Microsoft Exchange Online

What Microsoft Exchange Online is

Microsoft Exchange Online is a hosted email and messaging service for businesses, with email, calendar, and contacts available across major browsers and devices. Organizations administer it through the web-based Exchange admin center. Mailboxes have built-in anti-spam and anti-malware filtering, while data loss prevention capabilities help prevent sensitive information from being sent to unauthorized people. Outlook integration supports offline access. Administrators can apply mobile-device policies to require PIN locks and remove company data from lost phones. Compliance capabilities include litigation holds, inactive mailboxes, auditing, retention policies, and message encryption. Microsoft states that Exchange Online has a financially backed 99.9% uptime service level agreement and that IT-level phone support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Plan 1 includes 50 GB of primary mailbox storage, 50 GB of archive storage, and a 150 MB message-size limit. Plan 2 includes 100 GB of primary mailbox storage and 1.5 TB of archive storage, with the same message-size limit; it also adds built-in data loss prevention and Cloud Voicemail services. Exchange Online is paid, and no plan prices are listed.

Who it suits

Exchange Online suits businesses that need hosted email, calendars, and contacts with web-based administration. Its compliance, mobile-device, and mailbox protections may be relevant to organizations managing company communications.

Limits

Plan 1 includes a 50 GB primary mailbox, 50 GB archive storage, and a 150 MB message-size limit. Plan 2 includes a 100 GB primary mailbox, 1.5 TB archive storage, and the same 150 MB message-size limit.

Getting started

1. Visit the Microsoft Exchange Online product page.
2. Choose Exchange Online Plan 1 or Plan 2.
3. Use the web-based Exchange admin center to manage the organization’s service.
4. Access email, calendar, and contacts through supported browsers or Android, iOS, macOS, or Windows.
5. Use Outlook integration for email access that includes offline access.

Verdict

Exchange Online combines hosted business email with administration, security, and compliance capabilities. Compare the listed mailbox and archive limits for Plan 1 and Plan 2, and confirm pricing before selecting a plan.