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PeerSpot user
IT Infrastructure & Tech Support Manager at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Hosted messaging solution used in addition to Office 365 offering remote access to mailboxes
Pros and Cons
  • "This solution makes it very easy to receive and detect problems about the mail flow and offers very good reporting. In general, it's very easy to manage the organization's mailboxes."
  • "When we need to purchase additional licenses for additional users, the process is slow."

What is our primary use case?

We use this in addition to Office 365 in order to have our user mailboxes on the cloud.

What is most valuable?

From a user's perspective, this solution enables them to access to their mailbox from anywhere and their mailbox size is as big as 100 gigabytes so they never run out of space. 

This solution makes it very easy to receive and detect problems about the mail flow and offers very good reporting. In general, it's very easy to manage the organization's mailboxes.

What needs improvement?

When we need to purchase additional licenses for additional users, the process is slow. 

We would like to have a single point of view or pane where we can manage all of our infrastructure. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for six years. 

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Exchange Online
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Exchange Online. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution. I would rate it a four out of five. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution. I would rate it a five out of five. 

How was the initial setup?

The deployment of Exchange Online only was very easy and was completed within a week. The full setup and migration of on cloud and on-premises infrastructure is still in progress but this is not due to difficulty. 

What was our ROI?

The return on investment is very good. I would rate it a five out of five in this regard. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing for this solution is good. We renew our contract every three years. I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
GeorgeKaravitis - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at Digital Horizon
Reseller
Simple to manage, robust, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Microsoft Exchange Online are spam filtering, 50 GB of email storage, good integration with Outlook, and ease of management."
  • "The support could improve their response time and sometimes the phone lines are not clear because of static or noise. However, the agents are knowledgeable and very helpful."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft Exchange Online is a robust mailing solution.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Microsoft Exchange Online are spam filtering, 50 GB of email storage, good integration with Outlook, and ease of management.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Exchange Online for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Exchange Online is scalable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 80 clients using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

The support could improve their response time and sometimes the phone lines are not clear because of static or noise. However, the agents are knowledgeable and very helpful.

I rate the support from Microsoft Exchange Online a four out of five.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Microsoft Exchange Online is straightforward. It took approximately one hour to deploy for clients.

What about the implementation team?

We have three people that do the deployment and support of Microsoft Exchange Online.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing cost increased at least 15 to 20 percent recently and it would be helpful for them to be reduced.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Microsoft Exchange Online a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Exchange Online
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Exchange Online. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Khizer Saleem - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Manager Technical at Ironbridge Systems (Pvt.) Limited
Real User
Features like SharePoint Online allow for collaboration between our team members
Pros and Cons
  • "We also create technical presentations, so most of the time we are dealing with MS Word and Excel. Sometimes, we also use Visio for diagramming. Our overall experience is good."
  • "They should tighten their cloud security."

What is most valuable?

We use SharePoint Online for the collaboration of our team and for other desktop applications we are using in-house.

We also create technical presentations, so most of the time we are dealing with MS Word and Excel. Sometimes, we also use Visio for diagramming. Our overall experience is good.

What needs improvement?

They should tighten their cloud security. If you are using Microsoft Office 365, the responsibility of backup is not on the part of Microsoft. It is on the part of the customer. Microsoft Office should give some kind of built-in solution with the Office 365 subscription regarding the backup of their online mailboxes.

For how long have I used the solution?

My company has been a Microsoft Gold partner for the last 12 years. As soon as we became a Gold partner, we started to use Office 365.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can have different plans. If we are scaling, then obviously we can go for the enterprise plan and add an unlimited number of users to our Office 365 plan.

How are customer service and support?

Overall, technical support is very good. My colleagues reached out to Microsoft technical support many times for queries. They are very responsive.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was really simple. We migrated our customers from a different platform to Microsoft Office 365. There is a separate technical team. I designed the solution only.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

They have raised their prices, and obviously, it hits our customers. Some of them are deciding to step back from Office 365. For customers who have bought the annual subscription, they are moving to the monthly subscription.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

I would recommend Office 365. It's a global product, and overall they have a larger footprint in the world. We're a Microsoft Gold partner, so as soon as the customer moves to Office 365, obviously our business will also grow.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Muhammad_Irfan - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at ACMC
Real User
Top 5
Enables us to integrate with other Microsoft applications and use as a hybrid solution
Pros and Cons
  • "It's easy to use and there is more integration."
  • "The ActiveSync services and the mapping services could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I cannot put everything on 365 because it's obviously not as fast. We have Microsoft Exchange because we have a lot of emails. Most of our emails, about 80%, are on Exchange Server locally, and just 20% are on 365. We use Microsoft Exchange as a hybrid solution. The users who are accessing from outside and the users who are on our priority list outside of the organization are on 365. But the other people that are local are on Exchange Server.

There are more than 200 people using this solution in my organization.

What is most valuable?

It's easy to use and there is more integration. We have Dynamics and 365 as a hybrid solution. Integration with the Microsoft applications is the key for us. It has better integration with other solutions.

What needs improvement?

The ActiveSync services and the mapping services could be improved.

There are a lot of issues with security. We had one issue, a bug, with the Active Directory services.

The cost of the license could be lower, and the security features could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Microsoft Exchange since 2016.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's quite stable.

It's a core product from Microsoft, so it's quite stable because of that.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. I chose this solution because it's easy to scale services. Services like Active Directory and ActiveSync aren't available in other solutions.

We don't have plans to increase usage right now.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good.

How was the initial setup?

Installation is easy. 

For installation, we have only two admins that can work on this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is really high. It's higher compared to other services.

The license is yearly.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
GlennHutchinson - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Infrastructure at a government with 201-500 employees
Real User
It's a highly scalable, essential product for our business, but it could be more flexible and integration could be more seamless
Pros and Cons
  • "Exchange Online plays a significant role in our business. It controls all our emails, so we'd be in a lot of trouble if we didn't have that. It's an essential product."
  • "The problem with Exchange is that the attributes aren't flexible enough. I'd like to see more interaction with Office 365 and tighter integration between on-prem Exchange and Exchange Online. There's still a disconnect between mailboxes and the cloud."

What is our primary use case?

Exchange Online plays a significant role in our business. It controls all our emails, so we'd be in a lot of trouble if we didn't have that. It's an essential product.

What needs improvement?

The problem with Exchange is that the attributes aren't flexible enough. I'd like to see more interaction with Office 365 and tighter integration between on-prem Exchange and Exchange Online. There's still a disconnect between mailboxes and the cloud. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Exchange Online for the last 20 years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Exchange Online is pretty scalable. We have about 6,000 users at our company.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Microsoft support six out of 10. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using a Windows NT 3.5 20 years ago and an on-prem version of Exchange.

How was the initial setup?

Setting up Exchange Online is straightforward. I rate it eight out of 10 for ease of installation. The total time of deployment was a couple of days. I have eight staff looking after it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There's a licensing cost, but it's included in our Azure pricing, so I'm not really concerned about it.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Exchange Online seven out of 10. There's no alternative to it unless you want to use some Unix system, like Apache. People don't use Apache for wide-stream things like email and stuff like that. The only equivalent is a Linux-based or Unix-based solution, and who wants to do that?

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1220712 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Cloud Architect at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 10
Reduces maintenance, has zero downtime and is fairly reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "I enjoy not having to maintain the local infrastructure, local servers, local whatever. You use the software and don't have to worry about the details."
  • "I don't really like the response time of the web GUI for administration."

What is most valuable?

The experience has been rather good. We've had nothing major happen to us. We've had no major downtimes. We haven't lost mail so far, which is good.

I enjoy not having to maintain the local infrastructure, local servers, local whatever. You use the software and don't have to worry about the details. You're not concerned with administration tasks other than managing users, which, of course, our team does on a daily basis, basically.

The pricing is okay.

The solution is stable.

The product scales well.

The user interface isn't too bad.

What needs improvement?

There were a few short outages where mail delivery was flaky.

I don't really like the response time of the web GUI for administration. All this seems a bit slow and not responsive enough. They should provide a far simpler solution for sending mail from machines as this is not really intuitive.

Due to the restrictions that Azure and Microsoft impose on sending mail, for example, if you have an Azure-deployed server that is sending out mails (for a shop system or something like that) it's not really simple. Also, it is not really scalable to use Office 365 as a relay server.

There's not really a useful backup tool that comes along with Exchange Online. You have lots and lots of storage for each user, yet you have to buy extra backup tools just to back it up with an Exchange on-premise. You could do this just with onboard tools, however, there's no such thing in cloud deployment.

For how long have I used the solution?

We completed the migration from Lotus Notes on-premise to Microsoft Office Online or Exchange Online last year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been good. We haven't dealt with bugs or glitches. it's pretty reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I expect the product to scale well. That is what we are paying Microsoft quite a bit of money for. They have to address scalability, reliability, and things like that. We have the service-level agreement and it's their business to do it. That's what they get the money for. 

We have about 3,500 physical users currently using Exchange. There are 1,500 more that are not interactive (for example, service accounts, group mailboxes, and accounts for machines that send mail and things like that). That makes the total number of users 3,500 persons and about 1,200-1,500 users that are not necessarily people.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't had any direct contact with technical support, however, I have not heard complaints as to their services.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to have an on-premise deployment of Lotus Notes, however, we discontinued using this and swapped over to Microsoft Exchange Online with the help of an external consultant as there was a lot of mailbox migration to do. That was a quite lengthy process due to the fact that we had several terabytes of mail storage that had to be migrated.

How was the initial setup?

We had a partner help us migrate everything over. 

The deployment times depend on a few factors. From the first start to the last migrated mailbox, for us, the deployment took over half a year. That said, actually, it wasn't that long, as we deployed in several waves taking one user group at a time and migrating them over.

Therefore, the real transfer time was much less than the seven months. In total, if you take the net time, it might have only been one month of actual migration.  However, we made a point of migrating only on weekends to keep user satisfaction high and disturbance to daily business low.

What about the implementation team?

We had a partner assist us with the process.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is good. However, it's also not exactly cheap.

It's my understanding that we have a contract that runs for two or three years with an enterprise agreement backing all this up. We do not buy on a yearly basis. That would be unusual for our company to buy for such short term.

What other advice do I have?

Since the project was finished, I'm no longer in an administrative role with Exchange Online. I have passed it on to other colleagues. The administration part is no longer in my hands, for which I'm quite grateful. I don't have to do the daily tasks anymore. My main job is to be the principal cloud architect for the company. I'm, to a lesser extent, concerned with daily administration tasks.

I'd recommend potential new users just go ahead and do it. It reduces the on-site administration chores by quite a bit. It's reliable enough to be used without second thoughts for business if you can handle the cost that comes with it, as Exchange or the whole Office 365 is not exactly cheap, especially when you count in the cost for security-related services that come with Office 365 if you pay for them.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. It works well, just not perfectly.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
ChrisWanyoike - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Infrastructure Specialist at Central-Bank-Kenya
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A cloud based messaging platform that delivers email, calendar, contacts, and tasks
Pros and Cons
  • "The data prevention and protection feature is good."
  • "I would like to make the solution more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for our emails and security exchanges. 

What is most valuable?

The data prevention and protection feature is good. 

What needs improvement?

I would like them to make the solution more user-friendly. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have experience with Microsoft Exchange Online.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a very stable solution. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the solution is also very good. There are approximately a thousand to five hundred users using the solution. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good so far. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is a cluster solution. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Managing Director at Oilfield Development llc
Real User
An easy-to-use solution that helps with document storing and preparation
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Exchange Online is easy to use. You have a common storage where people can store documents. It also helps with version control."
  • "The product needs to embed AI for intelligent searches and analytics."

What is our primary use case?

We use the product for emails, document sharing, and document preparation using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. 

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Exchange Online is easy to use. You have a common storage where people can store documents. It also helps with version control. 

What needs improvement?

The product needs to embed AI for intelligent searches and analytics. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool comes with bugs, and I see a lot of fixes. 

How was the initial setup?

Microsoft Exchange Online's deployment is easy. My company focuses on software development; setting up the tool is a breeze. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Microsoft Exchange Online is too expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Exchange Online Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2025
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Exchange Online Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.