Steve the IT Tech Guy

I deal with many clients with many email options. A lot of my clients (like myself) use on-site Exchange. The advantages of on-site Exchange are plenty. There are some disadvantages but if you are a one site company that need privacy and easily flexibility then there is nothing like Exchange!! What are the advantages? First one time payment. You have to purchase a server ( now separate from DC is VERY recommended). You have to purchase Exchange and CALs for every person who will connect. This can be expensive upfront BUT you purchase once and thats it. (Much like MS Office license where you can purchase either Office 365 annually pay every year or purchase one time  Office Home and Student or Home and Business.

So the question is MS Office 365 vs Gmail. Mostly in the Email version. A lot of my clients are on a corporate Gmail account. They have their own domain name in their email (ex John@Domain.com). They can access through browser at Gmail.com anywhere BUT most business people use Outlook so they use it to connect using likely IMAP. IMAP is great when you need to access the same email from multiple devices (PC/PHONE/ETC) BUT to control contacts and appointments it SUCKS!! Any person I have dealt with using a Gmail IMAP account has usually fallen into the trap of when I move to a new PC or new profile I lose my contacts or calendar. They only keep a copy in local .OST file that is hard (unless you have the tools) extract content.Other issues I deal on a daily bases is its syncing all the time especially with large mailboxes.

Then there is a different world. Its call Microsoft. I know there are a lot of MS haters but I have to say MS Exchange and MS Outlook is a perfect match. I have used MS Mail before Outlook. When Exchange and Outlook started it was great. Not perfect at first but grew better. So now in the cloud email time it is Outlook connecting to Office 365 in the cloud. Again both MS both connect as normal. Oh look if I open Outlook on another computer to my 365 account I get all my email, contacts, calendar, AND cache contacts. Let see Google do that!!!! AND the greatest thing is there is rarely a sync issue. Gmail wants to sync all the time unless you change a few settings in Outlook and it usually slows it down but still. Office 365 and Exchange issues. Close Outlook. Rename .OST file. Open Outlook let it rebuild new .OST file. Everything is great. You would NEVER do this with a Gmail account that have local contacts and calendar.

One other thing that really bugs me is notification of mailbox getting full. MS have had this built in Exchange on premise and now 365 as a default. You have a warning that the mailbox is getting close to full and then after full you can’t send or receive any mail. Google does not have this as an option if you are using Outlook. You can login to Gmail through a browser and it can show up if you look in the right location. Client of mine contacted Google to see if this could be an option in the future and they said nothing is planned. Again. By Google. Oh and the last straw that might make you want to switch or move to. MS Office 365 is cheaper than Google Gmail account.

Oh and one last comment. I have had over the 20+ years with over 20+ clients I have never had a major issue with their MS on-premise Exchange. Exchange is VERY ROBUST!!!