DATAFORT, a managed service provider throughout the U.K. and United States, has launched HI-5 — a business continuity service for customers running Microsoft Exchange. Yes, the market for Exchange-related disaster recovery services is quite crowded. And some folks worry Microsoft Office 365 (with Exchange Online) will squeeze demand for managed services built around Exchange. But in reality, there’s an opportunity for MSPs to protect on-premise Exchange systems for years to come.

DATAFORT says Hi-5 for Microsoft Exchange gives customers full recovery support in the event of a failed physical server, virtual Exchange Server, mailstore, mailbox or individual email within roughly 15 minutes. Once Hi-5 for Exchange has recovered a client’s data, it restores the data in a customer’s on-site server.

Hi-5 for Exchange also includes Exchange Server access from the Cloud so that employees can work remotely while until their office servers are fully restored. The solution does not depend on filed-based backup. Instead it is built on imaging servers that support 15 minute update blocks.

Hundreds — perhaps thousands — of MSPs offer Exchange-centric protection services. Those business continuity services set the stage for migration services. A prime example: Millions of email boxes still leverage Exchange 2003. But Microsoft has ended Exchange 2003 mainstream support, and Exchange 2003 extended support ends on April 8, 2014.

If you’re protecting Exchange 2003 customer systems today, you’ve got a built-in upgrade opportunity to Exchange 2010 either on-premise or in the cloud from a range of potential partners (Microsoft Office 365, Apptix, Intermedia, etc.).

Back at DATAFORT, the company has pushed far beyond Exchange protection services. Indeed, DATAFORT provides SMBs and enterprise companies alike with application management, disaster recovery, business continuity, managed data security and virtualization, all delivered in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.