Ridiculous client, ridiculous 365 mailbox size.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Outlook Online Archive for Office 365 Explained

Everything you need to know about the Outlook Online Archive. How to enable it, expand it, read the archived emails and more

lazyadmin.nl

 

[thecomputerguy]

Has she been on O365 since 2014? I have a client like this, but they only switched to O365 in 2019 or so, and I wasn't exactly keen on uploading all of those already-existing offline archive PSTs to Microsoft. I can't wait until he retires next year.

Rackspace until I saw the writing on the wall.

In 2016.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Our lamps got brighter! More and more lumens. Our vehicles got more horsepower, faster, larger, more distance.

Online storage is massive, and cheaper than ever.

Have you seen the price for additional M365 storage? It's highway robbery considering other companies like dropsuite give away TB's of space for dollars.

 

[brandonkick]

I have emails going back to 2000 from when I had my first corporate job.
The majority of my small business clients have emails back from the 2010 or before

I don't understand how you guys can be shocked that people have so much data, they will never get it rid of it lol. Make them pay more if you need to, but it's their data and imo....they should pay to keep it.

But do you REALLY (not you literally, the customer in this case) NEED to have them ALL in your current mailbox?

The single customer I still support runs into scenarios where they are more or less a part of the process of putting up new buildings. The "life cycle" of a job can be easily be a few months to a few years, especially if a lawsuit against anyone involved comes into the picture. They simply cannot afford to NOT have 3-4 years worth of emails in their current, active mailboxes. Luckily, this is two mailboxes mainly out of say almost 20 that need this.

For most people, they "want" the data. Not need. Of course, if you have the money... you can have whatever you want. But for most people... I'd say keep a reasonable amount for your situation and then just archive the rest in a PST file that is of course, properly backed up.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Have you seen the price for additional M365 storage? It's highway robbery considering other companies like dropsuite give away TB's of space for dollars.

For mailbox, up to 1.5TB for the archive. By default she starts at 100 gigs for the archive, I've never had a client add more than 50 gigs to an archive. But anyways...no extra charge there.

 

[Sky-Knight]

For mailbox, up to 1.5TB for the archive. By default she starts at 100 gigs for the archive, I've never had a client add more than 50 gigs to an archive. But anyways...no extra charge there.

I've got three mailboxes >300gb already.

It's going to be a fun day when they hit that 1.5tb and I finally have to say... YOU'RE DONE, delete stuff.

 

[callthatgirl]

@brandonkick But do you REALLY (not you literally, the customer in this case) NEED to have them ALL in your current mailbox?

Nope but it's my data and I want it, I want it all at anytime I want to search for it lol.

That's how I make money with clients, not making their data my choice. I still can't believe how many techs on this site get angry over too much email, charge more for the services, put it in the contract that data management is not in the contract and billable by the hour.

PST's for the win with this, and sell your backup service for that too. Money maker.

 

[thecomputerguy]

For mailbox, up to 1.5TB for the archive. By default she starts at 100 gigs for the archive, I've never had a client add more than 50 gigs to an archive. But anyways...no extra charge there.

I'm talking about M365 storage like the SharePoint stuff, I've got a client paying $200 a month for an additional 1TB of storage

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm talking about M365 storage like the SharePoint stuff, I've got a client paying $200 a month for an additional 1TB of storage

But that's not the same as just buying space. Sharepoint, like Exchange, is a database at it's heart.

 

[brandonkick]

I'm talking about M365 storage like the SharePoint stuff, I've got a client paying $200 a month for an additional 1TB of storage

That's what I was going to reply, exactly.

Sharepoint storage is silly expensive. $200 a month for the extra 1TB.

Extra licensing per mailbox that needs it, for the bump to the 1.5TB auto archive (as opposed to the 30GB version) is a few bucks a month per mailbox. No big deal.


The client I'm currently working with has... well... almost 1TB used out of the 1.18TB advertised as "usable" in my tenant anyhow. Or they would, if I hadn't got creative.

Two or three of the "heavy" users (meaning well beyond 10 or 20GB of data... like 150GB to 300GB each) got pushed into OneDrive instead. And it actually made sense in this case.... those users didn't really need any of their data accessible by anyone else. Save 500-600GB of the SharePoint cap. Made training the users a bit more of a headache for me, but saves them $200 a month. They now sit at 500GB used of their total 1.18TB and looks like they'll be fine data wise for a long time to come.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@brandonkick You sold a client on an E level sub instead of just selling them Exchange Online Plan 2. Most of the expense on the mail storage side was you not choosing the correct license, that is if minimizing cost was the primary motivator and all you needed was a larger mailbox.

The rest of what you're doing is EXACTLY what you should be doing. Our role in this process as managers of cloud spend is essential.

@callthatgirl I'm not a fan of local PSTs because they add far too much complexity to maintain over time. Anyone that's doing the managed service thing is constantly beat up to maintain this sort of thing, and clients get grumpy when they're made to pay for that poor decision over and over again. If it's a one off, sure! But any sort of long term relationship with a client is negatively impacted by this reality. Doesn't help that there is no such thing as a reliable backup of local PST files, you can snap the entire system, but it can and does corrupt those files on a regular basis. Then you're restoring multiple points in time trying to find one that works... more hours to bill... more negative attention from the client.

That isn't to say I haven't done or won't do all of the above... sometimes your only choice is to let a client be stupid and let their wallet force them into being sane later. But it's not a process that's grown my business, indeed most of the time it shrinks it.

 

[callthatgirl]

@Sky-Knight I get it, MSP have to follow their own rules to make the MSP work as designed. Clients don't get it but data is difficult to manage. You should see some of the crazy requests I get, mind blowing.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@Sky-Knight I get it, MSP have to follow their own rules to make the MSP work as designed. Clients don't get it but data is difficult to manage. You should see some of the crazy requests I get, mind blowing.

Oh I don't have to guess, I've gotten the very same requests! And they usually tell me that I shouldn't take money from this person, because it results in a charge back! But I'm getting slow enough over here that I might just do this stuff again, just make them use a payment option they can't screw me with.

 

[thecomputerguy]

@brandonkick You sold a client on an E level sub instead of just selling them Exchange Online Plan 2. Most of the expense on the mail storage side was you not choosing the correct license, that is if minimizing cost was the primary motivator and all you needed was a larger mailbox.

The rest of what you're doing is EXACTLY what you should be doing. Our role in this process as managers of cloud spend is essential.

@callthatgirl I'm not a fan of local PSTs because they add far too much complexity to maintain over time. Anyone that's doing the managed service thing is constantly beat up to maintain this sort of thing, and clients get grumpy when they're made to pay for that poor decision over and over again. If it's a one off, sure! But any sort of long term relationship with a client is negatively impacted by this reality. Doesn't help that there is no such thing as a reliable backup of local PST files, you can snap the entire system, but it can and does corrupt those files on a regular basis. Then you're restoring multiple points in time trying to find one that works... more hours to bill... more negative attention from the client.

That isn't to say I haven't done or won't do all of the above... sometimes your only choice is to let a client be stupid and let their wallet force them into being sane later. But it's not a process that's grown my business, indeed most of the time it shrinks it.

I think you need to get to an E level sub to get to the 1.5TB for online archive right?

Otherwise you're forever stuck at 100GB for the Online Archive as well?

After running my powershell command I was able to see that my client in the OP has an archive of 70GB ... so her mailbox is almost 100GB and her archive is 70 ... so I'm pretty sure this client deserves to be on an E sub (per my OP).

 

[Sky-Knight]

I think you need to get to an E level sub to get to the 1.5TB for online archive right?

Otherwise you're forever stuck at 100GB for the Online Archive as well?

No sir, the mailbox sizing and archival features are Exchange Online Plan 2.

So pricing beyond this is monthly commitment pricing

Microsoft 365 Business Standard NCE is $15 / month
Microsoft 365 E3 NCE is $27.60 / month
Exchange Online Plan 2 is $9.60 / month

So you save $3 / month / user doing it my way. Which isn't much, and it does cost you Conditional Access and a ton of other stuff. But if you're spreading that out over a bucket of mailboxes it adds up.

The archival features come with the Exchange Online Archiving license, which is included with Exchange Online Plan 2.

Exchange Online Archiving is $3 / month, and just bumps the archive mailbox up from 50 to 100gb, and turns on the retention features. This one doesn't get the expanding archive, but Plan 2 does.

 

[thecomputerguy]

No sir, the mailbox sizing and archival features are Exchange Online Plan 2.

So pricing beyond this is monthly commitment pricing

Microsoft 365 Business Standard NCE is $15 / month
Microsoft 365 E3 NCE is $27.60 / month
Exchange Online Plan 2 is $9.60 / month

So you save $3 / month / user doing it my way. Which isn't much, and it does cost you Conditional Access and a ton of other stuff. But if you're spreading that out over a bucket of mailboxes it adds up.

Ah I see .. but E3 also opens up encrypted mail too which is nice (I think?)

I'm usually dealing with less than 5 accounts per tenant that might need the 100GB upgrade so I can see how it would add up over 500 boxes, and the way you are doing is the correct way to do it. That is good information. I didn't learn until today that I can keep someone on Business Premium and just bump their exchange license up to plan 2.

At less than 5 per tenant that need the bump to 100GB and living in CA ... $3 is relatively nothing, but it is still to know what the best practice is here, thanks for the info.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Ah I see .. but E3 also opens up encrypted mail too which is nice (I think?)

I'm usually dealing with less than 5 accounts per tenant that might need the 100GB upgrade so I can see how it would add up over 500 boxes, and the way you are doing is the correct way to do it. That is good information. I didn't learn until today that I can keep someone on Business Premium and just bump their exchange license up to plan 2.

At less than 5 per tenant that need the bump to 100GB and living in CA ... $3 is relatively nothing, but it is still to know what the best practice is here, thanks for the info.

Best is relative to the goal, if all you want is a larger mailbox with the huge archive, Exchange Online Plan 2 is optimal.

There are others here that would say unless you're on E5 or better you're doing it wrong. And you're right, Plan 2 doesn't do encryption... nor does E3... you need E5 for that! XD

*edit* I was wrong, E3 has it, as does premium

Microsoft Purview Message Encryption is offered as part of Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E5, Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 and E5, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Office 365 A1, A3, and A5, and Office 365 Government G3 and G5. You don't need additional licenses to receive the new protection capabilities powered by Azure Information Protection.

You can also add Azure Information Protection Plan 1 to the following plans to receive Microsoft Purview Message Encryption: Exchange Online Plan 1, Exchange Online Plan 2, Office 365 F3, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, or Office 365 Enterprise E1.

Message Encryption FAQ

Have a question about how Microsoft Purview Message Encryption works? Check for an answer here.

learn.microsoft.com

Microsoft REALLY makes this junk hard.

Azure Information Protection Premium P1 is $2.40 / user / month.

Lol meanwhile this says it's E5 only: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/m...e-encryption-capabilities?view=o365-worldwide

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'm talking about M365 storage like the SharePoint stuff, I've got a client paying $200 a month for an additional 1TB of storage

That's what I was going to reply, exactly.

Sharepoint storage is silly expensive. $200 a month for the extra 1TB.

OK, file storage, that's a different topic than this thead which is email. Focusing on email, what other major email platforms out there have comparable storage to 365? And..importantly...work well when those mailboxes get very large?

But derailing over to file storage, yeah Sharepoint isn't cheap...but Sharepoint isn't just a plain old file server either! There are a whole suite of services that make collaboration easy with it, Office apps are cloud site aware, Defender security guarding against malware/ransomware, versioning, ability to share files, integrated with office apps, mobile device apps, it's a highly functional storage. Can't compare it to junk cheap online storage like...oh, I dunno...I don't play in that arena, maybe something like JungleDisk was. If you just want "plain old storage"...to stay in the 365 stack, look at AzureFiles, cold storage, or ...stepping outside of 365, Egnyte or Datto Workplace.

 

[britechguy]

Microsoft REALLY makes this junk hard.

Microsoft has a tendency to make everything hard, much harder than it need be. Then, on top of that, they very frequently have conflicting documentation. It's been insanity-making since I first started in to this business in the mid-1980s.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah they opened up OME (encryption)....used to have to use E3, we set a lot of that up for clients, easy to use, works well. Of course..built into 365 Biz Premium too....yet another one of many...many reasons we focus on M365BizPrem as our "go to license"...don't wanna support licenses less than it.

We have a lot of clients that use encryption, never found it hard to follow MS's licensing..but then, we set up a lot of clients on it too, and try to avoid the el cheapo subbies that lack features in the first place.