Top 4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Microsoft Exchange Server on Premises

Overview

MS Exchange Server is one of the most commonly used server by multiple organizations to support several business requirements. Exchange Server is available in two versions- On Premise version and off Premise. The first one involves keeping the server required to run within the company’s server room while Off-premise server is the cloud version where the server is being hosted by another company. The blog will be discussing about the Microsoft Server On-Premises with its advantages and disadvantages.

Exchange Server On-Premise

The On-Premise Exchange Server refers to the situation where our Exchange Server is hosted at our business/organization’s location or on our hardware. Since the server runs within the company, data are stored in their own data center giving full control and management. Both the Exchange Server On-Premise and Off-Premise has its pros and cons. However, we will be dedicating this page to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft Exchange server On-Premise.

Advantages of On-Premise Server

1. Full Control of all activities
   
   • The Hardware and Email Platform are only used by the particular organization with full control.
   • The organization will decide on the configuration, the upgrades and changes and timing. It can be applied to the infrastructure at the time convenient to business.
   • Maintenance of the server, installation of the updates and hardware related problems needs to be monitored by the organization.
   • While using On-premise Exchange Server, organization can decide the desired size of the mailboxes.
   • Freedom to implement as many services as desired to its users with ActiveSync, transport rules, Webmail, public folders, etc.
   • Options like Server-updates, backups, restarts or shutdowns can be controlled & performed at any time convenient by the organization.
2. Flexibility for customizations
   
   • The On-Premise Exchange Server supports more flexibility while providing integration to external systems or third party applications that will work with MS Exchange. It is easier to interconnect between Exchange & other application servers as long as both are hosted on same local network.
   • Email for malfunction printers, notification messages for Customer Relationship management, Communication for receiving faxes through emails, etc. can be set as per requirements.
3. Control of Exchange Data
   
   • The integrity and longevity of the Exchange data depends on the organization.
   • It is under the control of the business to decide when to take backup of the mailbox databases and how the backup can be stored or destroyed.
   • Data is always stored on-premises even if it is using online drives, backup tapes or own remote storage.
4. Other Benefits
   • Using On-Premise Exchange Server enables ability to configure multi-level and high-level security and supports efficiency in use of storage by providing Public folders that allows sharing of one mailbox to all users.
   • Due to end user proximity to Server Performance and information access without internet helps in improving Performance and access times as long as Exchange Server is well configured and setup.

Disadvantages of On-Premise Server

1. Threat of Losing Data
   
   • As the data is stored in the organization’s hardware, any disaster may lead to loss of email and servers.
   • Losing data might affect business continuity and rebuilding it can be costly.
   • Security of data loss is main concern. To ensure that, organization needs to configure networks, systems and Exchange platform against possible threats.
2. High Expense Involved
   
   • Setting up Exchange Server On-Premise not only involves initial cost in Licensing but also involves maintenance cost of hardware and applications.
   • Update of new version of Exchange involves different configurations than the earlier one.
   • Hardware used may require replacement after every few years.
3. Availability
   
   • The two main factors for the better reliability & Uptime of internally hosted Exchange Server depends on Exchange Server configuration and the level of investment the organization is willing to provide for hosting the Exchange Server On-Premise Environment.

Conclusion

In the blog, we have discussed about the Microsoft Exchange Server and its available versions i.e. On-Premise and Off-premise. In addition to this, in-depth details of all the advantages and the disadvantages of the Microsoft Exchange Server On-Premise have been described.