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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    California, United States
    Posts
    5

    * Please suggest Alternative to Microsoft HMC, an Automated Hosting Managment Solution

    Hi all,

    I am a Hosting Controller and Automated Hosting Management solution provider for Microsoft Products and Services (Exchange, SharePoint, CRM, Unified Messaging etc).

    Currently I am using Microsoft HMC 4.0 as my main Hosting Solution along with some other solutions for Automated hosting management of Websites, 3rd Party Mail Service Providers, DNS Service Providers and Scripted Solution (Perl, Python, Cold-fusion support). Microsoft will end support for HMC soon enough and i am not really ready to upgrade to MCCS due to various issues discussed in the very same article.

    MCCS Article: hxxp://stevemiles70.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/hmc-is-now-mccs-messaging-and-collaboration-cloud-services-hosting-exchange-2010/

    I need an All-In-One Hosting Automation and Management solution for Microsoft Services that must essentially support the following services:

    1. Long term business Support (HMC 4.5 is the last version of this solution. Microsoft will support HMC 3.5 through July 12, 2011, and will support HMC 4.x through December 12, 2011.)
    2. Product Support for Latest Features (Exchange 2010, Sharepoint 2010, CRM 2011, OCS 2010 (Lync 2010), Blackberry 4 and 5)
    3. All-IN-One Support for all Products and Services(Spending on individual solutions is wastage of money for me)
    4. Legacy Microsoft Support (Exchange 2007, CRM 4.0, Sharepoint WSS 3.0)
    5. Self Service sort of Control Panel (For Clients and Resellers)
    6. Automatic Billing System (Must be part of the complete solution)
    7. Migration of Exchange 2007 Existing Customers to Exchange 2010.

    The bullets from 1 to 9 are my business's stringent requirements. Paying for multiple solutions is costly both in terms of management and support as well as licensing. I have been using a separate billing system solution that is not tightly integrated with HMC and i have to face issues from time to time due to it. I need to have a tightly integrated billing system with my hosting management solution.

    I need to provide my clients with a proper central control panel/dashboard/portal from where clients, resellers and myself can manage each product's provisioning and associated services, manage subscriptions and billing. I need long term support for the solution. I also have a strong requirement of upgrading (migrating) some of my existing users/organizations/mailboxes etc of Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010.

    Please suggest an All-In-One Automated Hosting management solution that meets the above requirements at the moment. I have been looking a couple of hosting panels that support Microsoft products and meet most of the above requirements. But i cant just go for any one of any without seeking help from the community.

    Thank you.

    Best Regards.

    Steve

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Johnson View Post
    1. Long term business Support (HMC 4.5 is the last version of this solution. Microsoft will support HMC 3.5 through July 12, 2011, and will support HMC 4.x through December 12, 2011.)
    2. Product Support for Latest Features (Exchange 2010, Sharepoint 2010, CRM 2011, OCS 2010 (Lync 2010), Blackberry 4 and 5)
    3. All-IN-One Support for all Products and Services(Spending on individual solutions is wastage of money for me)
    4. Legacy Microsoft Support (Exchange 2007, CRM 4.0, Sharepoint WSS 3.0)
    5. Self Service sort of Control Panel (For Clients and Resellers)
    6. Automatic Billing System (Must be part of the complete solution)
    7. Migration of Exchange 2007 Existing Customers to Exchange 2010.
    Yes all of the above are supported in Hosting Controller control panel.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Earth
    Posts
    463
    Another product is Machsol

  4. #4
    Hosting Controller is far more mature product and the bug fixing and enhancement speed is better than all of their competitors.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    California, United States
    Posts
    5

    Thumbs up Hosting Panel Solutions and Comparison

    Thanks you all for your responses. I highly appreciate it. Indeed, I must say, i am very excited that two suggestions have come forward.

    It would be a huge decision if i move to a new hosting panel solution . I need the help of the community to make me choose the right product that can fulfill my business requirements.

    Currently, it might not be immediately possible to shift some or all my systems that are in production to any hosting panel just to try out the various features a panel might offer. However, I would love to have a comparison chart of all major features of two or more such hosting panel solutions.

    If such a chart/list or a comparison set is already in place that can describe the high level details of the features of the above two mentioned products or any other products (that match my business requirements) than please do share it.

    I would highly encourage those community members to share their opinions who have personal experience with the above hosting systems and their various features.

    Once again, thanks a lot for such healthy and valuable responses. I look forward to seeing more and hope that i will be able to make a suitable decision with help and support from users of this community.

    cheers

    Steve

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    California, United States
    Posts
    5

    * Comparison of MachSol's MachPanel vs Hosting Controller (HC)

    well, after not getting any response from the community, i dared to test these two panels out (MachSol MachPanel and Hosting Controller).

    I have a large base of Exchange 2007 users(4000+), some wanted to stay on Exchange 2007 while others were pushing for upgrade to Exchange 2010 to utilize the new features that Exchange 2010 offers! So i decided to give out a try and here are my findings:

    1. I prepared labs for exchange 2007 and tried to use HC panel for exchange 2007. But i got stuck was while trying to provision exchange 2007. I didn't get timely response from HC.

    I tried MachPanel also, the solution was deployed by their team. They gave me training and walk-through of their system after installation. Their solution seems to be very professional, consistent and organized. Their support was helpful and responsive. They gave me good suggestion about migration from HMC to their hosting panel.

    2. HC billing is vague and not streamlined. Also, at no place, there is mentioned which currency is currently being used when displaying the amounts. Like if 100.00 is written, no currency symbol is mentioned, same amount appears on changing the currency dropdown in funds ,100 USD is not equal to 100 EURO.

    MachPanel, on the contrary, had integrated billing support and is unified and consistent throughout the panel where any amount is used. Hosters like us who deal in multiple currency find this feature very useful.

    I still need to try out all the other features and compare these two panels but i don't want to jump to the conclusions and repent later.

    I also urge the readers to suggest more panels as well so i can try them out as well as it seems nobody else is doing it. I am still waiting for the replies and i don't want to end up doing it alone as managing a business is a whole thing in itself.

    If anybody else gone through similar scenario, i urge them to please share their idea and post their results.I have started wondering whether i were the only one using HMC?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    California, United States
    Posts
    5

    Cool Web Site Panel (WSP)/DotNet Panel (DNP) vs HC vs Parallels vs MachPanel

    Hi mooodi,

    Thanks for your response and valuable participation in this discussion.

    Quote Originally Posted by mooodi View Post
    ...but if you have less money in pocket then straight away go toward WSP
    As far as WSP is concerned, it has no premium support, it would be a huge risk relying on it for offering professional services to customers and reseller hosters without its support services.

    Quote Originally Posted by mooodi View Post
    You do have alternative option Parallels try it out if you have budget...
    Parallels is too much expensive, besides, if some other cheaper panel can serve my needs then why spend huge money on Parallels?

    That is why i posted here and still hope that some Solution providers/panel users can come forward and share their valuable suggestions and experiences.

    Quote Originally Posted by mooodi View Post
    their support are the best and reply faster (within 5 hrs ), even they do provide support on live chat... And I don't believe they didn't help you when you got stuck with exg 2k7.
    As far as HC is concerned, i would say, time is money and functionality comes first before support services.

    Since you are using HC since last couple of years, can you please hint out how are managing your billing? Are you using any 3rd party services like me or using your own custom solution? Because, i don't think that HC billing is mature enough to be used by a professional hosting service provider.

    I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Once again thanks for sharing your views and experience. I highly value your feedback.


    Regards

    Steve
    Last edited by Steve Johnson; 04-23-2011 at 03:58 PM. Reason: correction

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    California, United States
    Posts
    5

    Cool I have chosen Machpanel

    Just posting, in case anyone was waiting for a follow up on this, i have decided to go with MachPanel. I must say it was a difficult decision but it was geared up by the following factors.

    1. MachPanel Supports almost all of the required features (as mentioned in point 2 of my 1st post in this thread)

    2. I am very impressed with the technical knowledge of MachPanel Enterprise Support team.

    3. They are helping me with infrastructure planning and migration.

    4. MachPanel supports Automatic Billing which is tightly integrated with the solution.

    5. MachPanel Support team was very responsive even during trial and they provided demo of various features in ample detail and were very helpful in answering technical questions regarding any issues or pitfalls in advance.

    6. Last but not the least, MachPanel is really an affordable solution and i doubt that i will spending any more dime for any other extra solution to help support my business.

    Thank you all those who took part in this discussion, i must say, that the comments were very valuable and helped me take the right decision.

    Steve.

  9. #9

    Sorry to bump up this very old post but...

    I'm interested to know if you are still with Machsol after a year and a half of posting the original post?
    Still happy with it?

    We have been using EPS (from extendasp.com) which is quite good as it supports self provisioning of a multitude of third party applications as well as all of the Microsoft suite of hosted products, integrated billing, is reseller ready etc.

    Having had a few issues with it though I was wondering what else was out there right now and possibly considering a change.

    Do you know of any other HMC like provisioning engines?

    Thanks for your time.

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