After our recent articles about email and the benefits of hosted Exchange services we’ve had a number of businesses contact us to discuss moving from their on-site server to a hosted service. The benefits of moving to a Hosted Exchange are numerous and include:

• Cost reductions over an on-site server
• Greater freedom for your IT team
• Increased security over an on-site deployment
• Greater flexibility versus an entirely cloud based Exchang

While there are lots of benefits, our experience tells us that businesses also have lots of questions – and while some of the answers will depend on your requirements, there’s some general information that will be helpful to anyone considering a switch.

At VectorCloud we always aim for a professional, seamless and quick transition that suits the individual needs of your organisation – and we can be certain of this by letting some of the following principles guide our service:

Migration doesn’t mean stress

Data ‘migration’ simply means moving your business’s data from one service or server to another. If you’ve dealt with any kind of IT migration before now, you might understand the word ‘migration’ to relate to headaches, service downtime, lost working hours and sleepless nights – but let us assure you, that doesn’t need to be the case!

VectorCloud are happy to work to your in-house level of IT expertise – if you’ve got a team who want to orchestrate any changes – that’s fine. If you’d prefer to take a step back and let us handle all the details, that’s also fine. We’ll always work alongside you.

When’s the right time to change?

If you’ve just invested a huge chunk of your IT budget in a new Exchange server and training for dedicated staff members to keep it running – now might not be the right time for a change! With that being unlikely, it’s more often the case that a company is looking to alter their approach to Hosted Exchange when their hardware or support is in need of a change or update.

Making a move to a Hosted Exchange service has to make financial sense to you, as such, we’ll always start our discussions around your specific company situation. Now might well be the right time to move, but be careful of any IT partner that tells you that’s the case before they’ve discussed your current network setup and business situation.

What’s involved?

When we have an understanding of your requirements – and assuming a hosted service was right for you, we’d begin by establishing your exchange server with VectorCloud. When it’s in place, we work with your domain name system to route new incoming and outgoing emails through your server in our data-centre.

Beyond this, we’ll migrate your existing data from your current Exchange server. In doing so you’re no longer working with the new server ‘blank slate’ – and have access to all your historic email and calendar data. We also realise that modern email isn’t just accessed when you sit at your desk – so if you and your team have mobiles, laptops and tablets, we can establish your email service across all of your devices.

Although there are a lot of steps and safeguards involved, you can be sure that with the VectorCloud team’s experience and familiarity of the process ensures the process goes without a hitch.

The right IT partner

With 20 years of experience supporting Scottish businesses around their IT communication needs, we feel we’re in exactly the right position to work with you to provide your hosted Exchange needs – but, as with any decision that’s got such wide business implications, we don’t expect you to take any claim of proficiency at face value.

When you’re looking for Managed Service Provider it’s vital that you ask the following questions:

• How many users do you currently support? – And how many in our industry?
• Do you provide on-going support, during and beyond data migration?
• Can you offer any other services and add-ons that make Exchange exactly right for my business?
• Do you hold the relevant Microsoft accreditations?
• Are your data centres UK based and do they hold the appropriate level of security certification?

When you talk to VectorCloud you can be certain that we’ve got the experience, professional standards, certifications and flexibility that will ensure the protection of your data and wider business concerns. Equally importantly, we understand the needs of Scottish businesses.