Exchange (E-mail, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks) - Online, Desktop, and Phone

Hi Everyone!

I am looking for some options for 'E-mail Exchange'...
Do you have any suggestions?

I have been using Microsoft Hosted Exchange for a year and am very happy with all the obvious benefits.
However... I want to know what else is out there, what are the alternatives?
Are there better options? Are there cheaper options? Are there free options?

Syncronization of e-mails, contacts, calendar and tasks with; desktop, laptop, phone is a must.
Being able to add a contact in Outlook and have that contact appear on my phone almost instantly is very efficient!

I thought it might be a good idea to list some general requirements below...

1) Main features
a. E-mail (of course)
b. Contacts
c. Calendar
d. Tasks
e. Ability to file/categorize/group: e-mails, contacts, calendar items and tasks

2) Server features:
a. Syncronization with Desktop Client
b. Syncronization with popular mobile phones (Windows Mobile, Nokia, Black Berry, iPhone)
c. Web access to account
d. Ability to increase storage space if needed
e. Spam filtering

I look forward to your replies! :)

Regards,
Chris

Tags: calendar, contacts, e-mail, exchange, hosted, microsoft, syncronisation, syncronization, tasks

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mad Max on June 11, 2009 at 11:44am: If you have a Mac and iPhone, then you may want to look into MobileMe. It's more or less "Exchange for the rest of us". It does all you ask for above, but only syncs with the iPhone but not the others. You also get extra features like web space and the ability access your Mac's via your web browser from other machines, which is handy if you're traveling and forgot a file and need access to it. Check the Apple website and search for MobileMe, there's a bunch of videos on there about it that explains it far better than I have.

Also, I think Google offer something similar, but I may be wrong. It's not as indepth as MobileMe or Exchange, but it's still handy.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jadzia on June 13, 2009 at 9:10pm: Glad someone asked this. I'm in the process of taking on a contract for a company where most users have huge PST files. Exchange is probably going to have to happen soon. But some of the employees travel a lot and I really don't know much about Exchange. I'm going to have to study fast. I'm probably going to take over the network by the end of the month and I have to find a solution quickly.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Silver on June 17, 2009 at 11:00am: Unfortunately there aren't good alternatives to Microsoft Exchange. You can try using a Gmail business account but in my opinion Google mail isn't very professional.

PST files can only be 2gigs or less in size... I solved that problem by properly archiving E-mail using Barracuda Network's E-mail archiver and backup solution.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Brodt on June 19, 2009 at 8:10pm: Microsoft actually extended the PST to be able to be larger, up to 20GB. However, once you get past 7-10GB Outlook becomes a bear. You may actually want to look at Leopard (and now Snow Leopard) Server, if you are looking for a more corporate solution. It has gotten to the point where most of the major features that Exchange has, OS X Server has, and you don't have to pay per-seat licenses for it.; ▶ Reply to This