Microsoft Exchange 2010

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.

Erik Eckel takes a look at the business improvements made in Mac’s Snow Leopard release. Better compatibility with Microsoft Exchange make it not only enterprise-ready, but enterprise-friendly.

Apple’s Snow Leopard release, known as Mac OS X 10.6, is impressive. Snow Leopard’s business improvements are simply outstanding. Newfound compatibility with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 makes the operating system more than enterprise ready, it makes Snow Leopard enterprise friendly.

Recent reports list Microsoft Exchange market share as high as 65 percent. That’s a lot of organizations tapping Exchange for critical messaging, calendaring, and contacts functionality, and it’s why Apple’s superior client-side applications should be such big news. The simplicity, usability, and reliability of Mac Mail 4, iCal 4, and Address Book 5, combined with newfound Exchange compatibility, make a compelling partnership.

Using Snow Leopard, accessing and synchronizing a user’s email, tasks, calendar items, and contacts have never been easier. Mac OS X 10.6 makes the formerly challenging process, which sometimes stressed even the most veteran of Windows administrators, simple.

Some of the credit goes to Microsoft. The Exchange Web Services (EWS) protocol serves as the critical link in enabling secure synchronization between Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 systems and Snow Leopard-powered Macs.

Maximize Snow Leopard/Exchange deployments by keeping these three tips in mind.

#1 EWS is the key

Mac Mail requires Windows administrators install Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4. Windows administrators must also enable Outlook Web Access on the Exchange server.

Mac support technicians and users will now find Mac Mail capable of leveraging Exchange Server 2007’s Autodiscovery feature. Connecting to Mac Mail now requires only that the technician or user know the Exchange server address, the username, and the user account’s password.

EWS taps standard ports for email. TCP port 80 is used for standard messaging, while port 443 is tapped for secure transport.

#2 iCal and Address Book synchronization is automatic

Once a user’s account is associated with Mac Mail, administrators and technicians need do little else. In Snow Leopard, Mac Mail automatically configures connections to a user’s Contacts and Calendar information on the Exchange server. This information is presented within the Mac’s Address Book and iCal applications, respectively.

Secure synchronization with the Exchange server is supported, too. Because Snow Leopard leverages EWS, calendar and contacts information can be synchronized using SSL on port 443.

#3 Tasks live within Mac Mail and iCal

Mac Mail 4 includes its own integrated To Do application. Found within Mac Mail’s standard left-hand navigation menu, To Do synchronizes with the user’s Tasks found on the Exchange server. Further, To Do items can be associated within the Mac iCal application simply by right-clicking a To Do item and clicking Reveal in iCal. Information from the entire task can be reviewed, priorities can be changed, dates and notes updated, and more.

Simplified enterprise administration

In short, Snow Leopard’s new Exchange support makes it very easy for Mac-based users to tap organizations’ existing messaging infrastructure. Better yet, thanks to EWS, complex VPNs need not be constructed or maintained to enable secure synchronization of Exchange-based information.

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 has announced the worldwide availability of its Exchange Server 2010 at its TechEd 2009 conference in Germany.

Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft Business Division, also announced new security for users with the release of Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server.

Stephen Elop said Exchange Server 2010 customers are already reporting cost savings of up to 70% “[This is] thanks to a simplified high-availability model and support for lower-cost storage.”

Exchange Server 2010 customers already include Bank of America, Carnival Cruise Line, Global Crossing, Lifetime Products, Morgan Keegan & Co, NEC Philips, Subaru Canada and Telekom Austria Group.

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