Microsoft Azure Websites - Custom domain mail

Question

Microsoft Live Custom Domains are now shutting down. I have been using this service for e-mail hosting for all my Microsoft Azure Websites, but now it is gone and no viable repl

Answer 1

I feel your pain. Had to have some tough talks with many of my customers when the free Google Apps option was discontinued.

I found two routes:

1. Find a hosted Exchange type solution. This has the advantages of any hosted solution. It is managed for you. You can get started with around 50 USD / user / year and services are provided by the likes of Microsoft, Google and Rackspace, like stated in the other answers.
2. (Which is the route I chose) Host your own Exchange server on AWS EC2 or Azure. Thanks to Microsoft License Mobility, you can install an Exchange license on a cloud server and provide email addresses for your customers` domains yourself. This will allow you to share the cost of the Exchange license between all your customers and if you reach the critical mass, this can save a lot compared to the pay-per-user-per-month models for most hosted solutions.

I am stil looking for a free alternative, but have yet to find one that can match the features that were available in the free version of Google Apps.

EDIT: I was thinking about this again last night and came up with another idea. I am not a Linux guy, so I would not be happy to do this for production mail server. For someone who is "bilingual" (i.e. ok with both MS and Linux solutions) or of a more adventurous nature than me, could take route 2 with a linux server and an open source mail server solution. I am sure this will lower the cost even more significantly, since you will not need to pay for the mail server licence and also per-hour instance costs for Linux servers are lower. This might even create a whole new revenue stream.