Microsoft Exchange 2010

Microsoft Exchange 2007 introduced a new concept to of log shipping. This log shipping feature allows you to replicate data to local disks, we more precisely say it Local continuous replication. You can also replicate your data and other files to a server situated else where. This same log shipping feature has been made the core characteristic of Microsoft Exchange 2010. Microsoft has presented the same with a new touch, in order to make this feature more productive and useful. Users will find using it more convenient as every thing has been organized correctly. We have listed four of the notable core features, which Microsoft have included in the Exchange 2010. Let’s see what they actually are:

• The foremost among them is the elimination of complex concepts, concept of storage group for instance. This feature has been found really significant as it allows the users to utilize the database more appropriately. Database will serve like a major management unit. As in log shipping, only one database is included in the storage group, so this action from Microsoft seems to be really a nice one. I am sure that users will appreciate it.

• Another good step taken by Microsoft is the elimination of copy clusters (single), from the Microsoft exchange 2010. This step makes us aware of the fact that there is a gradual change in the ideology of Microsoft. They have shifted from the storage of data in the single system to the multiple of copies of data in various different setups. This actually increases the reliability and performance of the Microsoft Exchange 2010. The LCR or Local continuous replication has also been eliminated from the core support, as it offers only a limited option to the users.

• A new core support of database availability groups (DAGs) can be found in exchange 2010. DAG allows a user to practically create a group of servers (depends upon you to determine the numbers) and one can mark or unmark various databases in this group for replication. In the long run, you will definitely be benefited from the feature. As such DAG is a very wide concept to understand. But we don’t need to go too deep right now.

• The client access has also been widened in Microsoft exchange 2010. This has been done by the introduction of RPC Client Access layer. If you are using this concept then you are allowed to decide that which hosts will serve the mailbox and keep you update of the messages. You just need to click some option here and there and then it is set. So don’t worry about its complexness.

Microsoft exchange 2010 has come out with various innovative management tools. These tools have been found extremely beneficial to reduce costs and provide more options to the users. One of the notable tool among them is Role Based exchange Control (RBAC). This allows a user to perform a common task without the interference of Exchange management interface. By this, you all will be more independent to administer a task. You will not find this feature in the previous versions of Microsoft exchange.

Now we move on to the next tool. This is Web based Exchange control panel (ECP). Microsoft exchange 2010 has brought out this tool to make the handling of various tasks very easy. With the help of this tool, users can manage and handle their distribution lists, message lists, etc with a lot more ease. All such tasks can be accomplished with help of a single click. However, if you still find and difficulty then the support of Microsoft exchange 2010 is available to you any time.

Another good tool which Microsoft Exchange 2010 has for us is the exchange management Console (EMC). This exciting tool allows one to use commands and cmdlets on remote computer. Till now, we have got a good response for this feature. People have really appreciated it.

Now we would talk about the message tracking in the Microsoft exchange 2010. With a fully web based interface, one of the serious problem of help desk calls has come to an end. Microsoft Exchange 2010 allows users to send and receive messages and voice mails in a flash. You will immediately get an alert in your mobile or in your notebook whenever a new message is delivered to you. Windows exchange 2010 also allows a user create and delete groups for the proper management. This will also make the handling lot easier. Though this feature was provided to you in the previous versions of the Microsoft exchange, but some innovation have been made in it. Those who have tried it out have really appreciated it. This not only makes the handling of the calls easier but also saves lot of your time.

As we have already discussed that all the features and tools provided in the Microsoft Exchange 2010 are RBAC based. So, users are allowed to use only those features which are under their range. This will protect your privacy and you will not face any problems as well. You may find these tool quite complicated to use, but don’t worry there is a well prepared Microsoft exchange 2010 tutorial for you all. You can take its help in order to get all your doubts resolved. So, don’t waste time, get ready to experience some cool features of Microsoft Exchange 2010.

In the previous versions of Microsoft Exchange, you all can access the portable computers and can exchange messages without a virtual private network. But with the advent of Microsoft Exchange 2010, there is a bit augment in that feature. Now you all can not only access the messages but can also send voice mails. No matter where you are, you can respond to every dialed calls or emails, till you have a net connected in your PC or laptop. A senior official of Microsoft have revealed that this version of Microsoft Exchange can save up to 50% of the company’s cost through its mailbox features. So, in this sense, you need to pay a lot less for using Microsoft Exchange 2010. Isn’t it great?

In practical life as well, the features of Microsoft exchange 2010 have been found really effective. Let’s understand this fact with the help of an example. In commercial life, a salesperson is required to revert to the dealer very quickly. So this problem can be efficiently tackled with the help of the text voice conversation over Microsoft exchange 2010. A message will be displayed on the salesperson’s mobile or PC, informing him about the dealer’s concern. And this all will be done within few seconds. People found this feature really awesome from the business prospective. One can access his mails and voice mails several times in a day. There is no limitations in using the Microsoft Exchange 2010, which was not so in its previous versions. The new interface on which Microsoft exchange 2010 works is a lot better than its previous versions since all the things are well organized and you will find accessing it very easy.

Now we should look at some technological benefits which Microsoft Exchange 2010 provides. In the field of Information Technology, PST files have been found quite hard to manage. You can ask about it from any IT expert and he will tell you that PST files are real nightmare to deal. But Microsoft exchange 2010 has made this task a lot easier with its extensive features. There is instant support available to you, when ever you find any difficulty in dealing with any of the files.

The users of the Microsoft Exchange 2010 have given awesome feedback relating to it. Microsoft Exchange 2010 has been found useful in all the spheres. There are various testimonials which will tell you the point of view of the people. The protection feature of Microsoft Exchange 2010 has also been found quite useful. In short, Microsoft Exchange 2010 is a reliable, cost effective and efficient tool for you all to have a proper communication. So, just check it out and have fun with its various vibrant features.

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.

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.

November 10, 2009 09:13 AM Eastern Time

CARY, N.C. Global Knowledge today announced the availability of Configuring, Managing, and Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, a five-day Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 course in which students will learn to install and manage a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 network of servers and explore critical new features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 from a real-world perspective.

In the hands-on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 training course, students will learn to deploy Exchange Server 2010 servers in various roles, manage message transport, and plan and implement a disaster recovery solution. Students will learn to integrate Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 into an existing Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 environment, and they will learn to configure the Unified Messaging server role and Unified Messaging components.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 training prerequisites include fundamental knowledge of network and firewall technologies, experience with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 operating systems, experience managing backup and restore on Windows Servers, and experience using Windows management, monitoring, networking, and troubleshooting tools.

Ideal candidates for the new Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 course include those aspiring to be enterprise-level messaging administrators, IT generalists and help desk professionals, and IT professionals with at least three years of experience, typically in network administration, help desk, or system administration.

Configuring, Managing, and Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is available in Global Knowledge classrooms and as a private, on-site course that can be tailored to the needs of your organization, and it is eligible for purchase using Microsoft Software Assurance Training Vouchers (SATVs). Learn more about Configuring, Managing, and Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, redeeming SATVs for Microsoft training, and the complete Microsoft training curriculum Global Knowledge offers at www.globalknowledge.com.

About Global Knowledge

Global Knowledge is the worldwide leader in IT and business skills training, with more than 1,200 courses that span foundational and specialized training and certifications. Our core training is focused on Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, VMware, Red Hat, business process improvement, and leadership development. We deliver via training centers, private facilities, and the Internet, enabling our customers to choose when, where, and how they want to receive training programs and learning services.

Founded in 1995, Global Knowledge employs more than 1,300 people worldwide and is headquartered in Cary, N.C. The company is owned by New York-based investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe. Learn more at www.globalknowledge.com.
Contacts

Global Knowledge
Nancy Enloe, Director, Marketing Communications, 919-460-3267,
nancy.enloe@globalknowledge.com

Microsoft Monday shipped the final release of Exchange 2010, ushering in not so much the latest version of its messaging server as the first updated piece of its unified communications and collaboration platform.

The release was no surprise, given the fact that last month Microsoft released the software to manufacturing — the so-called RTM — and said it would ship Monday as part of the agenda at its annual TechEd Europe conference.

Review: Best and worst of Exchange 2010

Next year, Microsoft will update SharePoint Server and Office Communications Server (OCS) to the 2010 moniker. The server duo along with Exchange forms a foundation for Microsoft’s unified communication platform. SharePoint 2010 and OCS 2010 are expected to ship in May or June of next year, although Microsoft has not released an official ship date.

“We are very much a Microsoft shop, and it is because of that integration,” says George Hamin, director of e-business and information systems for Subaru Canada. The company is fully deployed on Exchange 2010 and it also runs OCS, SharePoint, Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager and a laundry list of other Microsoft software. “I have tried in the past using third-party products and tried to integrate it all. Our previous phone system had it but their concept of unified messaging was unified to the Outlook client and not to the Exchange server. So voice mail did not come through to your cell phone, voice mail was not available on the Outlook Web Access portal. So it was not true unified messaging. There was no concept of presence.”

In the long run, Hamin like others sees e-mail not so much as a separate entity but part of a larger platform. Monday, Microsoft focused on e-mail, but three weeks ago the focus was on SharePoint 2010 during the annual conference around that server software. And next week, as part of its annual Professional Developer’s Conference, developers will be brought into the equation.

The Exchange, OCS, SharePoint trio of servers also forms the core of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite, a set of hosted services, including LiveMeeting, that can be used separately or together.

The suite also has a set of companion security tools as part of the Forefront lineup. On Monday, Microsoft released Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, an online messaging security service. SharePoint and OCS will get similar tools.

One of the points Microsoft emphasizes with Exchange is that its architecture supports both online and on-premises deployments, and company officials say that Exchange 2010 is available as the foundation of its Exchange Online service with some limitations.

“We won’t have flexibility to run custom code for a single tenant,” says Rajesh Jha, senior vice president for Exchange. “We have a flavor or Exchange Online services called Exchange Dedicated service and it is a single tenant model and you can have custom code. “The Exchange 2010 server released Monday is a 64-bit only server that includes new storage and deployment options, enhanced in-box management capabilities, built-in e-mail archiving, new database clustering, additional hardware options and a revamped Outlook Web Access client.

Microsoft Corp. released Exchange 2010 this week with improved email archiving, compliance, and high availability features.

Despite the improvements, some storage pros and analysts are taking a wait-and-see approach to the new features and are leery of an approach that doesn’t allow for tiered storage.

Rajesh Jha, Microsoft corporate vice president for Exchange, says Microsoft optimized the way the email application performs I/O to disk. He says by updating algorithms and “smoothing out” I/O patterns, Microsoft has improved I/O performance tenfold between Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2010. “I/O used to be bursty, but we smoothed it out so that read and write patterns were more consistent,” Jha said.

Like Exchange 2007 and other Microsoft applications launched in recent years, Exchange 2010 also supports a 64-bit operating system and more memory than in previous versions. Microsoft contends the improvements let customers run Exchange 2010 on SATA disks while keeping mailboxes archived for legal compliance within the application, rather than moving messages out of the primary Exchange Store for archiving using third-party products.

“Archive data tends to take up a lot of storage but be less I/O intensive, and ‘hot’ active data tends to be more I/O intensive but take up less storage,” Jha said. “So it may be more cost-effective to keep both archive and the primary mailbox together in the Exchange database.”

The new archiving features were designed in response to customers who don’t want to manage a separate repository of .pst archive files for users. “A lot of organizations have a lot of psts,” Jha said. “That has two main disadvantages – it can be difficult to search across those files for discovery, and they may be locked into a single machine. Users can now move psts to the Exchange server, and end users can access them from anywhere online.”

However, Exchange 2010 doesn’t provide offline access to a personal archive, a feature offered by email archiving products such as Mimosa’s NearPoint and Symantec Corp.’s Enterprise Vault. Exchange 2010 doesn’t automatically download the archive into end users’ Outlook when they sign on, which Jha says can lighten the load on the desktop.

Simplified failover for high availability

Microsoft also moved high availability and failover within the primary application for Exchange 2010.

Exchange 2007 offered three types of native replication: local continuous replication (LCR), cluster continuous replication (CCR), and standby continuous replication (SCR), and customers could set them up to provide high availability and failover. The problem, as Microsoft’s release notes put it, was that “management of an Exchange 2007 high availability solution required administrators to master some clustering concepts, such as the concept of moving network identities and managing cluster resources. In addition, when troubleshooting issues related to a clustered mailbox server, administrators had to use Exchange tools and cluster tools to review and correlate logs and events from two different sources: one from Exchange and one from the cluster.”

Exchange 2010 now offers Data Availability Groups (DAG) in place of LCR and CCR. The DAG feature performs mailbox and database-level failover rather than server-level failover, consolidates multiple cluster services into one management console, automates failover operations, and allows up to 16 copies of data.

Storage industry experts skeptical

Ingram Leedy, managing partner for Exchange service provider Elephant Outlook, said he’s been part of Microsoft’s Technical Adoption Program (TAP) for Exchange 2010 and plans to put archiving and DAG into production as soon as possible.

“Not having to deal with third-party software makes things simpler for us,” said Leedy, who also uses Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager (DPM). “Clients don’t want to have to deal with psts—it’s just one more place for data that they don’t have control over.”

Leedy said he’s also considering using a combination of Exchange 2010’s improved data dumpster and DAGs to reduce point-in-time backups. “We’re starting to consider whether we need DPM,” he said. “We can make backup copies using CCR now, and the concept of a backupless environment could save money and resources while giving users what they want, which is not to have to delete anything from their inbox.”

Despite the archiving improvements, Exchange 2010 doesn’t support tiered storage for moving archive mailboxes to another database. A secondary archive mailbox must reside on the same disk as the primary mailbox database. Ed Sitz, IT manager at Med James Inc., a Shawnee Mission, Kans.-based management company, said he would like to see Microsoft offer a native archiving tool he could use to replace his current instance of Mimosa NearPoint. He says his users aren’t comfortable with needing a separate interface and product to search mailbox archives.

“It’s not that I don’t like Mimosa, it’s that my end users don’t like it,” Sitz said. “From my standpoint, it’s fine, but we’ve installed Exchange 2010 in our test environment and are looking into whether it would satisfy the users better.”

That said, the lack of support for tiered storage with Exchange 2010 archiving gives Sitz pause. “One benefit of Mimosa [being on separate storage] is the fact that it can be used as a failover in case our Exchange server or information store is corrupted or crashes,” Sitz said. “I would have to read more on 2010’s recovery from such an event, but…it could impact our decision.”

Sitz said his organization already has about 1 TB of email already archived with NearPoint, and it would be no small feat to migrate that back into Exchange 2010.

Jha said Microsoft is aware that customers want tiered storage support. “We definitely have received that feedback and we are looking into it.”

David Stevens, storage manager for computing services at Carnegie Mellon University, said there are already ways to integrate data retention policies for Exchange to cut back on Exchange data backup. “We store email on backups for three weeks and three weeks only,” he said. Users can choose to retain data as long as they want inside their primary mailboxes, “but if they delete it, in three weeks and one day it’s gone for good.”

Others just don’t need a new email archiving vendor. “We’re considering upgrading but not for archiving,” said Derek Kruger, IT and communications supervisor for the City of Safford, Ariz. Kruger already uses third-party archiving products from Tarmin Technologies for files and Barracuda Networks for email. “If I hadn’t signed up for Barracuda’s service six months ago I might be looking into it.”

Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Brian Babineau wonders if performing so many services within a production Exchange application would appeal to most enterprise users. “The question for users is how much processing do you want to stuff into Exchange?” he said. “Most users would never do this with another production database like Oracle, but Microsoft is saying to try it, and they’ll simplify this world for you.”