Microsoft’s newly launched Office 365 offers powerful, intuitive controls for businesses looking to deploy a cloud-hosted collaboration and messaging solution.  I was able to get my own trial account activated in just 10 minutes, faster than any hosted Exchange providers that I’m aware of.  In addition, the presence of a free 30-day trial means that businesses and individuals can experiment with – or even deploy – various components of the service without having to part with a single cent.

As I’ve explained in Why Office 365 is good for Exchange Administrators, Office 365 can actually help to bolster the popular of Exchange Server; enhancing the career prospects of experienced Exchange administrators in the long-term.  Moreover, many of the reasons to consider an on-premise deployment of Exchange Server remain just as relevant today.  This includes a greater choice of anti-spam and anti-malware solutions, heightened confidentiality, compliance, as well as increased backup and archival options.

Companies on the fence about deploying Exchange or new businesses lacking the budget for on-premise Exchange Server will definitely want to start off with Office 365.  Depending on individual requirements, businesses can migrate to a full-fledged Exchange Server at a later date.  To assist administrators who may be thinking of starting off their Exchange deployment on Office 365, I shall be exploring the capabilities of the various plans today with a specific focus on Exchange Server.

Office 365 for professionals and small businesses

Positioned towards professionals and small businesses, Plan P is touted as a plan that offers value-for-money.  It is easy to see its attraction when one considers its Exchange capabilities, as well as the presence of SharePoint Online and Office Web Apps.  The downside is lower levels of support: don’t bother calling Microsoft when you encounter any problems.  Moreover, note that Plan P has an upper limit of 50 user licenses, and does not support Active Directory Sync.(Though the Plan P product page says “fewer than 25 users”, it does not stop users from buying up to 50 user licenses).

According to the official FAQ, a company growing beyond 50 users will need to cancel their Plan P and manually switch to a Plan E. You heard it right; there is no automatic migration for businesses that outgrow Plan P.  Finally, do note that Plan P does not officially support what it calls “vanity” domain (yourname@yourdomain.com), but defaults instead to yourname@yourcompanyname.onmicrosoft.com.  There are a couple of workaround strategies fortunately, which I shall outline in my next article. And yes, Plan P includes premium antivirus and anti-spam filtering with Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange

Despite its shortcomings, its low price of US$6 per user per month makes Plan P a compelling offering indeed.  The Plan P1 trial includes 10 user licenses.  You can read more about Plan P here.

Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises

Plan E comes in various configurations that range from E1, E2, E3 to E4.  Priced at US$10, US$16, US$24 and US$27 per user per month, the various offerings under Plan E include the license rights to access on-premise deployment of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and Lync Server – more about possible deployment scenarios another time.  E1 excludes online document viewing and editing capabilities with Office Web Apps, while E3 and E4 include the desktop edition of Office Professional Plus.  Do note that a trial is only available for Plan E3, which includes 25 user licenses.  You can read more about the various offerings under Plan E here.

Other Online Exchange options

Businesses that require only Exchange Server services will be interested in the “Kiosk Worker Plans” called K1 and K2.  Both plans offer 500MB of mailbox storage and are priced at just US$4 and US$10 respectively.  It is important to note that both plans offer the Outlook Web App as the only interface to standard Exchange services such as email, calendar, contacts and the company directory.  Microsoft Outlook is not supported, although POP access is. The slightly pricier K2 plan comes with the ability to make basic edits to documents with Office Web Apps.

Finally, administrators or individuals interested in Exchange Online-only plans may want to check out the various plans tucked away here.  Exchange Online is offered at just US$5 and US$10 per month and includes access via PC (Microsoft Outlook), Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) and Outlook Web App.  A final Exchange Online Kiosk plan mirrors the K1 plan by doing away with Outlook and EAS support (no contacts and company directory too) for a rock bottom price of just US$2 per user per month.

Have you given Exchange Online in Office 365 a spin yet?  Feel free to share your experiences.