Microsoft, long the most prevalent Engulf and Devour entity on the Internet, is lauding their recent revenue gains partly on the move of companies to their Office365 email platform. As a staunch advocate for the cloud, this is a very troubling trend. Individuals and companies are being lured by cheap prices into a platform no one in their organization has a chance of managing easily and the darn near impossibility of getting any real support if they should have a problem. Truly there is no one to call and Ghostbusters is a movie.

Let me explain why I believe this is a very bad choice when it comes to your company’s most vital communications platform.

The success of email delivery from your company’s email servers relies significantly on the reputation of your email servers being defined as being free of spammers. These ratings are created and monitored every day throughout the internet as ways of blocking email from servers with poor spam reputations. Microsoft’s cloud based email services have thousands upon thousands of individuals and companies sharing this platform. How likely do you think it is that any number of these users could be bad actors which end up getting Microsoft’s servers flagged as spam sources? It is a daily occurrence and as an IT provider I am constantly explaining to my customers who are on the Office365 platform why their customers are not receiving email from them. It is equally uncomfortable explaining to my customers there is nothing to be done and no one to call to fix it! The only solution is to wait for Microsoft to remove their servers from the black lists the Microsoft email servers are listed on. Putting all of your eggs in one basket is just not a wise thing for companies who rely on their email communications, to do.

Without a doubt, Microsoft’s Exchange product is the premier email platform in the industry. For providers like myself at ComputeInTheCloud.com, we have long histories of supporting this product for our customers and know it intimately. We have developed all of the tools and mechanisms for keeping it safe, reliable, accessible and predictable for our clients who rely heavily on their email communications as part of their business process. And because we must compete against the 800 lb. gorilla which is Microsoft, we have had to differentiate ourselves in order to remain viable in the corporate email space. That means we have to go the extra mile for our customers, being responsive to their needs and customizing their email platform for your specific corporate culture and requirements. Try getting that from a gorilla.

In a world where a vast majority of users and companies use a Microsoft desktop OS, Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft servers and various other Microsoft products, it would seems unwise to put your applications and services in the Microsoft cloud as well. Investors who put all of their resources in one basket are at risk of losing everything. Why put all of your corporate resources at the same risk by placing them in Microsoft’s basket?

Look at providers who differentiate themselves for your benefit. You may pay a little more, but the results we be more satisfying.