An email server or not?

[coffee]

So, Now my client has a static ip and new fast service for their small company. There are some upgrade issues that I need to work on and one of them is the email situation.

13 Workstations - The company has siteground for their email provider and email is on their servers. However, They constantly hit their limit on storage. I think it would be better if email duties were offloaded to the server instead. However, I am up in the air on a game plan for this.

First thought was just get a registered domain for their static ip (probably will no matter what) and then configure their own email server. However, This might introduce headaches. I read about running a relay server. Not sure on things.

What would you do?

 

[Mainstay]

are they open to O365?

 

[coffee]

are they open to O365?

No, They would want to keep it out of the cloud.

I have been thinking of a few ideas here.

1. Local Email server gets mail from their email provider and stores locally. Workstations get their mail from the local server. As for outgoing email they could do it either way they want.

2. Archive and store on the local server instead of the email providers server.

Problem with both ideas is that accessing email would only be possible at work.

I have to say after reading up on the pitfalls, I do not want to run a production email server. There has to be some other way of doing this so I do not get calls about "I am not getting my emails". I have upped the quota with their email provider twice and I can see this as a never ending battle. They want to keep all email (sent/received) for reference

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I would push the O365 solution. It's pretty much the standard these days for email and Office. They won't have email space limits and it's rock solid stable and accessible anywhere among other benefits. Their email now is technically "in the cloud" since it's on Siteground's servers so how is it any different? I like Siteground for web hosting, but it's time for them to move to a business class email solution.

 

[coffee]

Your probably right. Im kinda burned out today. Been working a lot and studying. I think its early to bed tonite.

Why do lawyers and doctors need year's old emails and calendar events???? Geezzz...

 

[TAPtech]

I'll be honest here... if my clients are not on O365 they are on basic IMAP email that is provided through our VPS web server. And that's it. I really want those IMAP people to be on O365 anyways, but it works well enough. At 13 workstations I would take this clients' opinion on the matter and politely throw it out the window. That is just me giving my advice though. Your clients are yours, not mine.

Some guys are familiar with particular solutions, I don't use Synology email server but maybe it's good. Maybe ClearOS is good. Would I use it as a solution for just ONE client? Heeeeelllllll no! I would be bad at supporting it! Email just fits better in the cloud, for the vast majority of scenarios. If an onsite email server fits the client best, they're probably using email wrong and need a file server instead!

 

[cyabro]

No, They would want to keep it out of the cloud.

But their current emails are stored in the cloud, just with Siteground.

Definitely O365 is the best option, unless they don't have Outlook?
Then the cost could get up there, if they need to include the Office software.
These guys are good too, if you need something cheaper. https://mxroute.com/

 

[Markverhyden]

The way I see it there is nothing wrong with wanting to do "your own thing". As in self-hosting. But for starters I'd be putting some numbers on disaster recovery as part of fleshing out a plan. Email is no longer a nice to have thing. No email, people panic. Of course that's now also moved into the SMS arena.

But if they are already on their own domain then a relay may cause problems. And why are they with this company. Does it also host their website?

 

[nlinecomputers]

"I don't want my email in the cloud" is such a ridiculous statement. Just where are those emails when they are traveling the internet to and from your people. And where do the people you SEND the email to keep it? Can't control what they do with it. As stated above the email is already in the cloud. You just need either a good archive program or you need more modern and larger storage. An Exchange server allows for larger email stacks and more collaboration. O365 really is the best solution or failing that Rackspace. Bringing email home, especially for a law firm is just asking to be hacked. Email servers are just too big a target and unless you are an expert on configuring and properly maintaining them it is just asking to be pwnd.

 

[fencepost]

They don't want it in the cloud because A) They don't want to pay a monthly charge (tough luck, as below) and B) They want it protected on their own network (tough luck, as below).

For not paying a monthly subscription charge since it's not in the cloud, great! You can set up an in-house Exchange server for them. That'll be the cost of Windows Server, the cost of Exchange, the cost of Exchange CALs, and for services there's your monthly RMM charge for an additional server, the monthly cost of an Exchange Mailstore-capable backup with monitoring, and possibly a charge for each mailbox if you're charging for those. Oh, and inbound mail filtering (monthly charge). And unless they're using an outside service like Spamhero's Standard service (billed through you at $20/month?) dealing with delivery issues because they're running an in-house mail server.

There's also the question of keeping it secure in their own network. Do they want to be able to connect devices (phones, tablets) to their email? Those are inbound holes punched in your firewall with services that can't be restricted to only-known-IP lists, though if possible it's likely a good idea to do geographical filtering (assuming you're using a third-party service like Spamhero or proofpoint for inbound filtering, so only that service's servers are able to connect for unauthenticated inbound mail).

Basically, don't fall into the trap that I've fallen into in the past: There is a monthly cost for mail service, make sure someone's paying that cost and you're not eating it, and make sure that the cost is commensurate with what you're going to need to do to support that service as a one-off where you're going to have to research things that need to be done.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah, I'm going to echo the 365 solution. "I don't want to pay a monthly" is just being cheap, and if they have an actual budgetary reason for it, then subscribe annually, MS has that option too.

And I'd highly recommend not reselling it, just put the customer's CC into the account and move on. It's THEIR infrastructure and their problem that way. Sure, you could get small margin via AppRiver, but if you aren't doing that regularly it's just liability with no reward.

$5 / month / mailbox is nothing...

 

[fencepost]

Since AppRiver was mentioned, you can either be a Reseller with them (you charge the customer whatever you want and pay AppRiver) or an Agent (AppRiver charges the customer their standard published rates and you get a small commission each month).

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

No, They would want to keep it out of the cloud.

Do they realize their current email is "in the cloud"? POP/IMAP for the past..30 years..been "in the cloud". I'm assuming by your description they're using typical ISP provided email or something residential grade. EItherway.....it's in the cloud.

I'd push O365. Built in filtering, good retention rules, realistic mailbox max sizes, and sending/receiving attachment sizes, collaboration features, the list of "good stuff" keeps going and going and going like the energizer bunny!

 

[coffee]

The way I see it there is nothing wrong with wanting to do "your own thing". As in self-hosting. But for starters I'd be putting some numbers on disaster recovery as part of fleshing out a plan. Email is no longer a nice to have thing. No email, people panic. Of course that's now also moved into the SMS arena.

But if they are already on their own domain then a relay may cause problems. And why are they with this company. Does it also host their website?

Hi Mark,

They also host their website. However, The website is not a great concern as its very 1990 and doesnt really do that much. They have been on me to update the website but then they say "We want it to look exactly the same and we want full access". I stepped away from it right there. Any real updating is going to not fit their 1990 version of a website - lol.

 

[coffee]

Thanks Everyone for voicing out here.

I kinda know the answer to this after doing my research. If you want an early heart attack then go for the onsite email server. So, I have decided that I will just move them to Rackspace. They are what I use for email and I really do love it. Its very professional and I have actually had no problems with it. Their storage will increase from 2gb to 25 gigs. I will also set them up with Archiving.

There is no squabbles about the cost of email. I actually have the Ideal Client as "They just want it to work". Is there thinking. Every hour a server or email is down costs about 1000 bucks in lost time.

I will say that I retired their massive over bought HP Proliant 380 and moved them to a more economical server about a year ago. I dumped Exchange, Brought in Icewarp. Icewarp is very slick and it also runs on Centos. The pro's and con's I will not get into but all I will say is that Iam glad I did this. Actually, The only thing they used exchange for was for Calendars.

As for Office365, I hate Microsoft. I will alway hate them. The client hates them too. But, I also hate comcast and AT&T. What you gonna do right? lol...

Ok, Drifting off subject here. But I am pretty much resolved to just move them to Rackspace. In my book they do a very decent job and will 10x their storage. After that I will tell them its time to trashcan some older stuff

Thanks again all!

coffee

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm all for rolling my own @coffee just like you. And if a customer wants to do that I make sure they understand the downsides and let them make a decision. I've several customers who host their own data. But that is a relatively easy repair job for 99% of the problems. Email is a totally different animal. Since that's a customer facing service even minor hiccups can give everyone massive heartburn. Or more. LOL!!! Rackspace is rock solid and IMAP works very well if they do not need the collaboration of O365.

 

[marley1]

Silly to not go office 365.

Rackspace Email is weak and no small business should be doing imao oe pop

Rackspace exchange is really pricey for what it is

Get use to 365 or fall behind

 

[ohio_grad_06]

We use office 365 at work and it's really not bad. Plus you can add additional components. Like we added the advanced threat protection. For example, we already have Symantec running on systems (policy from before I started 8 years ago, my IT director is very wise about stuff and prefers to stay with what he's familiar with).

So we run Symantec, but with the advanced threat protection, supposedly it gives you another layer of defense. So if John opens an email with a bad attachment, supposedly o365 if you had that component, is supposed to actually spin up a Microsoft azure vm, execute the code on that system, and check it before delivering the file to you.

It's been a while since I read on it, but that seemed pretty cool actually. But taket like creating groups etc all seem easier.

 

[dee001]

Hello, I see everyone is recommending 365, what about Google Suite for mail? I been setting my customers up with google, I never have use or setup 365 is there any advantages other then the option to get office ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Markverhyden]

I think the main draw with O365 is having Exchange in the cloud, which includes all of the collaboration stuff. Plus no on-premise servers to deal with. As in backups and repairs. Google has it's own collaboration stuff but, like Exchange, it's a closed system.