The most cost-effective way of running an email server in the cloud
With the popularity of cloud computing on the rise, many companies are leaning towards outsourcing their email infrastructure into the cloud. This has both benefits as well as shortfalls, which are listed below.
Benefits
- A more reliable hardware platform
- A more resilient network infrastructure
Shortfalls
- Costly
- Privacy concerns
The Cost Factor
A typical account on Exchange Online costs around $8/user/month with a 1-year commitment. For a company with 200 employees, this adds up to $1,600/month or $19,200/year.
Reducing The Cost
One way to reduce this cost is to rent a virtual private server (VPS) from a service provider on the Internet and run your email infrastructure. This offers two benefits: cost reduction and privacy. Here are the steps:
- Rent a VPS server from any service provider. A decent machine will most likely cost you around $40 per month. Check Amazon Lightsail, IONOS, and Vultr as an example.At this cost, you could also consider renting two servers, providing high availability and redundancy.
- Install the Xeams, which is free if you don't want spam filtering.
Cost Benefit
By using two private virtual servers at $40/month, companies can reduce their monthly email infrastructure cost from $1,600/month to $80/month, which is about 95% savings.