We know that cloud computing services like Office 365 is disrupting traditional IT companies business models. They have enjoyed high support charges and good profits for many years and cloud will bring all that to an end we hope. So what have they done?

One product many have been relying on is “Hosted Exchange”. This is basically cloud computing but done in a very closed and controlled way that maximizes control and importantly lots of easy profit for traditional IT support companies.

Hosted Exchange can be a woefully compromised solution as many have found out too late. It can also be invariably expensive compared to Exchange on Office 365 or Google Apps. It simply means that the traditional IT supplier can talk about “cloud” and “SaaS” (software as a service) without actually giving you the client the benefits of the cloud. We think that is wrong and unfair. If you’re paying for support services then you deserve the solution that is right for your business not the one that is right for your IT support company.

So the if you’re being offered hosted exchange instead of a Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps cloud solution then ask yourself why.