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Microsoft Exchange 2010 is the new incarnation of the company’s messaging platform that is due out later this year. It is currently in public beta stage, being evaluated by technology professionals from around the world.
If you’re expecting a radical shift like in Windows 7, then you’re going to be disappointed. There is a lot of new stuff under the hood, but the design philosophy and mechanics are much the same as with Exchange 2007. Like with anything Microsoft, there are restrictions to this software. At the moment it is only going to be available in 64-bit form. This isn’t going to be a problem for the vast majority of deployments, as most enterprise level servers are 64-bit anyway. Exchange was only 64-bit too, but it was released as a test and evaluation form in 32-bit.
The biggest hurdle to many considering moving to Exchange 2010 is that there is no upgrade path. There can be no upgrade from Exchange 2007, the server has to be built from scratch. Although this can be overcome with any good archiving system, it does add an element of risk to the migration. This is a big install, which requires a lot of configuration. Add to that data migration of however many emails, and you are looking at a mammoth task. Feedback from the beta so far informs us that the install and configuration takes around a day per server, even without the data migration. There are numerous tweaks to server roles and general configuration to even begin the installation. Again, this isn’t going to deter enterprise customers, but the rest of the potential user base may think twice.
The other main restriction as that it is only rated to work on a Windows Server 2008 machine. Fortunately, it will run on a non 2008 domain, so it doesn’t require a complete infrastructure upgrade. Now this also limits the appeal of Exchange 2010, as the deployment suddenly increases in cost and complexity. This may initially limit the amount of deployments out there but is unlikely to deter the enterprise clients who want the new features and benefits of the system.
Talking of features and benefits, let’s go over some of them now. OWA or Outlook Web Access has been given a makeover and now accepts multiple browsers. I’m guessing this wasn’t a voluntary addition but it will make the user experience much more bearable, especially for Mac or Linux users. It now supports Firefox and Safari as standard, so good news there. The biggest improvement as far as I’m concerned is the scroll bar for OWA. You can now scroll through messages just like in any other webmail account, eliminating one of the single biggest gripes of the old version.
The next big user improvement is the “Mute” button. If a user is being copied in on mail conversations they have no interest in, the mute function will take them out of the loop. This reduces unwanted mail and runaway threads.
Voicemail preview is another enhancement added in Exchange 2010. This is a TTS (Text to Speech) application that transcribes voicemails into text on the screen. This allows for previewing of voicemails in a users inbox before taking them.
MailTips is a new feature aimed at preventing those email “Doh!” moments when an email was sent that really shouldn’t have been. It has filters and warnings to alert users that they are sending outside organizations, to people out of the office or to large distribution groups. Depending on the implementation, this could be a nanny feature that simply gets turned off when deployed.
External Calendar sharing is the last user feature I think worthy of note. Calendar sharing has been a feature of Exchange for a while now and is used extensively by busy people. Exchange 2010’s version allow users to share their calendar easily, and to people outside their organization. This opens up a whole new vista of collaboration with freelancers, contractors and clients alike.
Improvements abound on the administration side of the fence too, with many technical improvements in server management and features to keep things running smoothly. The management interface hasn’t changed much, so first reaction won’t be astonishment, but there is enough else going on to become eventually impressed.
Exchange 2010 now plays nicely with others, and allows a lot of freedom with regards deployment. It can be deployed locally, as a SaaS solution or a mixture of both. Features can be bolted on, taken off and generally configured with a lot more granularity than ever before. Although limited to 64-bit on Server 2008, the rest of the product is as much about freedom of use as technical improvements.
It is now much easier for server administrators to delegate functions to others. For example giving access to a security department to audit emails and ensure compliance, or human resources to update employee information. Users can even be allowed to create distribution lists and mail groups.
Speaking of auditing, there are several new features built in to the platform to allow staff to check for compliance, conduct searches and stop information leakage across the entire mail system. No more checking Exchange servers individually or by region. This can all be done from one place but span the entire infrastructure.
The new integrated email archiving feature is long awaited. Exchange has always had limited archiving functionality, especially by industry standards and requirements. The movement, indexing and archiving of PST files is now easier and smoother than ever. They can be moved to external archiving solutions manually or automatically to ensure that any archive or compliance is made as straightforward as possible.
Although still in beta, Exchange Server 2010 looks like a polished, competent evolution of the platform. Microsoft have learned some hard lessons over the years, and they now seem to be bearing fruit. The system offers enough new features and benefits for many companies to consider the upgrade, but complicates it enough to put many off. In these times of limited budgets and having to account for every penny, time will tell how successful it becomes.