Erich Stauffer

Tag: Exchange

  • Exchange Public Folders and Tasks on iPhone and Android

    How do you sync Exchange Public Folders with Android/iPhone?

    There is no way for the iPhone to show the Public Folders on its own, so we have a few options:

    Exchange Sync iPhone Android

    1. Create additional Contacts and Calendar folders in Outlook. These new folders will synchronize with the Public Contacts and Calendars and as they’re in the mailbox they will simply appear on the Iphone as a new contact list and calendar
    2. Download the Public Folders App from the App Store
    3. Use CodeTwo’s Exchange Folder Sync or DidItBetter’s Add2Exchange software
    4. Easy2Sync for Outlook (requires installing Outlook on Exchange Server and using PFsync on Android devices)

    Most of these solutions are read only, one-way syncs, meaning you can’t add to the public folders from a mobile device. For the Android, there is only one option in the Android Market called Public Folder Sync.

    If you’re using Public Folders to store documents, stop doing so and begin looking for another solution immediately. Microsoft doesn’t recommend using Public Folders in Exchange to store documents and will be phasing them out past Exchange 2010. They have not updated how Public Folders work since 2003 after introducing them with NT4.

    How do you sync Exchange Tasks with Android/iPhone?

    On the iPhone, try TaskTask for syncing Outlook & Exchange Tasks. For Android, try TaskSync for Exchange.

  • Using Google Apps with Microsoft Outlook

    One of our clients wanted all of their staff to have email access through Microsoft Outlook on each PC, but they didn’t have the need for a Microsoft Exchange server.  Instead, we configured their domain to install Google Apps, created email accounts and distribution groups for the staff members, then configured Microsoft Outlook on each staff member’s PC to allow them to have access.

    “The difference between Exchange and Google Apps is transparent to the user, ” said Erich Stauffer, Business Consultant at Erich Stauffer, Inc.  “They don’t know and they don’t care – as long as it works.”  And it usually does.  Google Apps sports a 5-nine’s uptime which means they are up 99.999% of the year.  This means they can statistically be down for up to 8 hours a year, but uptime is significantly higher with Google than with your own standalone Exchange server.

    However, cloud computing like this is not for every customer.  Some would not be able to keep secure data on remote servers and Microsoft Exchange does offer the ability to keep all email stored locally, but even so, only the email kept internally stays secure.  Once it leaves your organization, unless the email is encrypted, it is prone to eavesdropping.  Another reason for an Exchange server would be for backup’s, but with Outlook, you can download Google Apps mail as a PST, then store the PST as your back-up.

    What unique, money-saving technology can Erich Stauffer help you with today?