Microsoft Exchange 2010

Studies have revealed how each worker of your organization could lose around 90 minutes each day managing their emails. This is where Email Archiving could help you stop productive losses. Starting from legal compliance to data protection and storage optimization, Email Archiving has become the requisite of any flourishing business organization today. Let us list down the top seven business practices that actually make such Email Archiving a hit for your company:

1. Correlate your needs to the software you plan to purchase: It is true that most companies rush to have Email Archiving installed in only to meet the regulatory compliance. Most of the times, this leads to wrong choice of software since the optimization of Email Archiving depends upon the account productivity and storage issues. It is therefore quite important for the company managers to ideally understand the real intention behind using Email Archiving and estimating all the needs before taking the next stride ahead.

2. Pep up all regulatory requirements: Annual revision of the data retention policy is quite essential to comply with the latest regulatory framework as set down by law from time to time.

3. Email retention policy updating: It is quite an important task for any company to keep on reviewing their retention policy from time to time. This will help the company to put light on various aspects of the retention policy like:

• Responsibilities associated with email retention policy
• The scope of the company’s email retention policy
• Philosophy of the company in this regard
• Timeframe laid down for different types of records
• Easy-to-follow retention schedules

4. Simplify retention policies: This will help to achieve a two-fold benefit from your policy. Firstly, the policy will be actually quite beneficial since complicated retention policies are hardly effective at all. Keeping a benchmark for retention policies helps to simplify the entire procedures associated with Email Archiving. The second benefit of this is that it will help to adopt automated Email Archiving processes within the organization.

5. Make retention policies uniform: Allowing each and every employee to decide the basis of archiving emails could end up in disastrous results. This is why there is a need to regulate the entire procedure so that employees are not left to work as per their intuitions when it comes to Email Archiving.

6. Dissuade employees from creating personal archives: This is quite vital to ensure that there is no confusion in the Email Archiving procedures. Most employees choose to create their personal archives for added-on protection or future referral. However, this might interfere with the functioning of the entire archiving system and hence employees must be made to understand the defects of creating such personal archives.

7. Automating the retention procedure: In order to remove the element of human error, automating the entire Email Archiving would be the best idea. Not only will this help to ensure uniform archiving but will also remove the burden off the employees, allowing an improvement in their productivity levels.

Sticking to the guidelines above for good data retention policy will help to optimize email archiving for the entire organization.

Microsoft Exchange 2010 is a new version of software introduced recently. Many of the customers of Microsoft are very happy with the quality and efficient working of Microsoft products.This is why, Microsoft has been working has been working continuously on development of new products. Microsoft Exchange is an effective and reliable product for the benefit of customers. Further it is cost-effective and a very flexible communication tool that helps you to achieve high performance levels. Customers are more satisfied with its mobility and high efficiency.  It will definitely lower the cost of business in terms of messages and will also increase the productivity of business communication.  This is means Microsoft Exchange is a very powerful messaging platform and a cost-effective tool in business messaging.

It is true that the business conditions and environment will always be changing and it is important that perfect and reliable products and tools are available with you which will improve and increase the functioning of business.  The new features of database availability group and mail box move it will be very easy for the companies to work with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Some of the other advantages are great storage hardware options which suit the latest business technology and it also supports traditional storage area networks with low cost maintenance. Direct Attached Storage ensures larger mailbox which can be accessed by employees at any point of time easily.  There are also additional features web-based Exchange Control panel and administrative rights to help in increasing desk call volume.

Large establishments which have huge volume of business on web on a daily basis, have to deal with number of emails and also must work on their web sites. For all such large establishments, Microsoft Exchange helps them to take benefit from this product so that it delivers more speedy and quality work apart from cutting costs heavily from its end.

This is very much required for businesses which are web based and there are thousands of web businesses launching their web site on the Internet and for all, Microsoft Exchange is required in order to offer more benefits in their business functioning.

Therefore, going by the above discussion, it can be stated that, Microsoft Exchange 2010 can render good service to the customers and it will also give number of benefits to the customers. Customers can always feel a good change in their working environment and in the overall performance of their business earnings and profits.

So we have had Exchange 2010 for a little over a month and so far hasn’t given us too many problems. Migration was an experience I don’t want to repeat in a hurry but the EDA or Exchange Deployment Assistant greased the wheels a bit.

Here are some of our findings so far. Bearing in mind we have only had the system live a few weeks and we’re bound to have plenty yet to discover. So far our time with the platform has been positive.

• OWA interoperability – Outlook Web Access now plays nicely with others. Not only does it offer almost everything Outlook 2010 is supposed to, you can now also use it with other browsers. Microsoft have opened it up so it works well in Opera, Firefox and even Safari. A very good development in a platform, especially for an organization who uses multiple operating systems.
• No client necessary – While we’re waiting for Office 2010 for Outlook, we found we don’t actually need it yet. We will to enjoy the other features, but for now we can use it happily without it. Even down to the sounds for calendar alerts.
• Availability – With the death of local replication, the new Database Availability Grouping is a godsend. Multiple versions of databases on multiple machines allows our availability to hit 99.99%. It took a while to get right, but when we did there were sighs of relief all round.
• Self Service - The bane of our lives is slowly easing. The new Exchange Control Panel means the users can manage their own groups, addresses, holiday messages, rules, virus protection and much more. They can use it through a web page and manage many of the tasks that used to take up the majority of our time.
• Exchange Test Tool – So simple yet so effective. This is a network or internet tool that allows us to test different facets of a rollout before making them live. From it we can test SMTP messaging, ActiveSync and Outlook Anywhere. Useful.
• Improved views – Not only do we now have the conversation view, which allows for message threading for longer conversations but we no longer have the annoying previous and next buttons. Now we have scroll bars, which makes the whole message navigation thing a breeze. If we have long running support cases, this view makes it easy to see who said what, and when. That way we don’t repeat what someone has just said, or ask the user to try something twice. Happier user, happier us.

We won’t get to fully utilize the system until Outlook 2010 arrives, but what we have seen so far is positive. The Outlook Web Access is a good alternative for message management, and offers much more than the old version. The fact that we don’t have to use it with Internet Explorer is a definite bonus.

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.

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.

One of the most surprising aspects of Exchange Server 2010 is the lack of backward compatibility offered. While those of us in the Information Technology market can’t afford to look back, or stay stuck in the past, it is unrealistic to expect organizations to upgrade their whole infrastructure for one application, however important it might be.

Historically, just about everything Microsoft made was backward compatible to one degree or another. On average their software was at least useable with the two previous versions of the release. While the newer features and benefits weren’t realized until we were up to date, at least the platform and its inherent improvements were able to be utilized.

After saying all that, there is a little bit of backward compatibility built in, since the latest beta release there is now the ability to co-exist with Server 2003 and Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 2. When the first beta came out it was Server 2008 only, which annoyed a lot of the IT community and threatened to marginalize the product. That’s a lot to ask at any time, let alone during a recession where budgets are tight and taking risks in unheard of.

However, the Exchange 207 Service Pack 2 was released yesterday so will be able to be further tested with the final beta of Exchange 2010 for those who have the patience.

The in-place upgrade that is now available is either a blessing or a curse. While it’s much more convenient for small businesses or home users to upgrade software, for the larger organization this isn’t the case. Upgrading means downtime and the risk of incompatibility with existing applications. Often it is much safer, and easier to upgrade a machine anew and integrate it into the network all shiny and fresh. A well planned refresh of the infrastructure would allow an organization to take down part of its system and do fresh installs while the existing nodes chugged away as normal. Once the new servers were ready they would be connected together in isolation before being introduced back into the wild. Doing it this way would enable rigorous testing before go live and prevent any system errors or incompatibilities affecting live service.

Now Microsoft have enabled Exchange 2010 to play nicely with Server 2003 it should become more acceptable. Rather than having to upgrade the entire server farm, only those servers hosting Exchange 2010 will need to be upgraded. This will save thousands of dollars when it comes to deployment time, and a much quicker turnaround when it comes to installation. Upgrading twenty servers instead of two hundred is a much better prospect for even the most ardent Microsoft haters.

From what we have seen so far, and with the changes announced in the final beta, the positives of upgrading to Exchange 2010 outweigh the negatives. I don’t see anyone rushing out to deploy it as soon as it’s released, but it’s a lot more likely it will be deployed than it was a month ago.

Microsoft announced that the new Exchange Server 2010 will ship by the end of the year. It released the final beta recently along with Forefront for Exchange Server 2010 which is a security add-on for the server software.

The design philosophy of the new Exchange is that of a hybrid. It is designed to work equally well as a hosted email service as it is a corporate one. The flexibility and scalability touted in previous press releases certainly hint at a much more robust and flexible approach to the software.

Microsoft has tested the application thoroughly using its own infrastructure, and the Live@Edu programme. This programme was a free offering to students which offered a co-hosted Exchange setup free of charge with ten gigabytes of storage per user and an online storage facility called SkyDrive which enables students to add files to cloud based network folders.

The software giant also used its own corporate network to host the new Exchange 2010 infrastructure. In a statement they said that it was the perfect way to iron out any last minute issues while serving thousands of mailboxes concurrently.

Michael Atalla, the Exchange Group Product Manager announced the release on the team blog this week. He also highlighted some new features such as the interoperability with Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 2, and the ability to co-exist with Server 2003 servers. Initially Exchange 2010 was only going to work on Server 2008 machines, but it may be the case now that is can work with the older OS. There was also added support for 64-bit Server 2008, upgrades from the Exchange 2010 Release Candidate to the Release To Manufacturing version, which is also good news for early adopters. It means now that the RC version can be updated to the RTM rather than being uninstalled and installed anew.

This release is another example of the sea change at Microsoft over the past couple of years. They seem to be listening to users, interacting and consulting with them and even taking some of the feedback on board. We now seem to be getting software that we want, rather than what they want us to have. Windows 7 is another example of a product that has gone though lengthy feedback testing and beta’s before being released to manufacturing.

Microsoft is also attempting to improve the email discovery and compliance aspect of its email platform. Feedback from tester so far indicates that this isn’t ready yet, and probably won’t be at the time of release. It will probably be along in a year in the first Service Pack for Exchange 2010.

While the compliance aspect isn’t fully finished, the improved interface and administrative tools are. They have been received positively so far from Exchange experts around the world as it makes it much easier to maintain the infrastructure and individual users, all from one interface. This cuts down significantly the amount of administration it will take to keep the nodes functioning.

Exchange 2010 is expected to ship at the end of this year.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE OFFICIAL EXCHANGE 2010 SITE!

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.