Microsoft Exchange 2010

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So we have heard that in some circumstances upgrading to Exchange 2010 isn’t such a good idea. The expense, the basic archiving functions, the server overhead for indexing functions and the allegedly clumsy way of email retrieval. There are positive points to the new system though, and we shall highlight a few of them here.

While Microsoft doesn’t hide the fact that it’s going to cost more than the last version, it does cite the benefits. Upgrading is going to be a significant burden on IT departments that are already squeezed tight, but a study released by Forrester alleges the cost of ownership can be recouped within six months for the average rollout. This can be done by making savings in other areas.

There are a few assumptions made, but in an ideal world, they do make sense. The first is that an organization can save money by not having to purchase SAN solutions. Improvements in Exchange I/O handling means it now plays nicely with slower storage. So the extra capacity you’ll need to use the archiving doesn’t have to be at a premium price.

There is the first assumption. To be able to use the new function, you’re going to need more storage. The spin here is not mentioning the need for the storage, but the fact you can spend less money on it that you might have had to. Neat trick huh?

One definite benefit of Exchange 2010 is its ability to take voicemail. The assumption here is that once you use it to take voicemails, you won’t need other systems to do it for you. Therefore, saving money on a separate system. Another great theory, and if you can find me a medium to large organization that uses only one system, has no legacy systems or who uses nothing but Blackberries then they will be the ones who will save money.

The inclusion of the archiving element to Exchange 2010 has already been mentioned in the storage area of the benefits, but can also be highlighted again in its own right. The ability to archive its own mail is an added benefit, and one of the reasons the platform is more expensive. The cost saving implication is that you don’t have to use third party vendors for email archiving.

The assumption here is that you have enough IT staff to index emails, retrieve them from storage, can extract them and make them usable. Also that you don’t mind having your Exchange servers running the significant processing overhead of full-text indexing to allow this to happen.

For those organizations who are committed to use Microsoft products and have the spare budget, Exchange 2010 will be a good investment. It can do more, offers more and is easier to manage and use than Exchange 2007. The ability to have voicemails translated to text is a good feature, as is the archive function. From the beta, Exchange 2010 looks to be a polished and capable platform for future email messaging. If you have the budget to cope with the upgrade.

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.

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A recent study by technology company, CMSWire, found that many companies in the United States get email archives and backups mixed up.  As unbelievable as it sounds, the confusion is still rife, even years after the legislation came into force, and organizations are being caught out all the time.

For those who still don’t know the difference, a backup is when a copy is taken of a given media and stored elsewhere.  This is to provide disaster recovery should any disaster befall the building, the company or its infrastructure.  Every business should have a comprehensive backup process that is followed to the letter, but it is different to archiving.

An archive is designed to copy, store and manage data for the longer term.  It is designed to be a permanently separate, accessible silo where the data can be safely kept.  Ideally it would be sited somewhere other than the premises, in a purpose built facility where it is protected from all forms of harm such as flood and fire.

In the case of an email archive, for compliance, the email data is siphoned off the corporate email platform and formatted into a particular state.  It is then indexed, compressed and then stored safely somewhere else.  That storage should be secure, safe and resilient, so the client can access their data should the need arise.

A backup can run in conjunction with an archive, but are completely separate entities.  They should not be confused.  The only driver for a backup procedure is disaster recovery and damage limitation.  Archiving is necessary to satisfy a range of legal obligations that are enforced aggressively, as well as the retention of important information.

It isn’t only for E-discovery that archiving is a good idea.  Business depends a lot of email using it as the main means of communication both internal and external.  Often corporate communications, policy changes and even external contracts are communicated this way, and they are important for any business to retain for a period of time.

On paper it is an easy mistake to make.  Both processes make copies of stuff for retrieval later but only one will protect an organization from litigation if an E-discovery request comes their way.

While emails can be retrieved from a backup, it is a time-consuming and laborious task.  With no real indexing facility, finding emails may take a significant amount of time, especially in larger, communication heavy organizations.

An email archive makes it easier to follow email trails and the branches that can occur when mail is copied and forwarded to multiple recipients.  A thorough implementation should also comply with the relevant legislation and prevent any action being taken against the company for non-compliance.

Let’s set the record straight once and for all.  A backup policy is good methodology, but entirely optional.  Email archiving is not.  It is mandatory and specified in more than a few laws.  Ever since those very high profile corporate scandal cases, every business has had to comply with a set of stringent compliance laws that demands an effective trail be left with any documentation of any kind.