Just how easy is it to move over to hosted email?

When the phrase email migration is mentioned, we automatically think of downtime and headaches but moving to a hosted email platform may be easier than you think.

When switching away from your current hosted provider or even your own in-house email server, there are two main steps. You will need to change the MX records associated with your domain name so that emails sent to your email addresses will arrive into your new accounts. Once mail is flowing into the new accounts you will then need to copy over your older emails as you will be starting with a blank slate.

Step 1 – Changing your MX Records

MX records are a type of DNS entry which directs mail into your email accounts. Once you have new accounts created and ready on the hosted platform, you will need to alter the MX records for your domain name (www.example.com) so that future emails sent to you will arrive into these new accounts.

How do I edit my MX records you ask? You will need to log into the control panel or management web page for your domain name, an example of this would be 123-reg if you purchased your domain name from them.

Once logged in, locate the DNS management section and enter the new MX records, given to you by your new email provider.

Some Hosted Exchange providers including ourselves will provide you will multiple server addresses along with different priorities for better redundancy. This means that if the mail server is unavailable your incoming emails will be sent to the next server instead.

Step 2 – Copying over your emails over to your new accounts

Once the MX records have been updated and you have access to your new email mailboxes you will notice that the email folders such as your inbox are kind of empty! The good news is that Outlook have made it easy to transfer the emails from your old account over to the new one using email archives (.pst files.)

Firstly we need to export the emails from your old account. In Outlook 2013, open the File menu and select Open & Export on the left hand side and then select the Import/Export option.

Select Export to a file and then pick the Outlook Data File (.pst) option.

You will then be asked to select which Outlook items you would like to export such as your mail folders, calendars and contacts.

You will have the option to add a password to the archive before the export begins.

Once the export is complete you will need to open your new account in Outlook and import the .pst archives which you made earlier.

Open the File menu again, select Open & Export on the left hand side and then select the Import/Export option.

Select Import from another program or file and then choose the Outlook Data File option (.pst)

You will now have to browse to the archive which you created earlier and choose whether you would like to import any duplicate items.

Select which folder you would like to import from, if you would like to copy over all of the email folders such as your Inbox, Sent Items etc then select the top option labelled Outlook Data File.

You can then choose to either import all emails from the archive into one folder in the new mailbox or into the same folders as they were previously.

Benefits of Orbits’ Hosted Exchange

There are countless email providers to choose from but our clients chose us because of the level of support that comes with our services. We are more than happy to help you setup your email account on your computers and mobile devices, we are also just a call away if you have any issues.

Here are the key features of Orbits’ Hosted Exchange

• Exchange Server 2010  technology
• Massive 50GB per mailbox
• Up to 10 email address alias’ per mailbox
• Outlook Web Access
• Instant Push Email
• Shared Calendars, Contacts & Tasks
• Sync with Android, IPhone/IPad, Windows Phone & Blackberry
• Multiple UK based datacentres for resilience

Orbits offer a free 30-day trial for all of the mailboxes that you require. There are no obligations and you are not tied down into any contracts once your 30 days have expired so if you are thinking about switching to another email provider, give our Hosted Exchange platform a try!

How do the costs of Hosted Exchange compare to having your own, local Exchange server?

If you are a small or medium sized business then using a Hosted Exchange service rather than having your own in house Exchange server could save you a lot of money.

The tables below display the pricing differences between an in house Exchange server comparing to Orbits Hosted Exchange.

Comparison for 5 mailboxes.

Option	Upfront Hardware Costs	Upfront Software Costs	Annual Ongoing Costs	Total
In House Exchange 2010 Server	£1000+ (Windows Server)	£950 (1 Exchange Server license and 5 User licenses)	None	Approximately £1950
Orbits’ Hosted Exchange 2010	None	None	£300 (5 x £5 each month.)	£300 annually

Comparison for 10 mailboxes.

Option	Upfront Hardware Costs	Upfront Software Costs	Annual Ongoing Costs	Total
In House Exchange 2010 Server	£1000+ (Windows Server)	£1350 (1 Exchange Server license and 10 User licenses)	None	Approximately £2450
Orbits’ Hosted Exchange 2010	None	None	£600 (10 x £5 each month.)	£600 annually

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss Hosted Exchange further or have any questions.