SherWeb

By browsing on the internet, I came across 2 short papers from McKinsey and Forrester that make predictions on the technology trends to watch in 2008. There is nothing too surprising here but rather a confirmation of what has been happening in the past few years.

Eight Business Trends to Watch from McKinsey

Top Consumer Technology Predictions for 2008 from Forrester Research

You can also take a look at this website who publishes a list of all the websites that have something to say about the new trends of 2008.

THE Digital Media & Internet Uber 2008 Prediction List
http://www.darrenherman.com/2007/12/16/the-digital-media-internet-uber-2008-prediction-list/

Enjoy and if you have more predictions do not hesitate to post a comment.

Thank you

SherWeb had a phenomenal year in 2007. We were one of the first (if not the first) hosting companies to offer a fully functional hosted exchange package running on Microsoft Exchange 2007 and hosted SharePoint running on version 3.0. Furthermore, SherWeb was selected by Hostreview.com for a “Fastest Growing” award, which is given to companies that are increasing extremely quickly in size and prestige. Lastly, we won the Web Host Magazine & Buyer’s Guide Editors’ Choice Award for Exchange Hosting. This last award is given to companies who provide services and products that are deemed to be above and beyond that of their peers. We are certainly proud of these achievements and we are more than grateful to all of our customers who are making this possible.

So what to expect from SherWeb in 2008? For starters, we intend on staying focused on our goal which is to provide high quality software-as-a-service (SaaS) products to our customers. So far, besides Web hosting, we have focused on messaging and collaboration software such as Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint because we firmly believe email (with collaboration capabilities) is the most critical business communication tool.

For the year to come, not only will we remain focused on continuing to improve our business-class e-mail offering, but it is also an objective to introduce new software products under the SaaS model. Therefore, on the business-class email side, you can expect Exchange 2007 SP1 soon and the launch of new optional services such as Encryption which will further empower your email experience. As for new products, you can anticipate from us among other things a new CRM offering and a new Web-conferencing/IM package. We want all of our products and services to work perfectly together so we make seamless integration a priority. Of course, we will continue to back all of our services with our world-class email, chat and phone technical support.
We will post updates on our Web site and this blog as they come along!

The online advertising market is heating up and Microsoft has decided to make a bold move by taking part in the social networking frenzy. On Wednesday, October 25th 2007, Microsoft has secured a deal to buy 1.6 percent of the ever growing social networking site Facebook for $240 million. This move helps increase the total value of the young site to an estimated $15 billion and at the same time strengthens a new model of online advertising.

To quote Ellen Lee and Ryan Kim, chronicle staff writers from the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Marketers are expected to spend about $1.2 billion worldwide on social-networking advertising this year, according to a research report by eMarketer. That could grow to $3.6 billion by 2011. Microsoft is betting big that Facebook‘s rise is just in the early stages. Facebook remains second behind MySpace, but Facebook‘s audience has grown from 13.3 million people last year to more than 30.6 million users in September, according to comScore, which measures Internet use.”

As a fan of Facebook, I myself just can’t wait to see what will happen with all this!
Please, if you have time, take a few minutes to read the article that inspired my blog

Thank you for reading me!

I came upon this article that was posted on the JkOnTheRun.com website that describes and discusses the benefits of Hosted Exchange. According to the author, “I have been using a hosted Exchange Server service for over a year now to run my one man business and it is one of the best moves I have ever made.” Please take a look at this interesting article here and see what others have to say about Hosted Exchange.

Managing your business class emails is giving you a headache?

You heard about hosted exchange but you are not sure what it means or if it’s really a viable solution?

You came upon SherWeb and you are completely astonished with the aggressive offering?

You are not sure wether SherWeb is a reliable, experienced, secure and well established Hosted Exchange company?

Here is a little something that may ease your mind. Take a look at this Microsoft Hosted Exchange Partner Directory list where you will clearly see that SherWeb is one of the top Gold certified Hosted Exchange providers out there. Choosing Sherweb for your Hosted Exchange solution should not be a hard choice to make. Let us show you how we can make the managing of your business class email painless and effortless. Contact us if you have any questions and it will be our pleasure to answer you promptly

Thank you for reading me

SherWeb was recently published on the WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW website. The article gives a good overview on how Windows Sharepoint Sevices can be useful in today’s business environment.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank www.thewhir.com to have included SherWeb in their research.

SherWeb offers a free 100 MB Sharepoint account to all its Hosted Exchange customers. Hosted Sharepoint can also be purchased as a seperate service. Hosted Sharepoint incorporates essential collaboration and communication technologies into a single Web–based environment that integrates easily with desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office. Please for more information please refer to SherWeb’s Hosted Sharepoint section and read this very interesting article written by the www.thewhir.com.

Thank for taking the time to read me!

Today in San Francisco, Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes kick off the worldwide Unified Communications Launch.

With the launch of this suite of products, Microsoft hopes to increase its presence in the market for enterprise communications software that goes well beyond e-mail.

Here’s an overview of the products to be unveiled:
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007, and Microsoft Live Meeting, are part of Microsoft’s unified communications suite and are designed to help companies add voice, video, and instant messaging to their communications networks with minimal disruption.

What does this all mean to SherWeb? We are very anxious to be able to offer more than just business class email to our customers and to push the Hosted Exchange experience to another level. Improved live communications is crucial in today’s business world! Being able to seamlessly integrate voice mail, videos and instant messaging together and accessing it at one place in outlook, will certainly improve your everyday work experience. This is all very exciting and is a big step for better collaboration and communication at work.

For more information please check out the new Microsoft Unified Communications website

Thank you for taking the time to read me!

If you’re anything like me, you are anxiously waiting the coming out of Microsoft Hosted Exchange Unified Messaging. I have been getting a lot of questions from customers that are curious to know what we can expect from this somewhat intriguing new and improved technology that is Unified Messaging. Instead of boring you with a blog filled with descriptions on the new characteristics of Unified Messaging, I thought you would enjoy watching a little clip made by Microsoft inspired by the hit movie “The Devil Wears Prada”. I find it very amusing and exciting! Take a look and enjoy!

Don’t hesitate to write to me if you have any questions or comments

SherWeb voted top 10 Fastest Growing Company by HostReview.com

With its improved look and recent launch of its new Hosted Exchange 2007 offering, SherWeb is on a roll and has been experiencing stunning results. “All of this is very inspiring! Customers seem to be very enthusiastic with SherWeb’s overall hosting offering. The response to Exchange 2007 has been great and we have seen tremendous growth in its customer base. We couldn’t be happier!” states Peter Cassar, CEO of SherWeb.

To underline this, SherWeb has been selected by HostReview’s editorial staff as one of the Top 10 Hosts in the Fastest Growing Company category for September 2007. The Top 10 Web Hosting Awards are based on the overall product offering, value, customer service and users’ reviews of the selected companies. SherWeb is extremely flattered to have received this award and is determined to work harder and continue its rise to the top.

Finally, SherWeb wants to sincerely thank all its customers without whom none of this would be possible.

Thank you for your undeniable trust and support!

I came across a very interesting article/research this past month written by Michael Osterman from Network world. The article focuses on a very common question that most customers and decision makers ask when they are thinking of signing up for a Hosted Exchange account or establising an internal exchange solution: How secure is a hosted environment? (Please click on the link if you want to read the article)

This is a question I literally get every day and along the same lines I also get: “But how do I know that my information is really secure?” “What if it goes down will I lose everything?”

Let me once and for all try to answer these questions and convince you that Hosted Exchange is a lot more secure than an ON PREMISE Exchange solution.

It really gets me frustrated when I talk to clients that are comparing the price and the reliability of a 1-2 servers infrastructure that runs exchange internally to the Exchange hosting solution we are offering (or for that matter that any experienced hosted exchange provider is offering). Let’s be serious here and compare apples with apples. SherWeb’s messaging infrastructure is comparable to any big fortune 500 infrastructure: (http://www.sherweb.com/hosted-exchange/exchange-infrastructure), In that case what can a 2-5 server environment really be? Let’s look at some interesting facts:

Typically this is what most companies have or are looking to have in terms of their email Infrastructure.

• One or 2 mail servers running an outdated version of Exchange 5.5, 2000 or 2003 with Outlook 2003 or less
• No data center – Servers are in the actual office with no supervision, no 24/7 security and most often wide open on the World Wide Web.
• Usually the entire Exchange infrastructure is administered by 1 technician for 100 employees and managing Exchange is not his only priority
• NO spam protection
• NO intrusion detection system
• NO 24X7 technical support
• NO consistant management of software updates

On the other hand, this is what most Hosted Exchange companies have: (http://www.sherweb.com/hosted-exchange/exchange-infrastructure)

• Highly secured tier 4 datacenters monitored 24/7 physically and remotely
• 8+ years of expertise in web and e-mail hosting
• Over 50 servers minimum in redundancy providing 99.99% uptime in remote locations
• Team of messaging experts and technicians 24×7
• Solid partnership and Gold Certification with Microsoft and other providers
• Intrusion Prevention System
• Advance spam and anti-virus protection
• Regular check up and maintenance on the infrastructure
• SLAs and Disaster recovery plans

And a lot more… Now which one sounds more secure?

On top of that, customers seem to forget that it is our core business, our bread and butter, to take care of emails. We treat our customer’s data very carefully as if it was our own. Remember that we’re in business because many companies trust our privacy and security policy. Our survival as a business depends on how well we deal with privacy issues and security issues.

When you consider that close to 61% of malicious security attacks come from employees or former employees within an organization according to a 2005 survey, “The Global State of Information Security”, you might want to take a few minutes to ask yourself: if your on-site emails really secure? Moreover, you are protected by law against unsolicited access to read and/or disseminate information which one is not an owner of. And in the unlikely event that the systems goes down, you can be sure that nothing will be lost as any serious provider constantly backs up your data every day using a highly reliable SAN that will provide the best environment possible for your data.

As a final thought, let me ask you this question: have you ever considered having your own phone system and managing it within your company? Most likely Not, and why should you want to? You have gone through life with the idea that telecommunications are handled by external companies that know what they are doing and you have grown up to blindly accept this concept and business model. Yet, how do you know if your conversations are not tapped, and if someone is not recording everything you say? You might think that I’m pushing it a little bit but am I really?

The concept of outsourcing emails is very new to the world. Most people still feel uneasy with the trend because they are not used to it and it has not yet been accepted by the majority of businesses.

So to all of you who are wondering… YES Hosted Exchange is reliable and secure! The outsourcing of emails under the SAAS model is definitely not just a trend, it is a well known and popular business solution that makes a lot of economical sense. To conclude, STAY WITH WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT and let the hosting companies whose core competencies is managing emails deal with your headaches (or emails I should say ). Trust me, chances are we will take better care of it then you.

That’s it for me. Feel free to write to me if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading
Until next time take care