Exchange 2013: Cloud Providers Release Hosted Services

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Exchange Server 2013 is now rolling out to customers and partners alike. Microsoft partners have simultaneously announced new hosted Exchange offerings–all vying to be the first to market with hosted versions of this latest version of Exchange. Two of the first to come across the Talkin' Cloud inbox are Intermedia and SherWeb, both of which have launched their own hosted Exchanged 2013 services. And both have laid claim to "first to market."

According to Prasad Akella, senior vice president of Product Management and Marketing at Intermedia, the latest version of Exchange has been improved with what Microsoft is calling the Windows 8 user interface layout, as well as with offline features and the ability to move between devices as customers work. Akella told Talkin' Cloud that Microsoft has done a nice job of cleaning up Exchange and tailoring the new edition to behavioral shifts within the overall customer base.

There's a blurred line between hosted and cloud services, but Akella said there are few business-class mail systems available in the market. He called Exchange the gold standard, and nobody can really argue with its market share or popularity. Besides the offerings available directly from Microsoft, there's an entire ecosystem of partners providing hosted Exchange services.

Intermedia has provided hosted Exchange offerings since 2000, and has supported each successive version since. It still provides customers with hosted Exchange 2007 and 2010 services, but with the launch of 2013, it's going to eventually phase out previous versions. Not all at once, mind you. It's going to take some time.

At the same time, Intermedia announced hosted versions of Lync 2013 and SharePoint 2013.

Meanwhile, over at SherWeb, the company is launching its own hosted Exchange 2013 services. According to Rima Hatoum, product manager at SherWeb, the company has been running Exchange 2013 for the last year to test it out and work with Microsoft's engineering team to provide regular feedback. Now the company is starting to migrate its own hosted Exchange customers to latest platform.

Now that Exchange Server 2013 is available, many more partners will likely be announcing hosted versions of the new platform and starting to migrate customers away from older versions.