It’s not possible to have a mixed email estate of Exchange and NHSmail2




Currently NHS sites can have a mixed email estate of both Exchange and NHSmail, however this will all change with the introduction of NHSmail2.   In the future a NHS email estate will most likely be either Exchange or wholly NHSmail2, it will not be possible to mix the two together.

What problems or issues does this present to the NHS IT professionals and the provision of their email service?

For Exchange sites who also have some existing NHSmail users, if they decide stay with their on premise Exchange servers and not move to NHSmail2 then their NHSmail emails will not be accessible.  This could present problems to clinicians who use NHSmail for secure email communications.

To make NHSmail emails accessible means exporting emails out of NHSmail and re-importing them back into Exchange by probably using PST files.  PST files have their own set of problems and their use is best avoided.


Our Mailsafe email archiving and management product is completely independent of Exchange and NHSmail or NHSmail2 and is compatible with all these email environments.  With its user side Outlook ‘add in’ facility it is able to solve many of the migration issues that get presented when a NHS site decides to move to NHSmail2 or decides to stay as they are.