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Up to now we have been pushing mails to personal gmail/yahoo accounts so that users could access their email on mobile devices. We have been using the Forward-To Delivery Option.

Now we have ActiveSync working in Exchange Server 2010 so users can take advantage of it for mobile devices. ActiveSync will be a much better experience for the users but is there any IT benefit in getting users off push-email? (apart from a relatively minor saving in server storage space)

Rory
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Pros of keeping your email in-house:

  • Retain control (possibly important for compliance with things like SarbOx/PCI/HIPAA)
  • Fewer dependencies on external services (i.e. with your mailserver forwarding to Google or Yahoo, there are two points that could fail, one of which you have no control over)
  • Easier to support, Gmail/Yahoo aren't always the easiest to find out status information, leaving you wondering whether a problem is with you or them
  • It's easier for your users to use all the other features of Exchange, i.e. the Global Address List, calendars and scheduling, etc. All synced to their mobile device.
  • If your users are currently sending through their personal accounts as well, you might find they've been sending mail with their personal address visible (this may be particular to sending via Google to a client using Outlook, but you may find that recipients see things like "From: personaladdress@gmail.com On Behalf Of workaddress@company.com" depending on your particular setup). Running your mail in-house should eradicate this

Cons:

  • You need to store the mail
  • You need to backup the mail
  • Might take more of your time

IMO it's worth it.

gac
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  • Thanks gac, we are already storing the email on Exchange. But we are storing it twice by using push-email. But the fact that users may be using personal email for work is another benefit to blocking it. – Rory Nov 01 '11 at 21:52