In 2007, the masses spoke and demanded access to their email from anywhere. No longer could email access be limited to the desk at the office, the computer at home or an executive with a BlackBerry/Treo. In 2007, 24x7x365 email access from any device became the norm.

In early 2007 in the US, we saw the success of the AT&T Blackjack, T-Mobile Wing and BlackBerry's Pearl become available in fashionable colors. In June, we had the blockbuster success of Apple's iPhone launch. Clearly, the masses had decided that access to their email and the Internet on the go was mandatory.

Our role as service providers should be to foster access to email in any way possible. 2007 might go down in US technology history as the last year that the wireless carriers dictated not only the device, but also the accessibility and affordability of email on the device.

2008 brings many changes to the mobile device world – from Apple's promise of an SDK for the iPhone, to further enhancements and more device permeations in the Windows Mobile world, to the excitement around the Google Android devices.  In January 2008 the iPod touch was given the ability to send and receive email via WiFi.

While some argue that the iPhone is not a "business device," momentum seems to be moving that way as AT&T has recently created "business plans" for the iPhone. With a secure IMAP connection, business owners and IT administrators should rest assured that their users' email is being transmitted securely to an iPhone. While push email is always preferable and always part of the BlackBerry/Windows Mobile/Good Mobile – Microsoft Exchange combination, a business that has their employees connected to their corporate email 24x7x365 sees a giant productivity boost.

All of this is disruptive to Web hosts, IT Administrators and wireless carriers. It is important that we all strategize to create an unhindered email-connected world and making hosted Exchange available to your customers is the easiest way to get started.

All hosting companies have customers from many disparate industries. Those of us that do not interact with customers all day long always benefit when we review the types of businesses that we serve. I promise you that not all of your customers fit into the categories you think about often - ie., Real Estate, law firms and manufacturers. Today I spoke to the Operations Manager of the Pink Elephant Group. He uses Intermedia.NET to host his corporate email and Blackberry accounts.

The Pink Elephant Group has nightclubs and events in several cities around the world including New York, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago and St. Barts. They depend on Microsoft Exchange to communicate with employees and locations around the world. They use the Public Folder feature to share calendars and keep track of each night club and the schedules and events they are booking. Most of their mailboxes are accessed via Blackberries or Outlook Web Access by management, event promoters and more.

Those of us that are not night owls who party with the A-List crowd can only imagine what the high-paced and exclusive world of big-city night clubs is like. The Operations manager finds the security of Microsoft Exchange, the ability to have public and private contacts (one employee has over 4,000 contacts) and the always up-to-date push email and calendars to be the key features his business depends on. Formerly, they had an Exchange Server 5.5 on-site installation that was simply taking up too much time for the business to maintain, let alone upgrade. The hosted Exchange model allows them to grow their business, the number of locations and employees without worrying about licensing, software updates and the reliability issues associated with running their own server.

Another key reason hosted Exchange fits their business is that they need to keep their corporate domain separate from their marketing domains and email newsletter activities. They have a large number of active email newsletter and club event announcement emails that they send out through another service at a separate domain. They could not afford to have their corporate email blocked because of SPAM or DOS-like issues.

Finding a customer outside of the industries we've tailored our products and marketing to is always eye-opening. These customers raise businesses issues that we may have never thought about, but our services address all the same.