Microsoft Exchange 2010

With the release somewhere on the horizon, it would be a good time to discuss the prerequisites for deployment. Those companies who are planning to be early adopters are probably already well aware of the list of requirements in order to launch it successfully.

There are two main categories of requirements for the new system. Active directory and the ones needed for Exchange itself.

For the active directory part, all the domain controllers in the organization will need to run 64 bit versions of Windows, preferably Server 2003 SP2 and above. If you use a forest, that should also be at least the same level. Exchange will only work with 64 bit architecture and has been built from the ground up to only use it. This may mean operating system upgrades before you even open the Exchange package.

The Exchange site of the migration also has its own prerequisites. The entire platform must be at a level higher than Exchange 2003 SP2. If they are running Exchange 2007, that also must have Service Pack 2 installed to work properly.

To transition effectively to Exchange 2010 it is best to build the new infrastructure beside the existing one. It is also best to start at the internet facing side, with a Client Access Server (CAS). To use Exchange 2010 you need to build new CAS servers, you can’t upgrade existing ones. The new CAS has to live alongside the existing one while the business still has mailboxes on the old system. The old CAS can be retired once the migration has completed.

To get them working, the certificate has to be propagated from the old CAS to the new one, then a new one has to be acquired for the new on and shared with the old. This will allow mail to be redirected between the two CAS servers depending on where the destination mailbox is housed. If a client connected to the Exchange 2010 CAS contacts a mailbox on the old CAS, the new CAS will redirect the data to the old to complete the transaction, and vice versa.

Next the new mailbox servers should be built and configured to sit alongside the legacy ones. Both servers will need to be running in order to move mailboxes between them. Once the mailbox transition is complete, the old mailbox server can be retired. Fortunately this once laborious task can now be automated with the new Online Move Mailbox tool. This process means the absolute minimum downtime for users as the data is replicated between servers and the active directory replication takes place.

The only server you can really replace at the outset is the edge server. Once you have subscribed it to the Exchange 2010 Hub Server it should work normally.

This is only an overview of what it to be a time consuming and complicated migration process. Proper planning should always be done before even removing the wrapping from the new hardware.

Erik Eckel takes a look at the business improvements made in Mac’s Snow Leopard release. Better compatibility with Microsoft Exchange make it not only enterprise-ready, but enterprise-friendly.

Apple’s Snow Leopard release, known as Mac OS X 10.6, is impressive. Snow Leopard’s business improvements are simply outstanding. Newfound compatibility with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 makes the operating system more than enterprise ready, it makes Snow Leopard enterprise friendly.

Recent reports list Microsoft Exchange market share as high as 65 percent. That’s a lot of organizations tapping Exchange for critical messaging, calendaring, and contacts functionality, and it’s why Apple’s superior client-side applications should be such big news. The simplicity, usability, and reliability of Mac Mail 4, iCal 4, and Address Book 5, combined with newfound Exchange compatibility, make a compelling partnership.

Using Snow Leopard, accessing and synchronizing a user’s email, tasks, calendar items, and contacts have never been easier. Mac OS X 10.6 makes the formerly challenging process, which sometimes stressed even the most veteran of Windows administrators, simple.

Some of the credit goes to Microsoft. The Exchange Web Services (EWS) protocol serves as the critical link in enabling secure synchronization between Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 systems and Snow Leopard-powered Macs.

Maximize Snow Leopard/Exchange deployments by keeping these three tips in mind.

#1 EWS is the key

Mac Mail requires Windows administrators install Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4. Windows administrators must also enable Outlook Web Access on the Exchange server.

Mac support technicians and users will now find Mac Mail capable of leveraging Exchange Server 2007’s Autodiscovery feature. Connecting to Mac Mail now requires only that the technician or user know the Exchange server address, the username, and the user account’s password.

EWS taps standard ports for email. TCP port 80 is used for standard messaging, while port 443 is tapped for secure transport.

#2 iCal and Address Book synchronization is automatic

Once a user’s account is associated with Mac Mail, administrators and technicians need do little else. In Snow Leopard, Mac Mail automatically configures connections to a user’s Contacts and Calendar information on the Exchange server. This information is presented within the Mac’s Address Book and iCal applications, respectively.

Secure synchronization with the Exchange server is supported, too. Because Snow Leopard leverages EWS, calendar and contacts information can be synchronized using SSL on port 443.

#3 Tasks live within Mac Mail and iCal

Mac Mail 4 includes its own integrated To Do application. Found within Mac Mail’s standard left-hand navigation menu, To Do synchronizes with the user’s Tasks found on the Exchange server. Further, To Do items can be associated within the Mac iCal application simply by right-clicking a To Do item and clicking Reveal in iCal. Information from the entire task can be reviewed, priorities can be changed, dates and notes updated, and more.

Simplified enterprise administration

In short, Snow Leopard’s new Exchange support makes it very easy for Mac-based users to tap organizations’ existing messaging infrastructure. Better yet, thanks to EWS, complex VPNs need not be constructed or maintained to enable secure synchronization of Exchange-based information.

Despite the significant expense, there are compelling reasons for some businesses to migrate to Exchange 2010, and we shall discuss five of them here.

While the recession may have bottomed out, and the talk of “green shoots” increasing, confidence is still low and money still tight. You couldn’t imagine a worse time for a company to launch a new platform, even if it is Microsoft and even if that platform is the long-awaited Exchange 2010.

Businesses are facing unprecedented pressure to cut costs and save money. Why then are some considering spending time, money and effort on improving a system that already works quite well? Here are five reasons why.

Voicemail

Exchange 2010 has a feature called Voicemail Preview which allows users to view a transcription of the voicemail within Outlook. Voicemail has always been something of a clunky technology. Noise or interference at either end of the conversation can render it useless. Unless a voicemail system is rigorously maintained, it has a tendency to lose, overwrite or not even record messages. It is also too easy to accidentally delete them. The ability to have a transcript of the message allow users to use it much more freely, cut and paste it, forward it on to other parties and have a permanent record of the transaction.

Information Security

We all worry about data loss, either by accident or on purpose. Exchange 2010 comes with an enhanced Information Rights Management feature that can automatically identify predefined keywords in all emails. This allows a much stricter approach to users being able to share internal information and can reduce data leakage significantly. There are plenty of third party applications that can do this, but having it built in to the system is a bonus.

Data Sharing

One the other side of the coin from information security is the ability to share information with partners and other approved organizations. Information such as calendars, tasks, distribution lists and other data with external partners as if they were part of the same organization. This adds a valuable feature for project oriented companies that use a lot of external talent, but needs to co-ordinate them all.

Reliability

The new Database Availability Group feature (DAG) allows database replication across an entire infrastructure both remote and local. This allows for multiple failovers without loss of service. While this adds complications to the migration and maintenance, it is ideal for high availability environments who depend on email.

Storage

Email has always been a storage heavy entity. With Exchange 2010 the storage requirements are much lower, up to 70% in fact. SAN expenditure is significant for many large organizations, and the introduction of this new system should save on storage costs. Direct-attached storage (DAS) technology can also be used in place of SAN to lower costs even more.

So while the thought of migrating to Exchange 2010 is still a daunting prospect there is still a case for doing it. These five benefits make may the difference for an organization and make the whole process worthwhile.

Microsoft  yesterday launched, in Tanzania,  a new suite of software products including  Windows 7 which is the company’s popular windows desktop operating system.

The introduction of Windows 7 and other products will enable any user to be able to use any language of his or her  own choice.

Microsoft Education and Citizenship Programme Manager Mark Matunga,  stated that the application of such local languages will be implemented in 18 to 24 months time when all the translation and localization work is completed.

“Today, we are launching our company’s new suite of software products Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. It is an opportunity for Microsoft customers and partners to gain first hand experience of the new products and connect with people already using the new technology,” Matunga said

Matunga added that Microsoft has developed language interface packs that translates English-language into local languages.

According to him, the process of translation is done in collaboration with National Swahili Council  (Bakita), University of Dar es Salaam and other Swahili professionals from Kenya and Uganda.

Concerning the Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft East and Southern Africa General Manager Louis Otieno, said: “the biggest challenge that many businesses in Tanzania have is the ability to get the most out of their new and existing technology investments and getting as much performance as possible without having to spend huge amounts of money to do so,”

Otieno also said that Windows 7 represents years of in-depth listening to customers and partners around the globe and is the most well-researched, planned windows released.

Like every other industry, the financial services sector has had a rough ride over the past couple of years.  Never have they been in the news so much, or dislike so intensely.

Aside from the economic crisis, financial institutions are experiencing a slump.  Changes in legislation, increased competition, increased costs and decreased efficiency are just some of the reasons.  These institutions are often so convoluted in their processes that it is almost impossible to have a complete view of their client portfolio and make decisions or sales based on that information.

Lately some of the more forward looking institutions have discovered financial CRM products.  CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is a system that spans an entire infrastructure, designed to put information into the hands of those who need it.

Financial CRM’s enable the banks to get to know their customers again.  It also enables them to analyze them and target them with products and services that might want or need depending on criteria.  It opens up a whole new vista of opportunity for increased sales, customer retention and therefore profit.

The main obstacle to these financial institutions is that before CRM, they stored customer information in disparate and often incompatible systems that couldn’t talk to each other, so information was fragmented.  Not having the whole picture of a client prevented the business from maximizing profit and understanding their customer more.

It isn’t all about selling more stuff to customers though.  A financial CRM allows an institution to study their clients, to get to know them more and to pre-empt issues.  Two sayings are pertinent here, prevention is better than the sure, and it’s easier to keep a customer that get one.

If a customer is seen to be habitually missing payments or going into debt, then a bank can interject and offer solutions to the customer pro-actively.  By offering the solution to a problem, the bank is taking the initiative back while appearing to be caring to the customer.  The customer feels the service is good, that they are being looked after which increases loyalty.

That is just one example of how a financial CRM can help the profitability of an institution.  Another is the speeding up of decision making within the company itself.

Most of us have seen or heard about the employee escorted off the premises for inappropriate behavior over IM or email. The email we can understand as it leaves a trail, and unless completely deleted will still be present on the mail servers. But what about IM, and what is an Instant Messaging Archive? (UPDATED TO CHANGE LINK)

Hundreds of millions of us use IM each day. Some are work related, but most are not. Larger corporations even have their own clients for internal use. Most of use the big names like MSN, AIM, GTalk or Yahoo for our personal chats and consider ourselves pretty safe when using them.

Did you know however that every chat is or can be archived for future use? MSN and AIM both have in-built archive features on the clients. These are often a great way of recalling a conversation or piece of information for later use. 99% of the time they will be completely harmless and will offer no threat to anyone. These are optional though, and at the moment at least, are off by default with the exception of GTalk. The chats are saved on Google servers by default until deactivated by the user.

Many companies and government agencies will record everything said over IM chat as they would over email. Those organizations that are subject to SOX or other SEC regulations have to record IM by law. There has been a couple of investigation, then prosecutions that used IM data as evidence and there are bound to be many more.

Companies need to be aware of this method of communication and take steps to protect themselves from abuse, leaking of information accidental or otherwise and more serious threats like industrial espionage. There are many third party IM managers that can control access to clients, and record what everybody says. While this may seem a bit “big brother”, it is a necessary step in many companies. Filters can then be set up that picks up keywords, or external file transfers for later investigation.

Recent research found that over one third of employees use Instant Messaging at work. The vast majority of it will be completely harmless and won’t impact business at all, except a minor loss of productivity. It adds a great way for employees to communicate instantly over distances which would otherwise take time. It can make for quick decisions, instant information gathering and a whole host of other beneficial features.

As long as the business takes steps to protect itself from harm, the use of IM in the workplace should be encouraged. The benefits still outweigh the negatives in a fast moving environment where quick reactions are key. The IM platform is essential in adding another communication medium to staff to do their jobs quickly and effectively.

Important Links

• http://www.sec.gov/about/laws.shtml
• http://dashboard.aim.com/aim
• http://www.smarsh.com/prinsite/nr/default2.asp?siteid=12&webpageid=157 (UPDATED TO CHANGE LINK)
• http://messenger.yahoo.com/
• http://www.google.com/talk/
• http://www.compliancehome.com/resources/SOX/Regulations/

If you want to try before you buy, the beta of Exchange 2010 is still available online if you don’t already have it. Installation is fairly straightforward, but we will go through it step by step here.

This article won’t discuss the active directory side of the installation, as most organizations will have that configured already. We will instead concentrate on Exchange 2010 and getting it ready for first use.

To install the platform you will need a Server 2008 x64 system. There are and never will be a 32 bit version. It will support Server 2003 domain controllers, but the host machine must be Server 2008.

If the base system meets all the prerequisites and is fully updates, let’s get on with the install. For this guide we will use the GUI install, command line is quicker, but is harder to follow in print.

Launching Setup.exe will present you with an Exchange 2010 splash screen with three areas. Plan, Install and Enhance. Plan allows you do explore the system and read the deployment notes. Install speaks for itself, and Enhance is for existing installs that need ForeFront security.

Depending on how ready your system is, the Install option will have 2 or 5 steps highlighted. Step 1 is for .Net framework, step 2 is for Windows Remote Management and step 2 is for the Microsoft PowerShell. Once these are installed, step 4 is to install Exchange.

Click the Install Microsoft Exchange link and the screen will disappear. The machine will process the setup files for a bit then present you with an introduction page. Click next, select a language and click Next again.

Agree with the license agreement and click Next. Select the error reporting function you want and click Next. Then the Exchange Installation Type window will appear. The choice is yours but I would choose Custom so you can specify exactly what goes where, and how.

Next you should see the role selection. There are several options here, and a description of each on the right of the window. Select whichever is most appropriate and then click Next. You will now be presented with the Exchange Organization screen. Here you have to name your organization and click Next.

Next is the client settings where you choose what mail clients you want to be able to access Exchange 2010. If you have Outlook 2003 or earlier, select Yes, the Next. The next windows is for Readiness Checks. These will ensure that everything is in place in order to allow the system to run properly. It may take a few minutes to run, and you can only progress if it passes all of them.

Once passed, the Install button should be highlighted. Click it and let the real work begin. Let the installer do its work and sit back and relax.

Once completed the last window is the finalization. Check the box next to Finalize installation box then click Finish. You now have Exchange 2010 installed on your system.

With the launch of Exchange 2010 supposedly only days or weeks away, it’s perhaps time to ask the question, who is going to use it?

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that now the work is done on Exchange 2010 and it has the sign off, that it will be released soon. Especially as the Microsoft Exchange Connections coming up in November 9-12th in Las Vegas. A betting man wouldn’t put money on it not happening…

From the feedback seen so far Exchange 2010 is an excellent improvement on the previous versions. It offers much in the way of security, compliance and reliability. But it does come with the inevitable Microsoft complications. Bearing in mind the complexity and expense of migrating to Exchange 2010, it begs the question, who is going to do it?

The economy has yet to recover and confidence has yet to be instilled. Money is still tight and purse strings locked firmly shut. So who is going to spend a considerable amount of time and money on an infrastructure they probably already have?

Organizations who already have a version of Exchange are going to need new operating systems, in Server 2008, probably new hardware to run it. Considerable new IT infrastructure to support the new Exchange features and a team to install, configure, then manage it.

Likely adopters are going to be those companies who have a bit of money in the IT budget and who are on versions of Exchange 2003 and below. They are most likely to be prepared for renewal or the software, hardware and training needs that Exchange 2010 demands.

Not only are there significant hardware and software demands for a roll out of this platform, there are bound to be problems with integrating it with third party software and solutions. Those organizations with firewalls and anti-virus are going to be extra careful about integrating the new system. Also those custom applications that interface with exchange may need to be rewritten in order to work.

We in IT tend to give Microsoft some grief about how difficult their programs are to integrate into existing infrastructures. It can be a bit unfair though as I’m sure they don’t set out to cause trouble. They want to make things better, but by doing so they break a few rules and existing protocols.

Time will tell whether the move to Exchange 2010 will be a rising tide or a trickling stream. I would guess it would be somewhere in the middle, but only once the economy and overall prospects have picked up and those purse strings loosened a bit. After all, if the current version is working okay, why upgrade right now?

Microsoft have concluded the testing, tweaked the code, informed the early adopters and are now ready to release Exchange 2010. They said it should ship on the 9th November 2009, which the hosted version being made available sometime in May 2010.

Exchange 2010 is a 64bit server which includes enhanced email management, new storage options, different deployment features, built in archiving, database clustering, and an all new Outlook Web Access client. This version of Exchange is something of a hybrid, built to serve as either part of a hosted architecture or a corporate one. The hosted version has yet to be made available so the jury is out on the productivity option of that, but the corporate version has been well and truly tested.

Microsoft already hosts Live@Edu users on the new platform, and there are over 5 million of them. So you could say it is the biggest beta test around. It gave Microsoft an excellent live proving ground to analyze how it was used, and how the new features handled a real workload. It also gave them plenty of opportunity to optimize the code and fix as many bugs as they could before launch.

The software giant had said in a previous release that Exchange 2010 had been specifically designed for high availability and cross domain integration using Server 2008 clustering and other features. This is apparently what prompted the hosted version of Exchange.

While Exchange 2010 improves on many of the shortcomings of the previous versions, it also makes rolling it out much more complicated. For a start it’s 64bit only, it needs Server 2008 to work properly and that usually means new or at least recent hardware. Testers so far are skeptical about achieving high levels of availability to begin with because of the complexity of the system and its requirements.

To achieve a good level of service with massive amounts of data, multiple copies of databases, load balancing and differing server roles is going to take a lot of planning and a meticulous attention to detail to get right. Those who take the time to get it right first time will reap the rewards of what will be a very stable system.

Clustering technology, replication, multiple databases and low cost disk support means that reliability and scalability can be built on an existing foundation by replicating small servers within and between data centers.

Exchange 2010 is the first in a host of new Microsoft Office products being released over the next year. The others include Office 2010, Office Communications Manager 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010 and Sharepoint Server 2010. It’s going to be a busy year in the IT departments of some larger corporations.

Microsoft unveiled Exchange Server 2010, which has been in beta testing since April, at its TechEd conference in Berlin today, and showed it working with Outlook 2010.  Exchange 2010 is the company’s latest server technology for on-premise software deployments, but it also incorporates many features aimed at web and online services. It has a new, integrated email archive designed to help companies increase compliance and respond quickly to legal and e-discovery concerns, and there are now previews of voice mails in Microsoft Outlook. It’s also very apparent that Microsoft officials are aware of the new kinds of competition that Exchange is facing.

It was clear from the product positioning that Microsoft is feeling the heat (GigaOm Pro, sub. req’d) from enterprise adoption of tools from Google, such as Gmail, many of which are free or available in low-cost versions for business use. Cisco — a long-time Microsoft partner — is also taking aim at Microsoft Exchange with a new enterprise email service, WebEx Email. Steve Elop, president of Microsoft’s business solutions division, made numerous mentions of cost savings that enterprises can purportedly reap with Exchange 2010, and there was much focus on the email archiving and legal compliance features to be found in both it and Outlook 2010. Among cost-saving citations, Elop noted that companies can now run Exchange Server on lower-cost storage platforms than SANs.

Indeed, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been very vocal recently about that company’s “next billion-dollar opportunities” when it comes to delivering web-hosted applications and other tools that can serve as alternatives to Microsoft’s solutions — and its licensing fees. In fact, many of Schmidt’s recent comments are decidedly anti-Microsoft.

No doubt with Google’s focus on online-hosted applications in mind, many new features in Exchange and Outlook are designed to allow email inboxes and archives to migrate easily between on-premise deployments and online-hosted ones. For example, a demonstration at the Berlin event included taking an existing on-premise email inbox and transferring it to a web-hosted implementation. Exchange Server is available now for trial use, here (Microsoft Silverlight req’d.).

Microsoft officials also announced that the company is acquiring SourceGear’s Teamprise technology. Teamprise allows Java and Eclipse developers to create applications with Microsoft’s Visual Studio. We’ll be on the lookout for more announcements slated to arrive at TechEd this week and will update you as they come in. Stay tuned.