As Microsoft Exchange 2016 and 2019 Sunset, How Can Privacy-Conscious Organisations Future-Proof their Email?

As major productivity solution providers continue to adjust their plan offerings, many organisations are grappling with sudden shrinking plan options, rising costs, and the phase-out of long-standing services. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 reaching end-of-support in October 2025, IT teams must consider more than just a routine upgrade. This is a strategic crossroads, a decision that impacts how businesses manage communication, compliance, and data sovereignty, with significant implications for cost and control. 

Continuing on unsupported Exchange versions would expose businesses to serious risks: the loss of security updates, vendor support, and compatibility with other Microsoft applications. Therefore, this shift marks more than just the end of a product lifecycle; it forces IT teams to make an urgent, strategic decision: migrate to cloud-based services like Exchange Online or Microsoft 365, or stay on-prem with the upcoming Exchange Server Subscription Edition (Microsoft, 2024).   

Time is running out to evaluate the next move before the sunset. With mounting pressure to act, IT teams are left with a narrow window to weigh their options. The new Exchange subscription model introduces added complexity, requiring Software Assurance on top of server licenses and CALs, which can create significant management challenges for growing teams and small to mid-sized organisations (Microsoft, 2025).  

Similarly, cloud adoption offers agility and scalability, but organisations are increasingly weighing the trade-offs in compliance, cost control, and vendor dependency. SaaS expenditures have grown 27% in two years, averaging $7,900 per user annually. For heavily regulated sectors or cost-conscious public institutions, this trend raises sustainability concerns (Invesp, 2025). 

In Australia, privacy and data sovereignty are key concerns, especially in the public sector and regulated industries. With reforms to the Privacy Act expected in late 2025, many IT leaders are rethinking cloud reliance, particularly when data is hosted offshore. Recent breaches at major telecom, airline and healthcare providers, including Qantas, have only intensified the focus on digital sovereignty, driving sectors like education, healthcare and government to prioritise direct control over sensitive data. 

In this landscape, finding a stable on-premise solution that guarantees robust security, privacy and price reliability becomes all the more crucial. Hosting email on-premises allows organisations to retain full ownership over their infrastructure and data, reducing reliance on external vendors and ensuring compliance with local or sector-specific standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, or ISO 27001. This can be particularly beneficial for teams in education, government, legal, or healthcare environments, where trust and traceability matter. 

On-premises solutions can also offer key advantages in data governance. With everything hosted within the organisation’s own network, from mail services and user permissions to backup and access logs, administrators maintain full visibility into how data is handled and by whom. This level of control is increasingly critical in an era where organisations face tightening compliance regulations and heightened data privacy expectations. Some modern solutions now integrate email, storage, security, and auditing into a single appliance, enabling IT teams to simplify administration while strengthening governance and oversight. 

In terms of budget, modern self-hosted platforms can also break from the pricing complexity of legacy email systems. For IT teams managing large-scale infrastructure, minimising unpredictable licensing costs and integrating with existing systems is critical. A solution like Synology MailPlus, which runs natively on NAS devices and follows a lifetime license model, addresses both these issues.  

Ultimately, organisations today are not just choosing where to host email, they’re choosing how to control and protect one of their most sensitive communications systems. Whether responding to evolving compliance demands or planning for long-term IT resilience, on-prem email remains a smart and strategic option for organisations that want simplicity, ownership, and security on their own terms. 

Learn more about how Synology MailPlus supports email privacy, data governance, and cost reliability | https://sy.to/qndkj