Gmail Or Microsoft Exchange?

 We use third party email service at our company. Recently, we are planning for an alternate email option. The choice is either Gmail or Microsoft Exchange. I jot downs the pros and cons during my study for both of the services and share it with you.

Exchange:

• Exchange will be less expensive on a long run, however, the initial cost will involve new hardware, new licenses, possibly new anti-spam filters, new routers, new backup software, etc.
• Exchange also requires lot of maintenance. If your IT department is very small, then you may have  difficulty to maintain Exchange Server.
• Microsoft Exchange License is going to cost us around $65-70/user. But, Google Business Mail service costs $50/user/year.
• The strong positive aspect of Exchange is that you can control the server, access to the server and how the data is backed up on the server,
• Suppose, your internet goes down , but, your network is up.  You can still access your calendars and tasks lists with exchange.
• You also get a good phone support mechanism with Exchange.  If your business is small and you can not afford a server with exchange on it, you can go for hosted exchange.

Gmail:

• Every email service requires periodic maintenance and troubleshooting. For Gmail service, it is managed by Google, not by you. That’s why we can concentrate on our core project.
• It provides huge capacity. ie more than 7 GB per user. Additionally, Gmail is free service.  However, the professional Gmail service that costs $50/user/year provides 25 GB storage and less spam.  
• Gmail provides better antispam than Exchange. You don’t have to maintain it. Gmail does it for you.
• You don’t have to mention  POP, SMTP, IMAP servers for Gmail Service. Everything is handled through Web.
• When you archive in Outlook/Exchange, you do it using multiple containers. So, in case of search, it is going to be a slow process. But, Gmail archive all of your old mails in a single container. So, the search is relatively faster.
• The email address of your XYZ company remains the same with new Gmail. ie username@xyz.com So, nothing has changed to outside people.

I am also trying to find out what are the other pros and cons for moving to Exchange or Gmail server. I will appreciate your feedback in this respect.