Benefits of Office 365 over Exchange – Why Move from Exchange to Office 365?

Today, we will be discussing the benefits of Office 365 over Exchange. It is a widely known fact that Office 365, now known as Microsoft 365, is the most used and preferred cloud-based email server. It has started providing benefits to SMBs in an increased number of ways. Microsoft 365 is taking over by allowing users to access the collaboration tools and Office Apps from any device. This is a reason why SMBs are now using Microsoft Office 365 as their go-to solution.

It is difficult for the organizations to decide if they should move from Exchange to Microsoft 365. It will become easier for the organizations having Exchange On-Premise at the end of this article. We will give a Microsoft 365 vs. Exchange comparison to give you a clear picture. Read the pros and cons of both the servers, understand, and then decide which is better for your organization.

You need to first understand what your business requires. Consider the following business requirements and then choose if you want to migrate from Exchange to Microsoft 365.

• Estimate the total cost that you need to manage the on-site resources.
• Business type that your organization is running.
• Hardware and software resources expenditure.
• Benefits of Exchange Server On-Premises or Online.
• Time period for the requirement of the application.

Benefits of Office 365 over Exchange for Better Understanding

Following are the advantages of Microsoft 365. Consider this and read the merits and demerits of Exchange in the following section. You will understand if you should move or not.

Advantages of Microsoft 365

1. Microsoft 365 offers various essential services such as Skype for Business, OneDrive, Exchange Server, SharePoint, Skype, etc.
2. You can use all the facilities instantly after taking the subscription.
3. There is no requirement for paying anything for any updates.
4. All the hardware and software updates are handled by Microsoft. The business functioning is not affected by it.
5. You can invest in other resources as the cloud platform reduces the on-site expenditures.

These were the benefits of Office 365 over Exchange. Find out the drawbacks below.

Disadvantages of Microsoft 365

1. There are Microsoft data centers in different parts of the globe. Users are completely unaware of the location of the data.
2. There is a third-party assistance required for manual data migration and is a bit time-consuming.
3. Office 365 doesn’t provide proper archiving abilities.

Now, let’s learn the advantages and disadvantages of Exchange for a clear picture of Microsoft 365 vs. Exchange.

Merits and Demerits of Exchange for Comparing Microsoft vs. Exchange

Merits of Exchange

1. Total authority of the hardware and software is given to the authority. Configure the settings or specification and manage the mail flow and mailboxes as required.
2. The quality of data management is enhanced by on-premises environment. Control over the backup, system updates, and restoring data is given to the user.
3. It is possible to integrate various other business applications with the Exchange Server.
4. Use the advanced search facilities and archive the emails at the location of your choice.
5. Upgrade the security plans as required.

Check out the demerits of Exchange below to understand the benefits of Office 365 over Exchange.

Demerits of Exchange

1. It is expensive to maintain and upgrade the hardware and software.
2. No on-site Exchange administrator who should be responsible for managing the mailboxes, recovering deleted/corrupted mailboxes, and stop the unauthorized access.
3. A high amount of investment is required for initial installation.
4. To implement Exchange Server, you need to have expertise in multiple IT skills like firewalls, DNS Services, and Active Directory.

Microsoft 365 vs. Exchange

Microsoft 365 helps users keep their data safe whereas there is no such security provided in Exchange. The users have to spend a lot on the maintenance of the Exchange On-Premise while Microsoft Office 365 allows users to save this cost and gives users an option to use this amount in business growth. It is not hidden that Microsoft 365 is the most ideal mail server for large organizations and small businesses as well. If you want to move from Exchange to Microsoft 365, you can use this tool to migrate your account.

Benefits of Office 365 over Exchange – Automated Tool for Migration

For migrating your data from Exchange to Microsoft 365, you need to use a reliable solution that makes it easier for you to transfer the data. Migrating an entire account is an important and difficult task that needs to be done being careful. Use this Exchange 2013 to Office 365 Migration Tool to export Exchange On-Premise user account data. Microsoft 365 vs. Exchange is generally a hard topic to understand since there is not much that the users can compare but a few. For the migration, this tool supports multiple users migration altogether and a concurrent migration option to improve efficiency. There is also a Delta Migration option which allows users to move the data that has newly arrived. You can re-run the migration process in case any of the items were skipped or failed to transfer. This software is tried and tested with a speed of 40GB per hour.

Final Say

There are not a vast amount of benefits of Office 365 over Exchange but the most important ones are security and cost-efficiency. Exchange being an expensive server to keep and maintain, it is not ideal for small businesses that are looking for growth. Microsoft 365 is not only the choice of large organizations but has also started helping small businesses in growing. Access to the collaboration tools and Apps to use from other devices is offered.