Microsoft Exchange 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Microsoft 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.

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.

You may now buy Exchange 2010!

Two weeks ago we announced that Exchange 2010 was code complete and, as we get ready for launch, we’re seeing some amazing results from our early adopter customers.   They are so good, that I can’t help sharing some of these early highlights – just a sneak peek of what is to come.

One server, many solutions

One of the things I’m most excited to see is the evolution of Exchange from an e-mail server to a multi-workload communications backbone.  Some organizations are now bringing in Exchange to do the job once managed by four or five different systems, and the results are really impressive.  With Exchange 2010, you’ve got a full e-mail, calendar and contacts solution, built-in information protection, built-in mobile e-mail and mobile device management, a full voice mail replacement, and a brand new archiving, retention and discovery solution.  Exchange administrators have seen their roles grow from simply providing great e-mail to providing an end-to-end communications solutions.  Customers are seeing impressive results in each of these workloads.

It does e-mail

It always has, but in 2010, it does it better.  With the new high availability, disaster recovery and back up capabilities combined with the significant IO reduction a few very cool things become possible.  First, what used to take multiple applications to achieve mailbox resiliency becomes possible using just Exchange.  Second, a very large mailbox – even 10 gigs+ becomes very affordable and supportable.  With Exchange 2010, a major government agency increased mailbox sizes by 10x, reduced failover times by four hours, decreased IT admin and storage costs and expects cost savings of up to $1 million per year with Exchange 2010.

It makes everyone mobile

Let’s face it – people want access to e-mail, calendar and contact information from everywhere. Outlook Web App, Outlook Mobile and Exchange Active Sync have long been the leading solutions for web e-mail and mobile phone access for businesses.  But, we didn’t rest on our laurels with 2010, and it shows in the positive user feedback– from the improved OWA UI with integrated IM/presence, to conversation view in mobile, to EAS device management – every user can now have a rich mobile experience, while you don’t have to pay anything more since it’s all ‘in the box’.

It replaces voice mail (and gives a text preview!)

A mid-size innovative manufacturing company deployed Exchange 2010 voice mail avoiding a $43,000 annual maintenance contract for their legacy voice mail and reduced IT support required by more than 1000 hours – providing an additional $28,000 savings.  And, with the new text preview, a national auto dealer has improved their sales rep response time to voice mails by 50%, which means a better sales experience for customers.

It archives and discovers

At a regional healthcare group, they are able to use the integrated archiving, retention and discovery capabilities of 2010 saving them the cost and maintenance of using third party solutions that resulted in $250,000 they didn’t have to spend – and that was just the first year savings.

It protects people

Using the combination of Exchange 2010 and Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, a global electronics firm has seen a 90% reduction in unwanted e-mail, meaning less time deleting and more time making new gadgets for you and me.  And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg — there’s a lot more around information protection we’ll showcase at launch.

When you think about the full value of Exchange together it’s an impressive package!  And, I’m really pleased that many of you clearly agree — a recent customer survey we did showed that 40% of Exchange customers are planning to move to 2010 within the next 6 months.  This certainly validates the feedback I’ve gotten from our customers and partners about the value delivered by Exchange 2010.

Since I know many of you are underway with deployment planning, I wanted to take this opportunity to make sure everyone knows the licensing options, so you can plan accordingly.  Just like 2007, Exchange 2010 will offer a Standard CAL and an Enterprise CAL.  Standard CAL includes all e-mail, calendar and contacts capabilities, mobile messaging with Exchange ActiveSync, plus the new over-the-air updates of Outlook Mobile on Windows Mobile 6.1+, and Outlook Web App.  The Exchange Enterprise CAL adds e-mail archiving, discovery and retention functionality, integrated voice mail (i.e. unified messaging) and Forefront Protection for Exchange.

On the server side, Exchange Server Standard will now support high availability, so all customers can take full advantage of the new database availability group capabilities.  Exchange Server Enterprise enables configurations with up to 100 databases per server.

All of the specifics around pricing and licensing will be available when we launch, but just to give you an idea, a customer buying a new license will pay about $55 for Standard CAL and about $35 for Enterprise CAL.  Existing customers with Software Assurance, of course, only pay for the renewal of Software Assurance, so this price is much lower.  And for the servers, a typical customer can expect to pay about $550 for Standard Server and $3200 for Enterprise Server.  As you know, pricing depends on the license type you choose, and if you buy via one of the CAL suites further discounts apply, so definitely take this as a ballpark vs absolute.  As always, your reseller partner or Microsoft rep can get you the specifics on pricing once Exchange 2010 is available.

I can’t wait to share more of the incredible results our Exchange 2010 customers are seeing and talk with you about your Exchange 2010 plans.  I hope you can join us at TechEd Europe in Berlin, Exchange Connections in Las Vegas or online at www.thenewefficiency.com as we launch Exchange 2010.  It’s going to be a great time!

Julia White
Director of Exchange Marketing
Microsoft

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!

With personal information now a commodity, even if you aren’t a celebrity or work for the government, there is still a case for email encryption, even if it’s to make you feel more secure.

It’s easy to sit back and think that all the security scares are just security consultants hyping everything up to look worse than they are.  While it is often the case, either that or scaremongering, there is a case for protecting yourself as much as possible, including email.

You wouldn’t send personal information to someone on the back o a postcard for everyone to see, so why is sending it over email any different?  If you have the right skills, reading other peoples email is a simple thing to achieve.  Considering how much we depend on it, and what we use it for, not protecting it seems foolish.

Using email encryption isn’t something the government wants you to do as it makes snooping on your more difficult, however protecting yourself and your personal information is more important than that.  Despite moves to the contrary, it is still currently perfectly legal to encrypt any and all communications you make.  For as long as that is the case, everybody should encrypt their email.

It isn’t as difficult to do as you may imagine either.  Companies like Thawte and Comodo offer free personal digital certificates to use in conjunction with your mail to encrypt the messages and to prove that messages you send are really from you.  They are free and made available to you in a couple of minutes.  You just have to give the company your name email address and a password and they will provide you with a certificate which you can use with your favorite email client.

The certificate works by digitally signing your email, which the recipients can see.  They also encrypt the email by using keys.  You have a private key, which only you know, and you provide public keys for the email recipients so they can decrypt the mail.  That way every one of your mails is protected from all but the most determined hacker.

If you choose to use this method of email encryption, ensure that all email is protected.  Only encrypting the important mails will tell any hackers exactly what email to concentrate their efforts on.  Encrypting them all will have them working hard to crack even the most mundane mails, which is sure to drive them off.

Email encryption is free, and easy to configure.  Digital certificates work with most email clients, and you don’t have to only send important emails to warrant using one.  Protecting yourself, and your personal information is as important as locking your car when you leave it or securing your home when you go away.  It should become second nature, and you should make every effort to secure yourself as well as your property.

In today’s data-centric environment, the need for streamlining to achieve benefits such as cost-savings and greater security has never been more paramount for the enterprise.

Mumbai – one of the most populated cities in the world with increasing traffic as the financial center of India – accommodates millions of travelers every year. The Airports Authority of India recently mandated modernization of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, India’s busiest airport. MIAL directs the expansion and improvement of CSIA infrastructure to accommodate nearly double its existing capacity, eventually serving 40 million passengers and handling one million tons of cargo per year.

According to airport officials, initial upgrades focused on training employees and refurbishing areas of passenger convenience, such as terminal entrances and passenger lounges. More recent developments include additional taxiways, a multi-level car park at the international terminal, and resurfaced runways. Managing multiple projects across an airport that employs hundreds of people and spans an operational area of 1,450 acres demands swift and secure communication.

“MIAL employees send and receive hundreds of faxes every month to and from vendors and government agencies. And, many faxes require signature,” said Pankaj Srivastava, manager of information technology for the MIAL project management office. “Incoming faxes are more important,” he continues. “We have emergency faxes coming to the airport control center or from various consulates regarding regulations or VIP passengers. For those, fast turnaround and security is needed.”

The airport relied on close to 50 fax machines that required consistent and costly maintenance as well as constant supply refills – what’s more, sensitive documents were not private or secure.

MIAL officials said the airport has eliminated fax machine queues and gained reliable security for all faxed documents with Open Text Fax Server, RightFax Edition, which creates a unified fax and e-mail solution. The Open Text Fax Server Connector for Microsoft (News – Alert) Exchange is an add-on to fax server, acting as a communication link between the fax server and exchange server.

Instead of printing pages to feed through fax machines, employees can fax documents from any Microsoft application right at their desktop computers. Integration with Microsoft Exchange allows users to select recipients from their Microsoft Outlook address books. In addition, senior managers or their secretaries can receive documents via individually assigned direct inward dial – or DID – numbers.

The airport’s senior managers use smartphones, so even when they’re traveling, they can receive an email as soon as a fax arrives, according to Open Text officials. They can see faxes via a PDF viewer and forward them directly from the wireless device.

MIAL estimates saving hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars per month with Fax Server. The company also expects to eliminate close to 40 fax machines, with the remainder as backup devices in case of email failure.

“Our staff members have increased efficiency because we have optimized their time. I don’t see anyone standing around fax machines nowadays. If someone is standing by a machine, I wonder, ‘What are you doing there?’ That non-productive time is now used for a better purpose,” said Srivastava.

Today, Ontario-based Open Text supports more than 20,000 active fax server production systems. Thousands of Open Text users have realized “hard cost savings through the displacement of traditional fax and document management infrastructure,” company officials said.

important links:

• http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/exchange.aspx
• http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/default.aspx
• http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/enterprise-fax-over-ip/articles/68447-enterprise-fax-over-ip-mumbai-international-airport-integrates.htm