The Right Way to do
Exchange in the Cloud
Executive Summary
For the past decade, front office and back office systems, such as CRM, payroll, and document management, have gradually moved to the cloud. That change has been relatively seamless. But now enterprises are contemplating and executing the migration of once immovable major systems that have been ensconced inside the walls of the corporation for decades. At the top of the list is Exchange Server, Microsoft’s enterprise stalwart.
With the introduction of Office 365 in 2011, Microsoft is encouraging businesses to shift core apps like Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, to the cloud. It’s an attractive prospect for most organizations: offload the maintenance and security to Microsoft yet keep the same basic look, feel and experience for employees. Office 365 is a fine offering for small to mid-size businesses, but larger enterprises looking to make the move to the cloud should consider new options for Exchange in the cloud, such as the one now offered by SilverSky in partnership with IBM.
In this white paper, we look at the best way for enterprises to make the move to the cloud and explore how to ensure that security, scalability, and flexibility are not compromised.
The Story of Exchange Server
For nearly two decades, Exchange Server was an indefatigable engine of growth for Microsoft. Even as it struggled to ride the Internet wave or make the shift to mobile devices, the company had one thing it understood completely—enterprise customers. And the feeling was mutual: enterprises loved Microsoft. Twenty years after the company released Exchange, email is ubiquitous and shows no sign of going away anytime soon. So, there’s nowhere to go but up, right? Think again.
In the past few years, a radical shift threatened to unseat Microsoft from its enterprise throne. The move to the cloud—the most profound IT change since the onset of the Internet—was looming and had the potential to eat away at the healthy profits Exchange minted for Microsoft. To forestall that shift, Microsoft launched its Business Productivity Online Suite in 2009 to mixed results. But with services like Google Apps nipping at its heels, while grabbing headlines and customers away, Microsoft realized that they needed to do something more. The result was Office 365, launched in June of 2011, including Exchange Online, SharePoint and Lync.
Small businesses now had a solid cloud choice other than Google Apps. But any enterprise considering a move from Exchange Server to Office 365 and Exchange Online should understand the
Is Exchange Online
a viable option?
Off the shelf, Office 365/Exchange Online is fairly vanilla. It’s not unlike Google Apps. It comes with basic apps and email—and that’s about it.
DLP isn’t fully integrated and if you want other security services and settings you take for granted in Exchange, you’re pretty much out of luck.
Office 365 might be adequate for a firm with a few employees, but for a large multinational company— especially one that has to conform
The Unending Struggles of IT
Exchange Online and Office 365 aren’t ideal, but that doesn’t mean the traditional, on-premises Exchange Server world is Nirvana. The already over-burdened IT departments in large enterprises face unending struggles. With small staffs, they’re charged with developing apps, managing desktops, overseeing firewalls, provisioning and maintaining servers, and answering every question imaginable about the ballooning number of mobile devices in today’s enterprise. You name it, they’re doing it. So managing and securing a large Exchange Server installation is often the last thing they want to focus on. But if IT doesn’t focus on it, you know who might? Malicious hackers looking to exploit any threat vector they can find. And a system like Exchange—with its expansive reach across the enterprise, its hooks into every employee, and often only cursory oversight from IT—is as ripe a target as there is. Microsoft is constantly patching vulnerabilities in Exchange, on the well-known Patch Tuesdays, but it’s unclear how many enterprises regularly apply those patches. Unpatched, Exchange can be insecure and a major security threat to an entire corporation.
Looking at it Differently
In April of 2014, Microsoft will stop extended support for Exchange 2003 and a few years later Exchange 2007 will suffer a similar fate. So the many companies on either of those versions have a choice to make: Stick with on-premises Exchange headaches or cross their fingers and opt for the inherent risks and compromises involved in Office 365. At the same time, many IT professionals must be asking why there isn’t another way. There is.
Some vendors are looking at it differently. For example, SilverSky has teamed up with IBM to provide Fortune 100-grade Exchange 2013 in IBM’s SmartCloud. The solution comes with the security, customizations and performance of a premises-based Exchange 2013 installation combined with the ease of use and low maintenance of a cloud implementation.
Hosted Exchange 2013 from SilverSky and IBM is highly configurable, fully integrated with Active Directory giving your users the same experience as it would be if you were running messaging yourself. The SilverSky approach also builds in comprehensive email protection that helps mitigate risks, prevent the loss of sensitive information, and ensure compliance with internal policies and government regulations.
Hosted vs. On-Premises
Exchange
If you need another compelling argument for the shift to Hosted Exchange, the math is convincing. A study from Osterman Research shows that, accounting for hardware costs, backups, licenses, labor and other miscellaneous costs, the monthly cost per user works out like this:
Hosted On-Premises 10 users $27.51 $432.77 100 users $13.50 $48.76 1,000 users $9.40 $21.46
The SilverSky/IBM Architecture
The SilverSky/IBM architecture enables a flexible, made to order approach to every Hosted Exchange 2013 deployment. In addition, customers gain the following advantages:
• Global Data Center Presence: SilverSky’s data centers throughout North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe result in an optimal user experience for globally dispersed customers.
• Geo-redundancy in the US: With a Washington D.C. data center on the east coast and a San Jose data center on the west coast, SilverSky ensures Hosted Exchange 2013 delivers better uptime and lower latency for customers around the country.
• Exchange Enhancements: SilverSky has engineered a number of important enhancements, including improved search and a redesigned, more mobile-friendly user experience.
• Improved Disaster Recovery: SilverSky designed its Active:Active architecture to ensure automated redundancy. In addition, the architecture results in an immediate recovery time objective and recovery point objective.
Mobile Device
Management
Few things are more painful to IT than keeping tabs on mobile devices. That’s why SilverSky’s Hosted Exchange 2013 includes proven mobile device management features, such as
• Fast deployment • Bring-Your-Own-Device privacy controls
• Best practice security policies, • Integrated archiving
• White and black listing support • Distinguishing between company- and employee- owned devices
• Providing for enterprise wipes, and secure content locking controls.
SilverSky’s MDM also will protect company data, configure device settings, and generate security and usage reports.
The SilverSky Email Protection Suite
Moving to the cloud doesn’t mean leaving behind the tools you’ve come to know and depend on. For users and IT folks alike, SilverSky’s Hosted Exchange 2013 will feel a lot like the current on-premises environment. In fact, the familiar and comprehensive tools in the Email Protection Suite will move right along with you. The suite solves everyday messaging needs right from the cloud, reducing cost and complexity at the same time while never sacrificing on security.
Email Protection Suite
SilverSky’s Email Protection Suite, running in combination with Hosted Exchange 2013, offers a tightly coupled, end-to-end enterprise email solution run by a single policy engine from the unified SilverSky Management Console:
• Email Security, which includes advanced, multi-engine anti-spam and anti-virus. • Email DLP, which is the industry’s most powerful and easy to use email data loss prevention solution.
• Email Encryption, which provides intuitive policy-based and user-level message encryption. • Email Archive, which enables comprehensive eDiscovery, compliance archiving,
and mobile archive access.
Recommendations
Moving key apps to the cloud can be a major undertaking for any company. For a small business or startup, it can be fairly simple and Office 365 is a viable solution. But for a larger enterprise, Office 365 might not be the right solution because of its limitations. We recommend that enterprises consider these recommendations as they contemplate a move to the cloud.
• Find a solution that meets your enterprise’s specific requirements. Office 365 is a cookie-cutter solution that can be adequate for a small company. On the other hand, SilverSky can customize Hosted Exchange 2013 to fit every aspect of an enterprise’s needs.
• Ensure you get configurable, end-to-end protection. Office 365 offers little protection, but SilverSky’s Hosted Exchange 2013 provides what every enterprise needs, a proven email solution combined with tightly integrated and configurable email protection.
• Look for scalability and performance. With SilverSky’s IBM partnership, customers get the performance and scalability of the IBM SmartCloud infrastructure, which means worldwide data centers, redundancy, availability, and unparalleled infrastructure.
• Insist on meticulous service and support. Enterprises expect service that matches their needs and the level of support offered with Office 365 is minimal. SilverSky provides world-class service, reliability and performance.
About SilverSky
SilverSky is the expert cloud provider of information security solutions. We deliver the industry’s only advanced Security-as-a-Service platform that’s simple to deploy and transformational to use. For years, SilverSky has been recognized as a leading managed service provider of business email and network security services (2012 Top Player for Hosted Email and Collaboration (Radicatti Group), 2012 Top Player for Microsoft Hosted Exchange (Radicatti Group), 2013 Emerging MSSP Leader with top marks for strategy and strength of offering (Forrester), Scored 5/5 for 2012 and 2013 R&D Investments (Forrester), supervised by FFIEC). We have hosted, secured and monitored the information assets of thousands of large enterprises and regulated businesses utilizing our proprietary security software. By tirelessly safeguarding our customers’ most important information, we enable growth-minded leaders to pursue their business ambitions without security worry.
