Since Microsoft phased out its Windows Small Business Server edition (SBS) we find that many small to medium sized businesses are not always sure which direction to go when their Server requires replacement.

Now we have always been big fans of Microsoft’s Small Business Server. It offered almost enterprise level email systems at a price well within the IT budget of most small companies. It’s ran many of our local customer’s businesses infrastructure since the first version that included Exchange (Microsoft’s email engine) in 2001.

We were naturally disappointed that Microsoft decided not to continue their small business server product with SBS2011 being the last version to contain the all-important Exchange. They have however provided an alternative that does provide many benefits to companies of all sizes – Microsoft 365 is their hosted email product.

We have always had mixed reactions from our clients when it comes to wanting parts of their computer systems hosted online. Perhaps, the easiest one to justify moving on to the “cloud” would always have to be email. Simply ask yourself, if the internet connection went off in your office – could you still send and receive email from Outlook? So unlike hosting folders and files, email is easier to reason with, when deciding on whether to make the jump to a cloud or hosted service.

Total IT Services are big fans of Microsofts 365. Of course, we went through the same process of wanting to retain our email services in house but, we’ve been using 365 for many years now and have never looked back. Our email is always accessible, and we have yet to experience any downtime at all.

What’s so good about 365? Well, it removes your own IT, computers, laptops and network infrastructure from the emailing chain. So, WHEN you do have a Server failure, internet goes down, virus attack or fire/theft your email is still completely safe. Emails will still flow to your smartphones and any PC or laptop with an internet connection will send/receive email without a problem. Microsoft also provides a very useful online version of Outlook which can be accessed securely from any PC around the world.

Microsoft offer very fair pricing, especially if you already have a compatible version of Outlook installed on your PC.

So what next?

All that’s needed is a one-off email migration day or two, which Total IT Services can help with, and that’s it. You are on 365 mail platform and never need to worry about losing your email or struggle to send and receive email ever again! Now doesn’t that sound good?