A while ago I set up a Google Apps Premier Edition account to see what was involved, and detailed the process in this article - http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/so-i-decided-set-google-premier-edition-...

Now that Microsoft have launched their own hosted Exchange, Lync and Office Web Apps service, I decided to see how easy it was set up my own fictional company on the platform.

Registration

Registering for a free, 30-day trial is simplicity itself: simply request a trial and enter details of your desired company name, which necessarily needs to be "xxxx.onmicrosoft.com"
Within moments you will have a fully functional Exchange 2010-based 10-user mail and calendaring platform.

Your new domain can be accessed by browsing to https://portal.microsoftonline.com and logging in with the credentials your specified when you registered for the service:

All administration of your domain via a web-based interface:

Add your own domain

In order to start using your own domain for email, rather than the "xxxx.onmicrosoft.com" domain provided, you need to run through a short wizard to demonstrate that you have control over the selected domain. You will be prompted to create a spurious MX record for the target, which Microsoft will then query to prove that you have created the record, thereby indicating that you have control over DNS for that domain:

Once your domain has been verified, you have two choices: Microsoft can provide a hosted DNS service for you automatically with the correct MX records created already, all you need to do is to configure the domain to use Microsoft's DNS servers: "ns1.bdm.microsoftonline.com" and "ns2.bdm.microsoftonline.com":

You can then manage your DNS records, including adding new entries, directly within your Office365 web administration interface:

Or, should you prefer to use an alternative DNS provider, here you will see the MX record to use.
You should also create a CNAME alias record for "autodiscover.domain.com" pointing to "autodiscover.outlook.com" - this entry is used by the auto-configuration services of Microsoft Outlook and Exchange ActiveSync clients when they are trying to determine the email settings for your domain automatically.

You can now add email addresses to your user mailboxes as required. If you have not yet added user accounts, bulk import from CSV file is also supported:

and distribution groups:

Groups can be set to only receive email from within the organisation or from any source:

Setting primary SMTP addresses

Although we have added new incoming email addresses for our domain, when sending emails, the provided "xxxx.onmicrosoft.com" domain will still be used.

In order to edit the primary SMTP address for users, this needs to be done via a PowerShell session as it does not seem to be possible to do it via the web administration interface (at the time of writing at any rate).

Launch a Windows PowerShell command prompt (available as standard on Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008, available for download for Windows XP / Server 2003).

Connect to your hosted domain by issuing command:

$LiveCred = Get-Credential

You will be prompted to enter your Office365 administrator username and password, the same details you specified when you registered for the trial.

In order to be able to run scripts, issue the following command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted

Now connect to the Microsoft Exchange container:

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/
 -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

and connect the session to the local machine:

Import-PSSession $Session

Now connect to the target user mailbox you wish to configure:

$Mailbox = Get-Mailbox -Identity James

$Mailbox.EmailAddresses

Now define the email addresses assigned to the mailbox, with the primary email address being defined by entering "SMTP" in capitals:

Set-Mailbox James -EmailAddresses SMTP:james@joojanta.co.uk,smtp:james@joojanta.onmicrosoft.com

Repeat for other mailboxes you wish to configure.

When complete, disconnect the session:

Remove-PSSession $Session

Mails sent by your users will now appear as coming from your private domain.

You can now optionally change your user's default username to keep things consistent:

Exchange ActiveSync

Running on Exchange 2010, your hosted Office 365 platform provides the same Exchange ActiveSync functionality that a locally hosted deployment would offer: access control rules can be defined to quarantine, block or allow devices requesting connectivity to Exchange; devices can have password usage policies enforced on them; and depending on which elements of the Exchange ActiveSync protocol the client devices supports, various hardware and software functionality can be enabled or disabled as defined by the administrator.

When configuring devices for Exchange email, if the device supports autodiscovery, by entering your Office365 email address and password, the device should be able to determine the remaining settings to use automatically. If prompted for a server address, use m.outlook.com
Authentication is done by username (email address) and password, there is no need to enter a domain if entering settings manually.

Desktop Email Client

If your desktop email client also supports autodiscovery, then setting up the email account is a simple matter of simply entering your email address and password:

You can find out more information about Office 365 on the Microsoft web site - http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/online-software.aspx