Exchange Server 2007 ramps up e-mail management
By Howard Baldwin
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 offers enhanced access, protection, and new options for administrators and users.
Those of us of a certain vintage remember an artifact known as the interoffice memorandum (or memo). It was so pervasive, it seemed impossible that it would ever become extinct, but that was before we realized how much the business world would come to depend on electronic communication. E-mail killed the memo and all the jokes that went along with it.
With the December 2006 release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, it's clear that e-mail has a gravity that memos never seemed to have. It's become far more than simple communication. It's record keeping. It's the way we organize directions to subordinates and from superiors. It's the way we record, organize, and even conduct our work life.
In fact, the pervasiveness of e-mail influenced some of the biggest changes in Exchange Server 2007:
| • | Capability for workers to access e-mail messages from any device or network. |
| • | Capability for workers to access e-mail messages, fax, and voice mail from a single inbox. |
| • | Capability for IT to retain and archive e-mail messages to be compliant with government regulations. |
| • | Capability for IT to protect users from viruses, worms, and other malware. |
To handle these capabilities, Exchange Server 2007 has been re-architected so that it is not only faster but easier to manage and maintain, according to Microsoft senior product manager Darcy Luer who focuses on how midsize businesses use Exchange Server. The software runs on the latest servers using high-performance 64-bit processors. And it uses Active Directory to auto-discover users on the network, which makes deployment faster and easier. To get on to Exchange Server, employees only need their user names and passwords.
Decoupling capabilities
Exchange Server 2003 was somewhat monolithic in that you had to install the entire application to use it. With Exchange Server 2007, you can split up modules (or roles) and run them on different servers, Luer says. For instance, one server can handle unified messaging while another can act as the SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) gateway on the edge of the network (this server must be separate from the others).
This decoupling of capabilities also makes it easier to designate a backup server for messages. That's important because of the nature of electronic communication these days. Many industries have strict guidelines regarding the retention of electronic communication—whether e-mail or instant messaging. Any company that's been involved in a lawsuit in which electronic discovery was ordered knows the pain of trying to find crucial messages.
Improved ease of use
Exchange Server 2007 incorporates technology that both enables workers to categorize e-mail messages and flag confidential messages, and enables IT to control the metadata of messages, search multiple mailboxes for particular messages, set policies regarding retention and archiving, and even archive to a Microsoft SharePoint server or a third-party backup service.
For people who travel with laptops, smartphones, or PDAs, Exchange Server 2007 ActiveSync capability makes access to Microsoft Office Outlook much easier, which helps make employees more productive even when they're out of the office. New Exchange Unified Messaging features an integrated inbox, so employees can receive e-mail messages, voice mail, and faxes in one place. Users must be on a VoIP-based network to accommodate this, though such a network can connect with legacy PBX systems (a complete upgrade of the entire network is not necessary). You can also access your e-mail inbox from a regular phone.
Stronger security
Because e-mail has become so pervasive, it's also subject to malcontents (this isn't news to anyone with an e-mail account). Thanks to multiple antivirus and security acquisitions by Microsoft over the past few years, Exchange Server 2007 offers added protection against spam and viruses.
Purchase options
Exchange Server 2007 comes in a variety of formats (based on estimated retail pricing; reseller prices may vary). Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition (US$699) enables you to create up to five storage groups with five databases per mailbox server; the Enterprise Edition (US$3,999) enables you to create up to 50 storage groups with 50 databases per mailbox server. The standard client access license (CAL) is US$67 per user; for an additional US$25 per user, companies can get enterprise client access and Microsoft Software Assurance, which includes extra security, and antivirus and antispam protection.
For small and midsize companies interested in access to Exchange Server on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis, Microsoft offers this capability through Microsoft Hosted Exchange E-Mail with several options. If you have limited IT resources to keep e-mail up and running, you can use the hosted service to allocate IT resources to other projects, says Luer. Based on estimated retail pricing on a monthly basis (reseller prices may vary), companies with as few as five workers could obtain hosted filtering for US$1.75 per worker (which includes antispam and antivirus protection) or hosted encryption for US$1.90 per worker (which includes e-mail encryption based on company policies).
The hosted continuity service (US$2.50 per user) gives employees access to the last 30 days of e-mail messages and the capability to send and receive e-mail messages in real time, even if the primary e-mail system is unavailable. Finally, the hosted archive service (US$17.25 per user) captures and retains external and internal e-mail messages and instant messages based on company policy. Instant message service incorporates the hosted continuity service, so companies only need to get one service or the other (hosted filtering is required with each of the other services).
Howard Baldwin is a Sunnyvale, California-based contributing writer to the Midsize Business Center.
