Microsoft Exchange Reviews

Microsoft Exchange is the main mail server of Microsoft. It's a popular mail server, so a common use case for Microsoft Exchange is for small, medium, and enterprise-scale businesses. It's a mail solution, voicemail solution, live calendar solution, etc.

What I love about Microsoft Exchange is the good integration since 2013, particularly its integration with the calendar and other software such as Zoom, TeamViewer, AnyDesk, etc.

After 2022, users of Microsoft Exchange have to migrate mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange Online, and what I'd like to improve is for Microsoft to publish more on-premise versions for customers using Microsoft Exchange. Having more security is another room for improvement in the solution, particularly for mailboxes that develop the Exchange Edge rule to protect internal mailboxes.

What I'd like to see from Microsoft Exchange in the future is for Microsoft to still update the latest, existing version which is 2022. I'd like Microsoft to still push more cumulative updates for Microsoft Exchange 2022.

I've been using Microsoft Exchange for two years.

I'm impressed with Microsoft Exchange, and I'm rating it five out of five, stability-wise.

Microsoft Exchange is a scalable solution.

Setting up Microsoft Exchange from 2016 to 2022 in an SMB environment is straightforward because Microsoft combined all the cache, hubs, and mailboxes into one server. For large enterprises, the initial setup for Microsoft Exchange isn't as straightforward because large enterprises require more sophisticated setups.

How long it takes to deploy Microsoft Exchange depends on the size of the environment. For example, if I'm going to implement the solution in a small or medium-sized customer environment, then the deployment would take approximately one to two days, but if I'm implementing Microsoft Exchange for a more complex environment that has a minimum of 10 mailboxes and multiple sites, the deployment alone can take up to one week.

My team is responsible for deploying Microsoft Exchange for customers, so the implementation is in-house. I lead the deployment team.

The ROI you get from Microsoft Exchange can be very, very broad in terms of values. The solution, particularly the on-premise version, can save you additional costs compared to deploying it on the cloud, but the downside is the maintenance cost, and during new releases or updates, you may want to schedule the downtime in advance.

I don't have enough information about the licensing costs of Microsoft Exchange, but I do know that you need two types of licenses to run it. You need the product key and the client access key to activate Microsoft Exchange. This means that apart from the standard Microsoft Exchange licensing fees, you have to pay additional costs.

I'm working in a professional service company that's implementing Microsoft Exchange on-premises for customers. I implemented the solution on-premises in 2016, 2019, and 2022. In 2016, I also performed a migration from Microsoft Exchange to Microsoft Exchange Online.

My current company has between fifty to one hundred users of Microsoft Exchange, but in terms of the number of clients my team has implemented the solution for on-premises, it's potentially five thousand.

Deploying Microsoft Exchange for SMB would require just two people, but deploying it for enterprise-scale businesses would require a minimum of three people. Maintaining Microsoft Exchange requires five to seven people for SMBs, and up to twelve in enterprise environments because maintaining the solution isn't as easy.

My advice to anyone looking into implementing or using Microsoft Exchange is the same advice I give to my team every day, which is to be more aware of new information found on the internet in terms of troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange problems. You should also keep on training about sophisticated setups for the solution because you deal with aggressive customers, so I encourage my team to learn about Microsoft Exchange designs, troubleshooting mechanisms, etc.

I'm rating Microsoft Exchange as nine out of ten.

My company is an implementer and consultant for Microsoft Exchange, not a reseller or retailer. The customer is responsible for purchasing the Microsoft Exchange license.

This solution handles all of our primary functionality including email, message delivery, message archiving and calendars.

The primary features I use are email and calendar.

In our current situation, the disappearance of sanctions would be a tangible improvement. We are basically cut off from technical support and it's very difficult to obtain any updates.

We have been using this solution for four years. 

This is a stable solution.

This is a scalable solution. We already have over 10,000 users in Microsoft Exchange and the total size of the databases exceeds several hundred terabytes.

In all large corporate installations, the first level of tech support is always the local support team. Only if they aren't able to handle the case, we contact tech support in Microsoft. For now, because of sanctions, this option is quite limited.

Neutral

We had used IBM Notes before but it is an inferior product compared to Exchange.

I barely had any issues with initial setup of Microsoft Exchange. It involves a few clicks on the initial setup dialogue and that's it.

This solution is used by many large organizations and I don't know of any viable alternatives. If there are a large amount of users in an organization, Exchange is probably the best option. If there are less than 1000 users, opensource software may be a better alternative.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

My deployment model for Microsoft Exchange in this moment is for a company that uses Exchange Server on-premise solution to support its infrastructure services.

Although we keep all user data in the cloud, we have some kind of hybrid solution. It's Exchange service; our installation of Microsoft Exchange service is on-premise to cloud solution from Microsoft. In this moment, we are using some hybrid solution, although that on-premise solution is mostly for supporting our company infrastructure.

The best features of Microsoft Exchange, which I have answered many times in my trainings, is that it was a very compact, still extensible environment for user communication. There was a very short moment when it included messaging and instant messaging services, similar to messenger. It was not the best, but what was the best point is that it was complex, but simple to use with a clean interface for users. This could be a very short expression of the feeling.

Areas of Microsoft Exchange that have room for improvement could use some deeper thinking. I believe there could be better communication between Exchange Online and that cloud-oriented service and this Exchange server; some more precise communication to accept it as a single point of communication.

Another point would be that I would appreciate as a lazy administrator if there were better performance and monitoring available directly to the users and to the server. I can do that, but I need to at least have some knowledge and improve the scripts and so on. I would appreciate better performance, monitoring, and availability monitoring of Microsoft Exchange available to admin.

I have more than 25 years of experience with Microsoft Exchange, as I have been working from the beginning of Exchange Server.

I would rate technical support from Microsoft Exchange as great because we also had some issues while upgrading the system and maintaining it. The response is not immediate, but we are not paying so much money. As a general customer, I was very satisfied. They were fast enough and very skilled to support our needs.

Positive

My initial setup of Microsoft Exchange was very easy, and I am still doing it frequently; it's very easy to set up the environment.

I'm not a reseller and I have a loose connection to Microsoft solutions. I was not only a user, it means I was administrator of the system, administering it, so I was not a real user; my users were clients of the server. I was indirectly, loosely connected to Microsoft because I was also Microsoft certified professional. I was evaluated as having knowledge and I was also teaching it, so I had better connection to the server information.

The protocols I most utilize with Microsoft Exchange for integration are historically linked because now there are not very many ways to use Exchange since it became a messaging service. Today's world internet is communicating through SMTP, so SMTP is most important. We can say that is the only one, but there are still some extensions for reaching this Exchange server. In this moment in a Microsoft environment, there are different protocols that are good such as EWS.

It's something more advanced or some improvement of HTTP, because HTTP communication is used to communicate to web pages. You can access Exchange mailbox in the same way, but it's not called HTTP; it's a little bit enhanced protocol called Exchange Web Services, EWS. There are still ways to connect to your mailboxes.

Data loss prevention in Microsoft Exchange is critical for me. We use only part of these services because in the past, Exchange Server served and maintained user mailboxes. Now, I'm hired for an organization that moved all user mailboxes to cloud. We are still using Microsoft environment, and it's still Exchange server, but it's not directly accessed; it's called Exchange Online.

Regarding security, we now only use security infrastructure of Microsoft Exchange. That's very important. We have protected communication to Exchange server, using HTTPS connections to communicate to Exchange server and SMTP. Although SMTP protocol was built to communicate between mail servers, and the first internet was based as a free communication without any protection, now we are more concerned about security. That's why we also use the security part of SMTP, TLS, and so on. We use it, and we evaluate it as good at least.

Regarding the price of Microsoft Exchange, I don't really know, because now I'm completely disconnected from this due to working for a big company. In the past, I remember Microsoft Exchange was not the cheapest solution, but as it was very complex, covering many features needed for common users, it was an acceptable price. The ratio of power and price was very good.

I rate Microsoft Exchange a nine out of ten.

Microsoft Exchange is a user-friendly product that is easy to manage and configure. 

Some users encounter stability issues. I connect with the support team through my local partner, which takes time. 

I have been using the product for ten years. 

I rate the product's stability a seven out of ten. 

I rate Microsoft Exchange's scalability a nine out of ten. My company has around 4000 users. 

The tool's deployment is simple. 

I rate Microsoft Exchange's pricing a six out of ten. 

I rate the tool a seven out of ten. 

We use the solution for email, calendar, and integration into Zoom.

The product works very well. Being able to access email outside the organization is a very good feature. It is very easy to set up.

The default storage capacity is too small. Though the mailbox size is one terabyte on the cloud, the default mailbox size can be increased for on-premise products.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

The tool is very stable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

The tool is very scalable. It is easy to add additional servers and users. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. It is very difficult to migrate the server. If a primary Exchange server needs to be moved, it is not very easy. The service has to be shut down completely before it can be moved.

If there were a way to move it in real-time while email is still running, I would give it a ten. However, at the moment, we have to shut down the server and migrate or scale it to bigger capacity servers or the cloud. About 100 people in my organization are using the product. It is extensively used in my organization. As the organization grows, we will increase the usage.

I have used a webmail service that comes with Plesk for Linux servers.

The initial setup is moderately easy. It is neither easy nor difficult. It does require Active Directory to be set up properly. Setting it up is not difficult. It takes two days to set up an Exchange server.

We deployed the solution in-house. We need a manager, a systems engineer, and two developers to deploy the solution.

We have seen very good returns on investment. The solution is almost free. We just worry about Microsoft 365 licenses, and then Microsoft handles the deployment in the cloud. Once we set up the cloud domain, the cost is almost zero.

The licensing is integrated with Microsoft 365. Licensing is becoming easier. We can get Exchange in the cloud along with the Microsoft 365 license. We don't have to worry so much about Exchange licenses in the future. It would be deployed in the cloud.

The tool is very stable and easy to set up. However, we need Microsoft-certified engineers to manage it. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Our company uses the solution to manage emails and accounts. 

The solution's speed is good. 

The search tools are good. 

Observations are very user friendly. 

The solution could be more secure. 

I have been using the solution for ten years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

The setup is easy. 

I rate the solution a ten out of ten. 

We use this product for emails and for meetings. I'm the IT coordinator. 

The biggest advantage of this product is that it provides us with unlimited storage for our mailbox. The availability and simplicity of getting emails is great. There's an accessible online version and you have the full Office package available at any moment beyond Outlook. The integration with OneDrive comes in very handy. The Outlook Exchange server becomes your go-to place for storing conversations and correspondence. 

The licensing could be better. There are several levels of licensing depending on the number of users and features but it lacks the breakdown of what's included in the license, and the possibility to customize what you really need. There are likely to be features included that you don't need but there's no opt out option for those.  

I've been using this solution for 10 years. 

Stability has improved tremendously. These days it requires an extraordinary set of circumstances to not be able to access your emails, to send or receive emails, or to access the Exchange server.

The solution is quite scalable. We have over 1,000 users. 

We've contacted technical support several times and they've been responsive. They're pretty good, in general. 

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. There's really no problem with the setup of the latest Exchange servers and Exchange in general. We deployed in-house and didn't need any external partner to handle it.

Microsoft provides you with an ease of control, and management, and sets certain expectations from the software that you can't have if you implement other, cheaper solutions that are likely to be more difficult to manage or that are unable to adapt to new demands. It has a really nice scalable environment. You can start with the smallest Windows license and then just continue scaling up and upgrading, without the need to completely change and start over as your organization grows. The backbone is there on Microsoft. 

I like this product and rate it nine out of 10. 

We primarily use the solution to send and receive emails.

In terms of usability, it’s pretty simple.

It’s stable.

The solution can scale well.

In terms of configuration, you definitely have to go way in depth. In terms of configuring the product, that's definitely an area in which they can make some improvements on.

The initial setup is complex.

Technical support could be more responsive.

From an on-premise standpoint, we’d like more security. I would definitely want to see some more security than Office 365 has to offer.

I’ve used the solution for a couple of years.

We’re able to do what we need to. In that sense, it’s stable and reliable. We haven’t had issues.

The solution is quite scalable.

We have about 150 people on the solution currently. Everyone is pretty much using it. Right now, we’re just sticking to the basics. I’m not sure if we have plans to increase usage.

Technical support could be improved. It takes you a while to get through to a technician, especially on the Microsoft side. They need to be more responsive.

Positive

I have utilized G Suite. The flexibility that Microsoft has to offer, especially when it comes to email, is better. Sometimes you need the ability to be able to make certain configurations and policy changes that Google might not offer.

The solution isn’t exactly straightforward. It’s pretty complex. The configuration can be difficult. It takes a while to set up, and you need to have some advanced knowledge in order to implement it correctly.

Based on who you have that is doing the deployment, it could take up to about three days or even maybe up to a week. However, in terms of a deployment plan, we need to analyze in terms of what we do internally and what outcomes we're actually seeking, and put the project plan in place with some timelines.

Internally, you might need one to two people to handle the initial setup. We had two engineers.

We had assistance from a third party.

I don’t have any details in terms of ROI.

I don’t have any information about how much the licensing is.

We didn’t really evaluate other options beyond Microsoft and Google.

I’m an end-user and a customer.

We may not be using the most updated version.

I’d advise potential users to ensure that you do your due diligence. If you're using a third-party contractor, just ensure that they're extremely qualified to actually execute the setup for you. Otherwise, you might run into problems.

I’d rate the solution an eight out of ten. It's stable. It works. Unless you probably go and mess with the configuration, then you won't have any problem. For the most part, it works. It does what it says it's going to do.