Outlook w/Hosted Exchange

Outlook with Hosted Exchange More and more small and mid-sized businesses are making the switch to hosted Exchange. A few really good reasons:

- - Sync between your smart phone email and Outlook
  - Email is backed up in a secure location
  - Share information such as Contacts and Calendars
  - Free up your IT staff for other projects and initiatives

Users of older versions of Exchange as well as POP email users will benefit from the enhanced features of Exchange 2010.

We offer the latest version, hosted Exchange 2010, for a low monthly fee. You enjoy the simplicity and security of our service.

Some of the reasons why it outperforms the previous:

Full browser support for a variety of browsers including Internet Explorer and Safari
Larger mailbox options – 25GB of storage for Standard Plans and unlimited for Advanced and BPS Plans
Enhanced features of OWA 2010 with conversation style messaging

Because your business relies on email as one of the most important means of communication, you want to choose a provider that can offer the most secure infrastructure available.

Reliability and Uptime

We offer a 99.999 percent uptime service level agreement.
We utilize a multi-million dollar infrastructure which includes datacenters featuring Dell, EMC and Cisco hardware and multiple connections to Tier-1 Internet providers – assuring high availability and the fastest round trip for your email. What does that mean for your business? A Fortune 50 infrastructure is finally available to small- and medium-sized businesses.

Add-on Features

blackberry alliance member We offer a complete range of add-on features including hosted BlackBerry® services and ActiveSync for Windows mobile devices so you can instantly activate email service for your handheld. Rather than spending thousands of dollars on your own server, you can use our managed service for just a few dollars a month.

You can also add SharePoint for document collaboration; Office Communications Server 2007 for increased productivity through secure instant messaging; and file sharing and archiving – from simple message journaling to keep an exact copy of all your message, to compliant archiving, which fulfils regulatory requirements from the main US regulations—HIPAA, GLBA, SOX, SEC, FINRA and FRCP as well as other state/federal requirements.

Strict Security and Compliance

We adhere to the industry’s strictest regulations for security and compliance.

Backed by a SAS 70 Type II audited location: SAS 70 is an auditing statement issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), officially titled “Reports on the Processing of Transactions by Service Organizations.” SAS 70 defines the professional standards used by a service auditor to assess the internal controls of a service organization and issue a service auditor’s report.

PC or MAC

Many Exchange hosting companies do not offer both Outlook (for PC) and Entourage (for Mac) support. We offer both, so your staff can use either PCs or Macs. We also offer free Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2010 – which works on all major web browsers – allowing your users the ability to access their email online from anywhere.

Hosted Exchange 2010 vs. Microsoft Online Services

Feature	Hosted Exchange 2010 from Direct Connect	Microsoft Online Services
Exchange 2010	You get the latest version – hosted Exchange 2010; provides access to Outlook Web Application (OWA) 2010 – a more robust version of OWA 2007.	Latest version available – Exchange 2007.
Enterprise-Level System Access and Security	Personal user ID and password provide secure access to services.	Standard MS Live ID used to access all services.
No Contracts to Sign	Month-to-month agreements	Yearly commitments and early termination fees
Fully Customizable Mobile Device Policies	BlackBerry Enterprise Server and ActiveSync for iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. We don’t require you to purchase BlackBerry license, it’s included, and Direct Connect helps you set up the service and provides support for it.	Only support for certain BES functionality. Microsoft offers basic BES connectivity; certain features are disabled and many are prescribed, leaving little ability for customers to choose policies and other critical aspects of the offering.
Enterprise-Grade SLA	Higher availability 99.999% uptime; Direct Connect allows for notification of an issue up to the month immediately following the month for which a customer is seeking credit.	99.9% uptime; from MS Online SLA; “In order to be able to submit a claim…the customer must first have notified Customer Support…within five business days following the incident.”
Expert Support	Less than one minute is the average hold time to reach a MS-certified technician.	Long wait times and more difficulty in hosted Exchange-specific offshore support. From Gartner; “…when customers call with a problem, it may be the first time that Microsoft is encountering it.”
Message Disclaimer	Yes	No
Public Folders	Yes	According to Gartner, Microsoft shared Exchange offering does not support this.
Proprietary Control Panel	Our Control Panel, designed for SMBs, makes account administration easier and less time consuming; 4th generation platform that is far more stable and feature-rich than the Microsoft sub-contracted 1st generation generic system. From ZDNet, “…simplify administration tasks via a custom control panel…instead of using the generic Microsoft-provided admin tools.”	Standard HMC solution provides less control over user and mailbox settings. According to Gartner, “The [MS Online] administration console has no granularity — all administrators can delete domains and change MX records, for example. The need for role-based permissions in the administration experience will be addressed in our next major service release.” No
Split Domain Support	Very useful and cost effective for organizations that have only a partial number of users that require an Exchange email environment, while simple and inexpensive POP email is sufficient for others. With Enterprise plans, Direct Connect customers can host some mailboxes on Exchange and some on POP.	No
Flexible Site Selection	Our four US datacenters are strategically located on the East and West coasts. Customers located in the East will store data in the East coast datacenter to reduce latency; fifth datacenter in the UK for European-based customers.	No
SAS 70 Type II and PCI Compliance	SAS 70 Type II audited, ensuring we adhere to the highest professional standards and strict internal controls required for service organizations. PCI Compliant to ensure the highest security for online payment account data.	Microsoft Online Services does not have this same level of certification and compliance and therefore they are not qualified to support finance, insurance, legal and healthcare companies.

When you’re ready to evaluate your options, contact us to learn how your business can benefit. Use our contact form or call (216)382-4900.

Direct Connect