[MW Forums]

IceMail is offering hosted Microsoft Exchange e-mail service specifically for the iPhone. more

[kevrev]

This requires your company to use Exchange Server 2003 or 2007, right? If they have a previous version of the Exchange Server in use it won't work, yes/no?

[mochant]

Nope. This is a hosted Exchange service. They offer an account on a shared Exchange server at their facility. Hosted Exchange is a good choice for smaller organizations and individuals who either don't want to or can't afford to set up an internal Exchange server themselves.

[JakeT]

If the iPhone doesn't support Exchange, why would you want this? It sounds like the opposite of what you need. The iPhone supports Email Standards like POP and IMAP. If you're currently using an Email Standard, then why switch to a proprietary system that won't work with the iPhone. A better approach would be to find a company that could host your email using Standards.

[j_drake]

Unless I missed something here, this service will allow you to interact with the Exchange server at work without actually having that feature on the iPhone. If this is wrong would someone please clear this up.

[JakeT]

My impression is that they provide Exchange Email servers for small companies that don't have their own email servers. It sounds like they are afraid that people will move away from companies like them who use the proprietary Microsoft Exchange server and go with companies that provide email servers that are based on standards.

[lhudd]

These guys are offer hosted Exchange servers. Basically, M.S. Exchange servers for people/companies that don't want to drop the $3500 bucks (plus hardware costs) for an Exchange 2003 server. Pretty simple actually.
What they are offering to iPhone customers, is to leave the IMAP ports open to their servers so that an iPhone will be able to hit the e-mail. Also, they offer MS Activesync (Free), Blackberry Enterprise server ($10 bucks/month), or Good link ($12/month).
The stories from all the IT guys saying that they wont support exchange with the iphone is pure crap. All your IT manager has to do is go and open up the IMAP service included with Exchange. Sure, it won't be "push" email, but IMAP is as close to push as you can get. These guys are basically saying that we can use them for hosting and they wont be restrictive... sure, you can use IMAP if you want.
They also say that if Apple ever supports Activesync in the future, that you'll be able to use that as well.
I almost went with one of these groups a few years back because i wanted BES service with my blackberry. Few people realize that they only way to have "push" email with the blackberry is to pay for the BES licenses, which start at a cost similar to Exchange itself. This looked (at the time) like a good option, but i went with a lower-priced IMAP service instead.

[piccologato]

Who needs an MS exchange server? Not me or the admittedly small company I did IT for. Using IMAP files came within minutes if not seconds. What do I need to get involved with PCs, MS, licensing, huh?
If by law I had to use an exchange server (which I don't thing SOX decrees, I would use a Mac, xserve based product like Kerio's mail server.
He MS exchange server is just like everything else MS does and their IT minions love. It makes life more complicated for everyone else. When will the world (and company ownsers wake up.
gato