Why Do It? Exchange 2007 That Is……
Posted by: John Bostock
Exchange, Upgrading Exchange, Exchange 2007 Upgrade, Why Exchange 2007, 10 Reasons for Exchange 2007
I have ONLY just started evaluating Exchange 2007. Ok some may say I’m a bit behind but I’m a great believer in if it isn’t broke why fix it so that’s my excuse, well one of them anyway. It’s like vista…what am I really going to get out of a companywide rollout? With the total effort involved for you and your team it has to be worth it…right?
I’ve included the top 10 reasons from Microsoft and I’d be really be interested in your comments on whether you have made the move or think it’s worth the effort.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is designed to deliver increased protection for your business and give anywhere access for your employees, while being operationally efficient to deploy, manage and maintain. Should you upgrade? Here are ten reasons for you to consider. For more information, peruse the detailed features listing and compare features across versions to help you discover all that Exchange Server 2007 has to offer.
1. Keep your e-mail system running at lower cost
New data replication capabilities in Exchange Server 2007 drive increased availability at a lower cost. Local Continuous Replication delivers database redundancy with rapid recovery, minimizing the frequency of full tape backups. With Cluster Continuous Replication in combination with Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS), active/passive clusters provide both database and service redundancy without requiring expensive shared storage, even when clusters span geographic locations.
2. Access e-mail, voice mail, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere, anytime
In Exchange Server 2007, your employees can access their important inbox information from virtually anywhere using their desktop computer, laptop computer, a browser window from any Internet-connected computer, their mobile device, and even using a basic telephone when no Internet connectivity is available. Employees enjoy a rich and familiar experience based on Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 functionality. Best of all, it’s all built in with centralized management and robust security, making rich anywhere access possible for your entire workforce instead of just a limited few.
3. Get affordable, enterprise-class mobile messaging that’s better than ever
Exchange makes enterprise-class mobile messaging a reality by offering industry-leading scalability, native integration with compatible devices for lower total cost of ownership, and by providing a variety of device options to suit today’s business needs. Building on the advances in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2, mobility features in Exchange Server 2007 raise the bar on user experience and deliver improved manageability. Now desktop features such as support for rich HTML, quick flags, sophisticated calendaring, and fast search are available on mobile devices. In addition, Exchange Server 2007 provides more granular security policies and enables users to perform basic tasks on their own (such as perform a remote wipe from Outlook Web Access 2007).
4. Empower employees with unified messaging while saving money
With new unified messaging in Exchange Server 2007, employees can receive their e-mail, voice mail, and faxes through a single inbox that can be accessed from anywhere. Employees can manage all of their messages in one place just as they manage e-mail today. For example, voice mail can be forwarded, or if the recipient adds text notes to the voice mail, messages can be found using built-in search. With Exchange Server 2007, you can deliver these features while lowering cost and complexity through consolidation of your voice mail infrastructure.
5. Get comprehensive protection from spam, viruses and phishing attacks
Exchange Server 2007 provides integrated antivirus, anti-spam and anti-phishing technologies to stop the latest threats before they impact your business and employees. Multi-pronged message filtering in the perimeter network is available through the Edge Transport server role. For customers who prefer to use a service, similar capabilities are provided in the “cloud” (as an Internet-based service) through Exchange Hosted Filtering*. Additionally, Forefront for Exchange Server* protects Exchange servers from viruses and worms by utilizing multiple antivirus engines simultaneously. To protect from evolving threats, filters are kept up to date with frequent and automatic updates.
*Exchange Hosted Filtering and Forefront Security for Exchange Server are included with the Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise CAL license.
6. Reduce compliance risk in a way that makes sense for your business
Exchange Server 2007 incorporates features specifically designed to help your business comply with corporate, regulatory, and legal requirements. These features enable you to apply retention rules, scan and act on messages in transport, flexibly journal, and perform rich text searches across mailboxes in your organization. Exchange Server 2007 eases the toll often placed on administrators charged with applying and enforcing compliance policies, while avoiding adverse impact on employees and their productivity.
7. Take advantage of powerful Web access
Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2007 provides a rich, Outlook 2007-like experience in a browser and is great for use at home, at an airport kiosk, at an internet café, at a friend’s house, or anywhere where there is an Internet connection available. No VPN or network tunnel is required. OWA enhancements in 2007 include a new Scheduling Assistant to help employees efficiently book meetings, fast server-side search, integrated unified messaging as well as new features to access documents and attachments more easily from outside the office. With two-factor authentication support and attachment viewing in HTML format, OWA also offers enhanced security compared with previous versions.
8. Boost administrator productivity with new tools
Exchange Server 2007 helps administrators save time and reduce effort with advanced management tools. A new command line interface gives administrators complete, fine-grained control over Exchange objects as well as the power to easily automate all types of operations with scripts. In addition, the graphical management console has been completely updated, with a more intuitive user interface, improved discoverability and a toolbox work center that integrates diagnostics, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools including the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant.
9.Ease deployment and management
Deploying Exchange Server has never been easier. Exchange Server 2007 has a modern, modular architecture based on server roles. The server role concept is integrated into setup and deployment, helping to eliminate potential errors resulting from manual configuration, reducing the surface area for malicious attacks, and simplifying day-to-day management. Server roles are not tied to particular hardware configurations; they can be deployed on one server machine or many**. The new Autodiscover feature further eases deployment - by creating an automatic connection between Exchange Server and Outlook 2007 clients where no special scripts or complex user intervention is required.
**The exception is the Edge Transport role that is intentionally designed to reside by itself in the perimeter network.
10.Optimize your investment for future growth
As a native 64-bit application, Exchange Server 2007 breaks through past memory and cache limitations for higher performance and increased scalability even as mailboxes sizes grow to accommodate employees’ demands for more storage. The resulting reduction in input/output (I/O) increases storage utilization so you can optimize existing storage investments or consider lower cost storage options.
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