Jeff Talks Tech: The Benefits of Cloud Computing with Email

The Benefits of Cloud Computing with Email

[Jeff Lauria] Jeff Lauria, Vice President of Technology at iCorps Technologies. Today, I want to talk about cloud computing. But since it is a very large topic, let's talk about the benefits of cloud computing with email.

So, for those organizations who still have an Exchange server on-prem, let's talk about that. Every month, there is a new vulnerability that needs to be patched. There's the daily maintenance of Exchange. There's the patching, there's the backing up, and the overall administration.

Cloud computing, specifically in this case Microsoft 365, can alleviate 90% of those daily tasks. It can provide an increase in security by using things like multi-factor authentication, shifting responsibility for patch management from your on-prem server to the cloud provider itself. In this case, Microsoft. Backing up can be automated by using other SaaS products. There is no more hardware that you have to buy. In addition to which, there are enhanced features within the suite of services. But if we're going to compare apples to apples, let's talk about that for a moment.

If you look at Exchange on-prem, you have to have your Windows licensing, your Windows cal, your Exchange cal, your Exchange server cal, and Exchange server itself. That costs roughly $3,000 a year. So for 25 users it's about $3,000 a year. That doesn't include your backup cost. That doesn't include your maintenance ongoing cost, nor does it include your hardware. If you will shift that workload to the cloud, for example Microsoft 365, and you were just to use the mail services along with the backup, the approximate cost is $10 per month per user. So for those 25 users the approximate cost is $250 a month. Times that by 12, you end up pretty much in the same exact place from a licensing perspective. But you no longer have to worry about maintenance. You no longer have to worry about backup. You no longer have to worry about patching.

So the value of the cloud services here is very clear. In this particular scenario, not only do you get email, you get email backed up, you have access to Microsoft's OneDrive, one terabyte of storage included in that base price. You have access to SharePoint, and Skype for Business. So for the exact same cost of licensing alone, not including maintenance, support, backing up, hardware, you get email, plus the other services.

So, a higher level of security, multi-factor authentication, enterprise-grade email, tracking, and security. Here's a perfect example of why cloud services are more cost-effective, dynamic, secure, than on-prem. Look forward to talking to you again.

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