Intermedia Hosts 100,000 Exchange 2010 Mailboxes

Intermedia, a hosted Exchange specialist that works closely with VARs and MSPs, kicked off its annual partner conference this morning by sharing several business milestones. CEO Serguei Sofinski (pictured) told roughly 100 attendees that Intermedia now hosts more than 100,000 Exchange 2010 mailboxes. Plus, Intermedia's channel has pushed beyond 6,500 partners. For MSPs sorting out hosted Exchange and hosted PBX opportunities, here are four highlights from Sofinski's keynote.

1. Opportunities Ahead: Sofinski estimates that there are roughly 120 million legacy on-premise mailboxes running Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003. He says Microsoft support for legacy Exchange platforms is ending now or within the next three years.

2. Partner Focus: Intermedia's private label partner-driven business grew 114 percent in January 2011 vs. January 2011. "Our mailbox growth is completely dependent on your success and your growth," said Bob Leibholz, senior VP of sales and business development.

3. Strategic Relations: Echoworx, Mozy and LiveOffice are sponsoring the Intermedia Partner Summit. So it's a safe bet Intermedia is working on strategic partnerships with all three companies. Sofinski also noted a growing relationship with Ingram Micro, which promotes Intermedia through the Ingram Micro Cloud and Ingram Micro Seismic business initiatives.

4. Shifting Directions: When it comes to hosted unified communications and hosted PBX services, "you spoke and we listened," said Sofinski. He was referring to Intermedia's decision to re-launch its hosted PBX business with Exchange support. Intermedia in mid-2010 had been promoting a home grown unified communications platform from Unison Communications. By late 2010, Intermedia had adjusted the plan to ensure ongoing Microsoft-oriented software support.

Side note: We're trying something a bit new here at Intermedia Partner Summit. Contributing Associate Blogger Matt Weinberger will be bringing you cloud perspectives from the summit over on TalkinCloud, and Contributing Associate Blogger David Courbanou will serve up some channel perspectives over on The VAR Guy.

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