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Many organizations are currently opting for hosted exchange services that eliminate all the hassles of dealing with business email. Microsoft’s latest version of hosted exchange, known as Exchange 2010, provides the ease and flexibility of using it as a hosted service or as an on-premise solution. Exchange 2010 offers qualitative Outlook Web Access, where email can be dragged, calendar entries can be moved and re sized, etc. The whole experience matches that of Microsoft’s Outlook client. There is no investment required to use a hosted exchange service, for new hardware or for a license.

Why Hosted Exchange?

1. Security – With the increasing number of spam, virus and hacking activities thronging the online world, businesses are at high risk as email can be easily affected by any of these. The hosted exchange service employs robust firewalls and systematic scanning of all email received to avoid any security breaches.
2. Mobile emailing system – Productivity increases many fold because of flexibility and mobility. Employees working from home can access their email accounts easily from any location at any given point of time.
3. Reduces all costs – The hosted exchange services neither have any hidden costs nor any up front fees. They have a policy of charging a pay-as-you-go rate. This reduces all costs generally spent on maintenance, virus protection, set-up and coordination.
4. Equipped for future upgrades – The hosted exchange service can capably upgrade hardware and the systems continuously without wasting time or increasing costs. Thus the email analysis is always up to date.
5. Technical support- A dedicated IT support team offers reliable support 24 hours a day and helps organizations save on the costs of hiring in-house teams or third-party help desks.

Microsoft’s Exchange Hosted Archive provides a centralized, easily accessible, a multi-functioning email and IM repository that can meet e-disclosure requirements, manage compliance, complex retention and regulatory standards.

Characteristics Matching the eDiscovery Requirements

• The Exchange Hosted Archive promotes many compliance oriented features such as multiple retention periods, legal holds, keyword supervision and undeniable storage facilities.
• Auditing, reporting and logging of system transactions are essential components of security policies. The EHA provides several auditing reports including administrative and user events.
• EHA fosters indexed storage which helps in quick retrieval of messages for legal e discovery purposes.
• The EHA never lets you down. At times when e-mail systems fail to work, users can access archived e-mail to send and receive messages

Despite these lucrative advantages, the sectors that work under strict regulations need to carefully weigh the pros and cons. In case of any misfortune, organizations may not be spared because the law relies heavily on evidence to render justice. Organizations may also face issues like the relevance of the judiciary on the location of the physical server, especially when the data storage server is located in another country. The probabilities of legal relevance of hosted deployment being questioned may be high.

Other than e-mailing, the Hosted Exchange services can be used for collaborating with people, tracking contacts and scheduling meetings. Time saved is money saved and organizations can benefit enormously. As for fulfilling the electronic disclosure requirements, it definitely pays off to use the hosted exchange with its unlimited storage and systematic archival system, which helps reduce cost and precious time.