Microsoft Corp. has been getting ready its cloud-based Exchange Online offering for its larger enterprise customers. The online version of the new cloud exchange was initially focused on consumers and small businesses, but Microsoft has changed its focus in targeting the service toward larger enterprise customers.
“It used to be that Google Apps for Premier Edition was half the price of Microsoft. Now Microsoft Exchange Online Standard is $5 and Google is $4.17 per month per user,” says Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research. Microsoft also upped the ante by increasing the total number of seats it can support per organization from 10,000 to 30,000.
“Most customers will save money by moving from on-premises to online e-mail. The economies of scale and efficiency with which we can run the environment are hard to rival,” says Julia White, director of Exchange.
