Microsoft Exchange 2010

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.

BERLIN, Nov. 9 / Today at the Microsoft Tech-Ed Europe 2009 conference in Germany, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop announced that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is now available worldwide to help businesses reduce costs, protect communications and delight e-mail users. Along with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010 is part of a generation of solutions designed for increased business productivity and cost savings.

In today’s challenging economic environment, innovative use of new information technologies can result in improved operational efficiency and reduced costs. The combination of cost savings coupled with improved productivity and innovation is defined as “the New Efficiency.”

Elop also announced the release of Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, which helps Exchange Server customers further safeguard business information.

“Exchange Server 2010 customers are already reporting cost savings of up to 70 percent thanks to a simplified high-availability model and support for lower-cost storage. Customers are also seeing productivity gains of more than 20 percent with a universal inbox that delivers e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging and text messaging consistently across virtually any device,” Elop said. “Together with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the combined cost savings and improved productivity helps customers generate long-term business success.”

According to a commissioned study of technology early adopters conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft Corp., a customer can see a payback period of less than six months when upgrading to either Exchange Server 2010* or Windows Server 2008 R2.**

Customers such as Bank of America Corp., Carnival Cruise Line, Global Crossing, Lifetime Products, Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc., NEC Philips, Subaru Canada Inc. and Telekom Austria Group are deploying Exchange Server 2010 and report impressive results with the new server.

“We have increased storage eightfold at 25 percent of the cost with Exchange Server 2010 and our employees are seeing a reduction of unwanted e-mail by more than 70 percent, freeing us up to focus on more important client issues,” said Steve Derbyshire, operations director, NEC Philips.

Organizations including Automatic Data Processing Inc., BMW, Baker Tilly, the City of Miami, Energizer, Getronics and Pella Corp. are deploying Windows 7 and report gains in efficiency for both business users and IT. Customers report improved user productivity and easier information access, reduced costs with streamlined management, and reduced risk through better security and increased desktop control. Supporting detail is available in recent total cost of ownership studies and analyst survey reports at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/products/windows-7/default.aspx.

Businesses are seeing equally significant results from Windows Server 2008 R2, with customers including Continental Airlines Inc. (U.S.), Chester Zoo (U.K.), Combell Group NV (Belgium), FinPro (Finland), Wacom Europe GmbH (Germany) and Wortell (Netherlands) noting cost savings through server consolidation, reduced power consumption and improved service levels.

“With Windows Server 2008 R2, we’ve been able to dramatically reduce costs in our IT infrastructure while simplifying management,” said Phil Morris, IT manager, North England Zoological Society/Chester Zoo. “By virtualizing our environment with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, we have reduced the number of servers in our environment by 80 percent while maintaining the high availability our retail staff, researchers and management team need.”

“Windows Server 2008 R2 brings many efficiencies to our customers, including enabling new virtualization scenarios,” said Bill Laing, corporate vice president for the Windows Server and Solutions Division at Microsoft. “We’ve added the next generation of hypervisor and the new ability to perform Live Migration of virtual machines. Many customers are already seeing tangible results since deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V.”

Elop said more than 45,000 partners are trained on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010, with several partners announcing new services and solutions today, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Avanade, Dell Inc., EMC Corp., Kaspersky Lab, Symantec Corp. and Unisys Corp.

Exchange Server 2010 and Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange are available now for trial at http://www.thenewefficiency.com, along with more information about Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and partner solutions.

Ongoing Commitment to Developers and IT Professionals
As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to providing developers and IT professionals with the technology to drive productivity gains within their organizations, the following announcements also were also made today at Tech-Ed Europe 2009.

• The community technology preview for SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2.aspx.
• For use in building multilanguage Web sites and client applications, Microsoft Translator widgets and APIs are now in beta. Many European languages are now supported by Microsoft Translator. Additional details can be found at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9694254.
• Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group will release new guidance that extends the full Security Development Lifecycle process to a wider external software developer audience, by enabling developers using the Agile development model to integrate Microsoft’s SDL processes, tools and technologies directly into their software development environments, helping to ensure their applications are secure and their customers have a safer, more trusted computing experience.

Virtual Tech-Ed Europe Participation
There are multiple ways for those not in attendance to experience Tech-Ed Europe 2009.

• Visit the Tech-Ed global pressroom at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/teched/default.mspx for additional details regarding all announcements made at Tech-Ed Europe 2009.
• View the live stream of the executive keynote address from the Tech-Ed 2009 global pressroom today at 3:30 p.m. CET/6:30 a.m. PST.
• Participate in the post-keynote webcast Q&A today at 5 p.m. CET/8 a.m. PST, immediately following the executive keynote address. Submit questions to the executive panel by visiting the Tech-Ed global pressroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* Source: Forrester Consulting: “The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Exchange 2010,” November 2009.
** Source: Forrester Consulting: “The Total Economic Impact of Windows Server 2008 R2,” November 2009.

This information is about pre-release software and therefore is subject to change. It is provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied

Microsoft Exchange 2010 officially ships today, offering enterprises a bigger, better, faster messaging platform. In April, reviewer Joel Snyder tested the beta version of Exchange 2010.

Here, he checks out a boatload of the most interesting features and upgrades associated with the shipping product and gives a thumbs up or thumbs down on whether Microsoft delivers the goods.

1. Database Availability Groups (DAG)

Joel says: Thumbs up

Exchange continues to make high-availability simple by creating DAGs, multiple servers cooperating to make a set of Exchange mailboxes highly available through continuous replication and high-availability failover. It’s not a simple feature to roll out, but it’s a lot simpler than it used to be and doesn’t take a PhD in Exchange to use.

2. Local Continuous Replication is Gone.

Joel says: Thumbs down.

If you loved the idea of having two copies of the same Exchange database on the same server in case your cheapo (or expensive) disk crashed, stick with Exchange 2007. As part of the simplification and extension of high availability, local continuous replication bit the dust. Microsoft’s answer: Go get another server instead.

3. It’s Mac friendly.

Joel says: Thumbs up

Outlook Web App, the renamed-Outlook Web Access, now works well in non-Microsoft browsers and on non-Microsoft platforms. Safari users, for example, get a great experience with Web-based e-mail, calendaring, and contacts.

4. No client needed

Joel says: Thumbs up

If you don’t want to pay for Microsoft Office to get Outlook, or if folks are just as happy reading their e-mail through a Web browser, Exchange 2010 is all about that, even down to the sound cues for alerts. That’s right, Firefox can now sound like Outlook!

5. Still a few bugs to get ironed out.

Joel says: Thumbs down

It’s new, OK, and while Microsoft tells us that thousands of people are using Exchange 2010, some of the new dark corners have a bug or two left in them. Here’s one we stumbled across, where Outlook wouldn’t let someone read their own mail — even though Outlook Web App would. Maybe wait for SP1 before giving this to everyone.

6. Bigger, Better. Faster, More

Joel says: Thumbs up, mostly

Exchange 2007 wanted 64-bits, but it could at least be tested on a 32-bit system. No more. Exchange 2010 insists on 64-bits. This makes your life easier in one sense, since everything is 64-bit through and through. But that’s as long as you have 64-bit friendly hardware and plenty of memory.

In terms of performance, Microsoft has reduced the I/O load of Exchange (they throw around numbers between 70% and 90% compared with Exchange 2000), meaning that you can use slow SATA laptop drives on that whiz-bang new 64-bit server and still get excellent results. Reducing write bursts within Exchange also makes it more compatible with SATA drives.

7. Personal archiving

Joel says: Thumbs down…for now.

With Enterprise licensing, you can enable a personal archive for any user, which creates a twin mailbox in the same message store. Users can drag-and-drop mail there, or Exchange rules can move it there automatically based on policy. Intended as a replacement for those PST files that users seem to keep creating, and losing, the archive doesn’t make much sense as long as it has to be stored in the same mailbox database as the original mailbox — which it does in this release of Exchange. When that limitation is lifted and you can give users tons of slow, cheap storage for e-mail archiving, this’ll be a thumbs-up.

8. Self-service

Joel says:Thumbs up

Exchange 2010 offers self-service through the Web interface (Outlook will redirect you to the Web interface, a harbinger of things to come), where you can change group memberships, address information, vacation settings and automatic replies, in-box rules, antispam settings, and more. If you’ve chosen Exchange as your VoIP automated attendant, you can even design your personalized answering service. Fewer help desk calls and happier users. What more could you want?

9. E-Discovery made easier

Joel says: Thumbs up

A slew of features in Exchange 2010 aimed at building in e-Discovery features can save the expensive of third-party add-ons, especially in smaller companies. Multiple mailbox search with extensive Boolean criteria is a good start, as is Legal Hold — a way to be sure that information doesn’t disappear once you’ve been notified that the scent of litigation is in the air. Microsoft packed these in haphazardly, so you have to hunt around to find all the pieces, but at least they’re there.

10. Your dictation machine

Joel says: Thumbs up

Not everyone will hook up their voice mail to Exchange Unified Messaging (this feature doesn’t work if you just forward your voice mail into Exchange), but if you do, then Exchange 2010 will try voice recognition on your voice mail and put the text in the e-mail message with the voice recording. Now, hitting delete can take even less time.

11. Exchange test tool

Joel says: Thumbs up

Microsoft now has a Web site that can test various aspects of your Exchange server from the Internet. Everything from basic incoming SMTP to ActiveSync and Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP) are testable. Not strictly a part of Exchange 2010, but a welcome contribution to the world of e-mail administrators who need a better test than you get from Gmail.

12. Look Ma, no “Next” button

Joel says: Thumbs up

Exchange Web now shows all of your messages in a single window, with scroll bars (if necessary), instead of with troublesome “next” and “previous” screen buttons. Also in this version: threaded messages, which Microsoft calls Conversation View. A long-missing competitive feature, Exchange clients now can thread all messages in a conversation into a single view, helping to eliminate the all-too-common syndrome of answering a message that someone else has already answered.

13. There’s a button for that

Joel says: Thumbs down

Maybe Exchange 2010 shouldn’t be tarred with the Outlook brush, but…apparently menus and shortcuts are now so passe that every possible function anyone could do, even those you don’t do very often, is now laid out in the pane at the top of Outlook’s window. Sure, you can turn it all off, or spend a couple of hours customizing it, but how about a more sensible set of defaults that doesn’t overwhelm us with choice anxiety the first time we launch?

14. Yep, we delivered that

Joel says: Thumbs down

Microsoft calls it “Message Tracking,” and holds such promise. Unfortunately, the information you see in the tracking is so basic and so primitive that this does little to help anyone — and may confuse the issue more than it clarifies it. Come on, Microsoft. You can do better than this!

Droid was looking like quite the contender with its QWERTY keyboard, 5MP camera, replaceable battery, turn-by-turn GPS and MicroSD slot. Droid and its 854×480 3.7-inch screen promised customers a viable alternative to AT&T’s swamped network and the Apple’s draconian app policies. Why did it have to spoil a good thing by punishing its Microsoft Exchange users with an additional $15 fee?

Oh, sure, Verizon is accustomed to sticking it to its Blackberry customers, who for years have been paying an extra $15 over the $30 base data plan for the privilege of using a Blackberry Enterprise Server. Businesses who use a BES are already paying for server licensing and per-seat fees, so an added tax on the provider side isn’t surprising. AT&T and T-mobile are also guilty of pinching an extra $15 from their Blackberry customers who use a BES. So it’s not surprising that Blackberry customers switching to Droid might not have paid much attention to the extra fee.

However, Droid, with its “iDon’t, Droid Does” advertising campaign, has the iPhone squarely in its crosshairs. The iPhone uses Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology to connect to Exchange, bypassing the need for an extra server like Research in Motion’s BES. This connectivity is inclusive with its $30 unlimited data plan. Droid also uses ActiveSync, so why does its data plan cost 50 percent more for the same functionality? Surely if Verizon is seeking to steal business customers from AT&T, it should make an attempt to be cost competitive.

Are there really extra overhead costs associated with pulling mail from a Microsoft server versus a Gmail server? Unlikely. It seems like just another ploy to nickel-and-dime customers who need to access to corporate mail servers.

Business owners are likely to pay attention to this discrepancy. Say you’re looking to equip a mobile sales force of a dozen or more with an e-mail capable phone. If you’re using Gmail, the iPhone and the Droid will cost you the same. If you rely on an Exchange server, the difference is thousands per year. Does Verizon think its customers won’t notice?

Michael Scalisi is an IT manager based in Alameda, California.

By Liau Yun Qing, ZDNet Asia

SINGAPORE–In a bid to expand its international marketing efforts around Google Apps, the search giant last week launched a global initiative it calls “Gone Google”. But, one local company cites user inertia and learning curve as reasons for not jumping on the bandwagon just yet.

Deepak Ramanathan, the company’s Asia-Pacific head of enterprise marketing, said in an e-mail interview that Google is focusing on digital screens for the campaign to keep the advertisements “fresh and up-to-date”, and has placed advertisements in 17 digital billboards across the Singapore Changi Airport’s three terminals.

Ramanathan said Google sees “huge opportunity” in enterprises and has “thousands of” Google Apps business users in Singapore and Southeast Asia, ranging from small and midsize businesses (SMBs), to large enterprises and educational institutions.

At the Gartner Symposium in Orlando last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt had said: “[Enterprise is] the next big billion-dollar opportunity after our display [ad] business.”

The company hopes marketing Google Apps will further promote enterprise moves to cloud computing.

But, at least one organization is doubtful Google Apps’ feature set can match their current office productivity software staples.

User inertia, learning curve
Local company Digital Scanning Corporation (DSC) is among those that will not be switching to Google Apps just yet.

In an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, DSC CTO Wong Ee Sing said the organization currently has no plans to push for a company-wide migration to Google Apps, though the IT department had tried out the suite and found it adequate for day-to-day use.

Wong cited “user inertia and learning curve” as some of the company’s concerns.

“None of our users are interested in re-learning a new application, especially when the one they are currently using works just fine,” he explained. “If we want to move to Google Apps, we would have to uninstall [our current office suite] from every PC to force users to learn Google Apps, [which is] not great for productivity.”

He added that DSC employees in general seem to be more concerned with presentation rather than content of a document. “Google Apps do not provide such rich formatting capabilities. This mindset would have to change or be changed for Google Apps to take off,” Wong said.

The company also has “nagging worries over security and confidentiality“, he noted.

In response to these concerns, Ramanathan told ZDNet Asia in a follow-up e-mail that the “true power of Google Apps is the ability to collaborate online and share documents in real-time, from any PC or Web-enabled mobile phone”.

“While client-based productivity software has many more rich formatting capabilities than cloud-based productivity software today, the gap is closing,” he said. “Meanwhile, cloud-based productivity software can provide additional functionality that client-based software does not currently have, such as translation of documents into 42 languages.”

Users who like Microsoft Outlook, he added, can try an application called Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, which allows Outlook users to connect to Google Apps for business e-mail, contacts and calendar. These people can also use Gmail’s Web interface to access information when they are not on their work computer, he said.

PointStar, a Google Apps reseller, added in an e-mail interview: “Google has dedicated teams of engineers to constantly monitor and maintain data security as well as data center protection procedures that conform to the SAS 70 standard.”

Wong believes, too, that the cloud computing model will eventually prevail. Although DSC is not focusing on the platform yet, he does not discount the possibility of migrating to the Web. “As more applications move to the cloud, our entire desktop experience will reside in the cloud and tightly,” he said.

Company that “Gone Google”
And while DSC is biding its time with Google Apps, another local company recently made the switch.

In an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, NGR Engineering’s CTO Gilles Depardieu said the company made the decision to migrate after its previous server–running Microsoft Exchange–crashed following an attack by hackers from Russia and China.

The company’s CEO was also looking to reduce associated IT costs from having to consult Exchange platform specialists whom NGR did not have internally, and who were “expensive and busy” to engage when needed, Depardieu said, adding that this also created “lots of invoices” that had to be exchanged between the finance and IT departments.

The company evaluated other options, such as running managed/hosted Exchange servers with local service providers, but found the price “too high”, he said.

NGR conducted a pilot test before deciding to move to Google Apps, Depardieu said, noting that companies looking to make the switch should prepare for user resistance to change. He added that changes to local configuration on each PC can also be upsetting for some users.

“The CEO has to be on the CTO’s side from the start [and] the CTO would have a lot to do to convince other executives,” he said. “Users will complain about how slow the migration from their old local data [on the user PC] to cloud data is, [which] might take days, as uploading is always slower than downloading.”

Gerry Chng, partner at Ernst & Young, said organizations looking to adopt cloud computing should first consider some key issues before making the commitment. In an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, Chng outlined these areas:

• As public cloud computing utilizes the Internet, if they are using public clouds, organizations should consider whether their existing infrastructure can handle the demands to access applications and data over the Internet.
• Companies need to review their business continuity plans for provisions in the event of unavailability of applications or data in the cloud.
• They need to relook internal policies and regulatory requirements on data protection before deciding how much data, and in which form data should be hosted in the cloud.
• Organizations need to realize even though users demand mobility, high-speed Internet access is not always readily available. For example, an executive on a plane will not be able to access his cloud-based e-mail if he cannot connect to the Internet.
• Lack of open standards for existing cloud applications may pose a hindrance or risk for organizations in migrating existing applications or developing new applications for the cloud.

Chng also noted that availability and confidentiality posed risks to information security when companies move to the cloud.

“As the applications or data are provisioned from the cloud, organizations become highly dependent on the availability of the cloud service provider and Internet connection,” he said. “While an organization can plan for bandwidth, one cannot always prepare for unexpected events such as an earthquake disrupting optical fiber submarine links to the Internet.”

Chng added that organizations typically prefer to handle confidential data internally to prevent sensitive information from being leaked out.

“The challenge of confidentiality is amplified when data is handled, stored and processed through a third party,” he said.

The City of Los Angeles has decided that its 30,000 employees will “Go Google,” as the city has selected Gmail as its new email system. This decision might spell a troubling trend for Microsoft in the Enterprise Software market.

Councilman Tony Cardenas made the motion to usher in the Gmail era in the City of Angels, calling it, “a state-of-the art e-mail system.” The $7.25 million contract was awarded by a vote of 12-0 to Google.

The decision ended a year-long battle between email vendors to win the contract to support Los Angeles City workers. The City Council considered a number of other software vendors including Microsoft.

Not everyone in the Los Angeles City Council is completely sold on the idea of going to the cloud. Prior to the vote a number of the Council members had voiced concerns about turning over the city’s data to the cloud.

Councilman Paul Koretz said, “It’s unclear if this is cutting edge, or the edge of a cliff and we’re about to step off.” Critics say they aren’t convinced of the cost-savings or Gmail’s unproven ability to handle the security measures necessary for law enforcement usage.

However if the City of Los Angeles can successfully implement Gmail as the second largest city in the nation, it could serve as an example to smaller cities looking to re-evaluate their mail system. At least that’s what Google hopes.

Microsoft lobbied hard to keep Los Angeles from choosing Google, sending executives and outside advocates to talk to council members. The maker of the ubiquitous Outlook/Exchange email software combination stands to lose a lot of money from companies that decide to go Google.

This will be a grand experiment to see how thousands of city employees take to Gmail’s threaded conversations and relatively-awkward meeting scheduling. How do you think this large-scale Gmail experiment will play out?

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.

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.