As I mentioned in my previous blog, everyone at Exchange Hosting business might have a top agenda in its action list to quickly analysis Apple’s new iPhone 2.0 software and integrate into its Exchange hosting infrastructure. There are already few hosters in the market started providing the services as soon as Apple announced the iPhone 2.0. For Steve Jobs, this will be a great test as his plans are to penetrate the both corporate IT and SMB market using iPhone being primary Mobile messaging platform in Exchange Server environment. If Jobs can achieve his success criteria, Apple will surely establish a strong footprint in the corporate IT as well as SMB market with this revolutionary iPhone.

As you aware, MS Exchange as SaaS is an emerging market. Hosting providers can seamlessly integrate iPhone capability to its users without substantial change in their Exchange Server & Active Directory Infrastructure (Refer Fig 1.1)

What are the requirements in network to allow Exchange ActiveSync?

SSL Port 443 must open at the firewall side. This is already open in the case of Exchange Hosting provider, as they already offer ActiveSync using other devices such as Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Motorola’s Good Messaging etc. Also, this port is required for accessing Outlook Web Access.

Server certificate is another essential component at Client Access Server. Again, this must be an existing component at the Exchange Hosting provider’s infrastructure. Anyways, for new environment the server certificate must be installed and activate SSL for the Exchange ActiveSync virtual directory with basic SSL authentication. Server certificate is installed on Microsoft ISA 2006 Server (Internet Security and Acceleration Server) and update the DNS server in order to resolve incoming connections. The ISA 2006 Server should be configured to create a Web listener and publishing rule for an Exchange Web client access to enable Exchange ActiveSync. Lastly, Idle Session timeout is set to 30 minutes in the firewalls and other network appliances.

Exchange account setup

I want to wrap up this post by mentioning little bit on activating Exchange Activesync. This feature is enabled by default for all mobile devices at the organizational level on Exchange Server 2007. Active Directory is used to enable or disable specific users or groups. Alternatively, this can be done through Exchange Management Console (EMC) under Recipient Configuration in Exchange Server 2007. EMC can also be used to configure mobile features, policies, and device security settings using

Last but not the least, Remote Wipe is now can easily done via Outlook Web Access by the users or IT administrators can do the same through EMC.

Insurance wholesale broker Swett & Crawford sends and receives more than one million email messages each month, and for its 900+ users, the availability and reliability of an email solution is critical to business. Swett & Crawford was still relying on the IBM Lotus Notes-based email infrastructure that was using when it divested from its parent company two years earlier, and it was increasingly difficult to find resources to maintain that infrastructure. Swett & Crawford decided not only to migrate off the Notes platform, but it also decided to seek an external partner who could maintain the entire messaging infrastructure. Its choice? USA.NET and its hosted messaging solution based on Microsoft Exchange server.

Read the full story on how Swett & Crawford freed their IT team to work on critical business tasks by outsourcing to USA.NET.

End of a long wait! It’s time for planning to have your users with iPhone 2.0 devices. If you already have users with iPhone 2.0, it’s the time to learn how seamlessly you can integrate with your existing environments. Deployment scenarios, infrastructure design and device configuration will change depending on which email server the organization is using and also, what level of security you wish to implement along with iPhone.

Apple already announced the support for following:

1. Microsoft Exchange Server (both Exchange 2003 & Exchange 2007)
2. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) using Cisco
3. WPA2 Enterprise/802.1x
4. iPhone and IMAP

Microsoft Exchange Server Support

Exchange hosting providers rejoice with the launch of iPhone 2.0! Now they can offer more to its users on the Wireless Messaging option.Using iPhone 2.0 software, users are able to connect directly to the Microsoft Exchange Server using Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Thereby users having the ability of push email, contacts, and calendar. As usual with Windows Mobile Device, Exchange ActiveSync constantly maintains a connection between Microsoft Exchange Server and iPhone. This allows the iPhone to get immediately updated as soon as new mails or meeting requests arrives. If your hosting providers are currently supporting Exchange ActiveSync on Exchange Server 2003 or 2007, you are all set to go with push mail services using iPhone 2.0 and you do not require further configuration or additional infrastructure.”Mobility, reliability and security are among the most important trends impacting messaging today. When Apple announced its plans to license Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone, it opened the door for enterprises to take advantage of Exchange’s rich communications platform.” said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, a leading analyst firm in the messaging and collaboration space. In the coming months, you will see more and more Exchange Hosting Providers are coming up with iPhone 2.0 supports for its customers.

I was having some conversation with AppRiver who introduced the iPhone 2.0 support right after Steve Jobs announced at Worldwide Developers Conference. They were also the first one partner with Akamai to make the Internet behave more consistently for business-quality application delivery such as reliable access to MS Outlook, Outlook Web Access & Mobile devices including iPhone 2.0.

How secure is iPhone 2.0 if used with Microsoft Exchange Server? 

iPhone 2.0 with ActiveSync is secure with following policies:

1. Remote wipe - For example, if device is stolen remote wipe is the only rescue.
2. Enforce password on device - The moment ActiveSync is enabled, policies will be automatically pushed down to the iPhone which also enforce a password for the device.
3. Minimum password length - This can be determined by Organization depending on its company password policy. I have noticed users reporting complaints on longer password on this tiny mobile device.
4. Require alphanumeric password - This is would be very difficult to guess
5. Require complex password - I would recommend this if company thinks security is important.
6. Inactivity time in minutes - Another must have feature.

If you look at the above security policies, there is not much significant difference in security between Windows Mobile device & iPhone. I will continue the last part of this topic on my next blog post.

GULF BREEZE, FL, June 17, 2008 – AppRiver LLC, a leading provider of Microsoft Hosted Exchange email service, today announced it is ready to offer Apple iPhone 2.0 users the only network optimized for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync enabled devices.

Apple unveiled a new, upgraded iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference that allows a whole new set of mobile business users to take advantage of Microsoft Exchange. iPhone 2.0 software directly communicates with Microsoft Exchange Server via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, giving Apple users push email, calendar and contact syncing on their mobile devices.

“We are pleased Apple is adding the iPhone to the growing number of mobile devices that connect with Exchange,” said Michael Murdoch, CEO of AppRiver. “Like Apple, AppRiver strives to provide groundbreaking innovation as demonstrated by being the first — and only — Hosted Exchange provider to integrate Akamai’s IP acceleration technology, delivering dramatic improvements in security, connectivity and performance to our Microsoft ActiveSync customers and especially to the iPhone 2.0 community.”

Understanding the need for high performing, always available applications, AppRiver teamed up with Akamai to make the Internet behave more consistently for business-quality application delivery. By implementing the Akamai platform within its service, AppRiver assures its users will always have quick and reliable access to Outlook, Outlook Web and Mobile Device applications, regardless of their location or what is happening on the Internet.

“Mobility, reliability and security are among the most important trends impacting messaging today,” said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, a leading analyst firm in the messaging and collaboration space. “When Apple announced its plans to license Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone, it opened the door for enterprises to take advantage of Exchange’s rich communications platform. Couple that with AppRiver’s robust mobile messaging services, and businesses now have optimized security solutions at their fingertips. AppRiver leads the way by offering its customers such innovative, high performance features.”

About AppRiver

Founded in April 2002, AppRiver – based in Gulf Breeze, Florida – is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider offering secure messaging solutions to businesses of all sizes. In addition to spam and virus protection, the company provides a complete managed service for Microsoft Exchange. With more than 30,000 customers around the world – and an impressive 97 percent customer retention rate since its inception – AppRiver is one of the largest email security managed service providers worldwide. In 2008, Red Herring magazine selected AppRiver for the prestigious Red Herring 100, recognizing it as one of the 100 “Most Promising” companies driving the future of technology. The company was also named to CRN Magazine’s 2007 Emerging Tech Dynamos list. For more information, visit www.appriver.com.

Media Contacts:

AppRiver

Michael Hamstra, Director of Marketing

850/932-5338

mhamstra@appriver.com

BURLINGTON, Massachusetts – June 16, 2008 – groupSPARK, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and the leading provider of private label hosted software services including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, today announced that it has been named by Microsoft as its 2008 Partner of the Year in the Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions category.

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Award recognizes partners in a number of categories who are industry leaders and have a proven track record of developing and delivering to their customers best-of-breed, comprehensive Microsoft-based solutions to help them achieve outstanding business success.

groupSPARK was chosen for this prestigious award from a pool of over 2,000 entrants worldwide. The selection as the top Hosting Solutions Partner was based on the company’s demonstration of both technical and business marketing innovation. Its integration of Microsoft technology such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services and Dynamics CRM with proprietary, industry leading automation tools enables groupSPARK resellers to go to market more quickly and cost effectively with a full suite of private label hosted services under their own brands.

“We are pleased to see groupSPARK present reselling partners with increased opportunity to deliver richer applications and the power of choice,” said Robert Deshaies, Vice President, U.S. Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. “Partners of any size can now offer hosted Microsoft Exchange Server based on groupSPARK’s service in as little as 30 minutes to customers using their own brand, domain, and corporate look-and-feel.”

“We are exceptionally honored to be selected from among thousands of Microsoft partners to receive the 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year award in the advanced infrastructure solutions, hosting solutions category,” said Ravi Agarwal, founder and Senior Executive Officer of groupSPARK, a mindSHIFT company. “We are delighted that Microsoft has publicly recognized our proven success as the leading provider of private label SaaS applications – worldwide.”

groupSPARK’s industry leading Private Label Application Delivery (PLAD) platform enables resellers to offer hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 completely under the resellers’ brand. This technology is the only one in the industry that allows for complete private label functionality, including every URL seen by the end customer. This unique private label capability enables them to go to market in a significantly shorter amount of time - 30 minutes - incurring significantly less deployment expenses and allowing them to increase customer retention and monthly recurring revenue. Couple that with outstanding customer service delivered via live 24 x 7 U.S.-based technical support and groupSPARK provides an unmatched hosted services solution to its reseller partners.

About groupSPARK

Located in Burlington, Massachusetts, groupSPARK, a mindSHIFT company, is the leading provider of SaaS services, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services v3.0, and Dynamics CRM, completely private labeled and resold by partners as a part of their own product offerings, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in development and support costs.

Its partners utilize groupSPARK’s turnkey private label platform to provide hosted services to their users in minutes. Partners address scalability and uptime concerns by leveraging groupSPARK’s 100% uptime SLA, live 24×7 U.S.-based support and proactive hardware and software monitoring capabilities. For additional information, visit www.groupSPARK.com.

###

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Information:

Lisa Masiello
groupSPARK
781-273-6248 x.652

lmasiello@groupspark.com

Private Label Hosted Exchange is a perfect way to resell hosted Exchange to your customers without the need of having to host a complex exchange infrastructure. Some providers offer Fully Managed Private label Exchange hosting, which allows you to offer Exchange service to your client’s .Your customers will never know that you & private label hosting providers are involved each other. You can buy Exchange hosting at low prices and sell it to your customers at a profit without the hassle of managing Exchange infrastructure.

Businesses from small scale to large scale are exploring ways to drive efficiencies and hosted exchange is becoming its preferred option. Radicati has predicted that Microsoft Exchange will continue to increase its market share of the global messaging software with 200 million users by 2009. So exchange hosting companies are equipping them to tap this opportunity by increasing revenues from existing & new clients.

Challenges for in-house hosting

It better & beneficial to build and maintain the infrastructure in-house OR use a private label service to deliver hosted products to your customers?

Whatever the challenges are, the hosted services delivered to the customers are mission critical business applications, e.g., E-mail and other collaboration tools. Therefore, it is vital to mitigate the downtime and make the services available to your customers reliably. To ensure this reliability, genuine hardware is primary requirement with appropriate software. Last but not the least, it should be configured, maintained and supported by experienced certified personnel.

Support is the key here, as hosting environment is required to be up-to-date with appropriate patches. Then respond to customer with proper information when they are concerned about their data safety.

How expensive is to have in-house Infrastructure?

To build your own in-house infrastructure, you will need a capital investment of approximately $100K, and with additional budget set-aside for operating costs, technology, refresh, other upgrades etc. Apart from this, there is a high cost involved to build and maintain a reliable in-house infrastructure which is usually done by experienced and certified personnel.

How easy is to setup Private Label Exchange Hosting?

Private label service is the answer. What that means is there are no up-front costs of hardware, software, ongoing upgrade, operational costs and last but not the least, service providers will manage the exchange hosting environment with appropriate security, backup and 24×7 support.

Your challenge is just to sell the exchange hosting service to your customers and extend first level support for initial problems users may face. These problems could be new mailbox creation, Accessing to your email etc. Complex problems and related calls from your clients are generally handled by second level support hosted by service providers. Most of the service providers are equipped with subject matter experts in its support team.

In order to sell hosted Exchange to customers with confidence, you need to know that the service is reliable and secure. Generally, this assurance can be obtained from service providers itself. Most of the well known private label services are using Class A datacenters with N+1 redundancy, which are designed to create the optimum environment for servers and other hardware. This comprises redundant power feeds, uninterruptible power supplies, backup generators, optimal cooling and the up-to-date security. On top of this, these providers can offer 99.9 % uptime with the help of state-of-the-art systems, which apparently eliminates single point of failures.

What about security?

Class A datacenters are generally secured in terms of accessing servers to only limited authorized & certified personnel. These kinds of facilities are also having tight security with latest technology access cards, video surveillance, sensors of different types (finger print, motion type etc) and security guards located at key spots in the site.

Brand Identity

Tier 1 Hosting Service Providers usually provide its platform for resellers that offer the company’s hosted services completely under their own corporate brand, URL, and with a unique user interface. This private label solution reinforces the resellers’ brand with their customers, deepens their market penetration and enables them to offer their customers’ enterprise-class hosted email and collaboration solutions at a price set solely by the VAR.

In Summary

Private Labeling Support offers service provider’s unique control panel which displays resellers branding with its own domain URL. Technical Support with guarantee up to 99.99% uptime. A Web Based Service which can do provisioning services such as Mailbox creation, Quota Management etc. Additional business opportunities to sell other applications such as CRM, Wireless Mobile, SharePoint etc.

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Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT

Register: http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=111294&s=1&k=7C4...f=usan

Webcast Description:
Today’s competitive environment demands that a business be mobile. Deadlines are tighter. Expectations are higher. Customers are more demanding. An organization cannot afford to have employees tied to their desks, or be out of touch when out of the office. Osterman Research estimates that by mid-2009, nearly 28% of employers will be providing mobile messaging to their employees. This is due to the fact that mobility helps employees turn travel and out-of-office time into productive working time. Staying connected is a key to not only business success but to survival.

The decision to deploy wireless capability seems like a straightforward goal but as you begin to develop a mobility strategy, your team will quickly be confronted with many challenges such as: platform conflicts, security issues, difficult users and support nightmares. In short, welcome to the Wireless Wars!

Join our webcast to hear the latest reconnaissance of the wireless landscape including:

– Today’s Wireless Battleground: A comparison of the popular devices such as Blackberry® and iPhone™

– The Latest Intelligence: Trends that impact a business mobility strategy

– Battle Planning: The IT challenges and methodologies for deploying an effective mobile strategy

– The Neutral Zone: The features and benefits of the hosted Exchange model that minimize the risks, and maximize the performance of a mobile messaging system

Reporting live from the Wireless Wars frontline are Bob Melk, Publisher of CIO and Steve O’Brien, VP of Managed Messaging Services at USA.NET. As a thank-you for attending, all attendees will be entered in a drawing to win an Apple iPhone™ (to be awarded to the winner once the new iPhone with ActiveSync is generally available). You must be in attendance for a chance to win!

Register: http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=111294&s=1&k=7C4...f=usan

USA.NET
You Run Your Business. We’ll Run Your Email.^©

GULF BREEZE, FL, June 2, 2008 – AppRiver, a leader in managed email security and messaging collaboration services, today announced that it has partnered with Florida Chamber of Commerce to help businesses in the state avoid the loss of critical email messages because of hurricanes or other natural disasters. This is the fourth consecutive year that AppRiver and the Chamber have teamed up to offer this service in conjunction with the arrival of hurricane season.

Since it first became available in 2005, the “Digital Disaster Preparedness” program has become an essential item on many companies’ disaster preparation checklist. “The Digital Disaster program allows businesses in harm’s way to quickly reroute their inbound messages to AppRiver servers where they will be securely held. Once the danger passes, or communications are restored, all held messages can be released and delivered to the corporate mail servers,” said Blake Gehres, Chief Technology Officer for the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Registrations is very simple, it lakes less than 10 minutes, and once completed will enable AppRiver to monitor a company’s email server activity. If the receiving server is affected by a hurricane, AppRiver will begin queuing the business’ incoming email messages in one of its own securely located data centers until that company’s email servers are up and running again. Additionally, the company can also request for its email to be redirected elsewhere or made available online, so the business can remain functional during the storm and the post-storm recovery period.

According to CEO Michael Murdoch, AppRiver’s own experience during Hurricane Ivan was a key reason why the company developed the program.

“When a hurricane is headed your way, there are a lot of things business owners need to worry about” said Murdoch. “Our goal is to let them quickly and effectively protect their email – and still have time to take care of their families and employees.”

To access the free service, businesses need only visit the Florida Chamber web site (www.floridachamber.com) or the AppRiver web site (www.appriver.com) and click the button marked “Digital Disaster Preparedness.” Users will be guided through a simple process from that point or they can call AppRiver at 1-866-223-4645.

About AppRiver

Founded in April 2002, AppRiver – based in Gulf Breeze, Florida – is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider offering secure messaging solutions to businesses of all sizes. In addition to spam and virus protection, the company provides a complete managed service for Microsoft Exchange. With more than 30,000 customers around the world – and an impressive 97 percent customer retention rate since its inception – AppRiver is one of the largest email security managed service providers worldwide. In 2008, Red Herring magazine named AppRiver one of its top 100 companies to watch. The company was also named to CRN Magazine’s 2007 Emerging Tech Dynamos list. For more information, visit www.appriver.com.

Media Contacts:

AppRiver

Michael Hamstra, Director of Marketing

850/932-5338

mhamstra@appriver.com

Live@edu now offers institutions the option of giving their students and alumni an Exchange Labs inbox and students get Messaging & Collaboration experience which is what they will probably use after their graduation. This also gives the University/School IT administrators a better control over messaging security and simplified deployment. Students & Alumni are accessing this reliable and security enhanced email experience from Microsoft for absolute zero cost. This service is actually provided through Exchange Hosting service, directly from Microsoft Live@edu .

Great Application Students really needed

This is the application Students and Alumni really want in their day to day life as they can now use a co-branded email inbox as their primary account. Also, they can use Office Live Workspace to save, access, and share documents and files online, and encourage themselves to do collaboration. Some of the on-campus collaboration includes shared calendars with free/busy lookup between students, student directories with administrative control to provision distribution lists, and the ability to add faculty and staff that are using Exchange on-premise to student directories.

Close Integration with Students environment

Live@edu & Exchange Labs works seamlessly with the information systems your students already use and closely integrates with your infrastructure. Universities can provide students with hosted e-mail with quota up to 10 GB inboxes and 20 MB attachments size limit. Students can also access their e-mail, contacts and calendar from Outlook Web Access and Microsoft Office Outlook, as well as from Windows mobile devices, similar to what they may experience in the work force. IT administrators in Universities can now rejoice as they outsource the time and cost of spam-filtering, server uptime and ongoing maintenance to Microsoft’s enterprise-class infrastructure.

How secure & safe are this service?

Microsoft Live@edu keeps your students’ data private and helps keep them safer online. Live@edu with Exchange Labs also now allows message tracking to confirm urgent e-mail was delivered, and content filtering, which gives IT administrators the ability to block e-mail with objectionable content.

Create Institution identity

Schools can establish the deep relationship with students and alumni through an e-mail inbox with logo of the school, institution’s custom theme and a school-branded e-mail address that students can keep after they graduate (e.g. firoz@oxford.edu )

Other services to compliment Exchange Labs

Microsoft Live@edu, which also includes Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft Office Live Workspace and Windows Live SkyDrive online storage, helps students increase their productivity and manage their studies, share information and photos, collaborate with other students and faculty on projects, and stay connected easily with friends and family on campus and after they graduate.

Who can use it?

Microsoft said institutions are signing up for Microsoft Live@edu around the world, from Japan to South Africa to Brazil to the United States. Microsoft is partnering with educators from around the world. Live@edu will only get better in the coming years as they get genuine inputs from Students and educators.

What’s happening?

Microsoft said representatives from schools around the world will visit the company campus June 23-24 for Live@edu World, a gathering for Live@edu customers and technology leaders to discuss how they are using the Web-based applications in the Live@edu suite to connect their students, faculty, staff and alumni for greater communication and collaboration.

Summary

In my opinion, Microsoft is giving too much to Universities to exceed all of their expectations at zero cost. Universities now have the tools to develop a collaborative community with its own identity and not having to worry about infrastructure.

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