (and available in the follow up whitepaper) provides you with the framework to plug-in your costs and make the right decision for you business.
You can download the entire presentation here. Download the Total Cost of Ownership White Paper here.
July 20th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
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July 31st, 2009 at 8:56 am
Hi Ray,
I have created an inhouse vs hosted exchange accumulated cost calculator that your readers may find useful. It is hosted on my blog at http://www.framedpc.com. Let me know if you find flaws in its design or if I’m missing important cost attributes.
Thanks,
Degen
July 31st, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Degan - Thank you for sharing this tool! A few items you may want to look at in your model:
1. The Blackberry server license is another software cost to be added. Depending upon the server package you purchase, some per device licenses are included and you may need to purchase additional device licenses.
2. E-mail filtering could be it’s own line item. I see that there is a line for other software, however you will probably want to prominently list e-mail filtering as it is a large cost in e-mail administration.
3. Your time period for looking at the cumulative costs is ten years. My initial take is that is along time for a technology purchase. Who knows if e-mail will still be the primary communication tool for businesses in ten years? Even in five years? Another factor to consider is to make sure your accounting practices align with technology cycles. The model assumes a hardware refresh time period, but does not include a refresh rate for the software products. A three to four year window would probably provide a better analysis based upon what we know and don’t know about the future.
Thanks again for putting together this tool, it is really great!