Bravura Networks Blog

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Microsoft’s latest version of their email server software, Exchange Server 2010 was released on November 9th 2009. Microsoft made big changes with this version of Exchange Server in regards to availability, accessibility, compliance, and integration with their Office Communication Server program. Exchange Server 2010 is an upgrade from the previous release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 which was a very successful version of the software.

Although not something the end-user will see when an upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 occurs they can appreciate its availability. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft has made changes to their Clustering / High Availability offering to allow for easier configuration and management of a high availability configuration. Microsoft has also reduced the operations per second that occur to the hard disks of the Exchange Server which allows for cheaper hardware in regards to disk cost without loss of speed or performance and also allows for larger disk space on the server. With the changes to the configuration behind High Availability in Exchange Server 2010 the underlying infrastructure has been improved to allows for easy configuration, low-cost, and high availability of the Exchange Server instance in most business which would have been previously out of reach.

With the changes in the industry and the discussion of the “Cloud” over the past few years Microsoft has made a large number of changes and additions to this version of Exchange to allow more access to the end-user from outside of the company. One of the changes that Microsoft has made with this version is by using Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and the Exchange Server platform to deliver real-time access to the end-user through hundreds of devices. Users are able to email, voicemail, rights-protected messages, calendar requests, RSS feeds and even instant message conversations through the Exchange Server synchronization. With new features also including speech-to-text voicemail preview and Conversation View mobile users who previously may have had access to the information are able to view and respond to the email or voicemail more efficiently with Microsoft’s new offering.

Changes in regards to the archiving and compliance within Exchange 2010 will help a lot of companies which currently use expensive third-party programs for archiving and discovery or are currently in need or archiving and do not have a solution in place. Exchange 2010 allows for automated archiving on the Exchange Server level to an online and available archive. This is now available to the end-user automatically through Outlook or the Outlook Web App and fully configurable like a normal Inbox so that the user is familiar with how to use the Archive. This allows the data to be migrated out of the main Exchange Database storage without losing access to the end-user or relying on the end-user’s PC to keep the archive safe. Microsoft has also granted new access and tools which can be configured for Compliance Offers or Company Owners to run automated or on demand searches against other user’s mailboxes or all mailboxes in the company through a simple web interface. One of the other features which I know is exciting to our clients is the ability to place users on “Legal Hold”, maybe the user is of question or will be let go in the near future, this ability will keep a copy of all edits and deletions the user makes without knowledge to the user, allowing you to audit any changes they may make to their mailbox prior to termination. Something that was not possible in previous versions of Exchange.

These new features are exciting for all parties involved with the Exchange Server and Network for your companies. With new management tools and greater reliability for the IT team, lower cost for hardware and higher availability for management and few features for access and ease of use for the end user it’s easy to see why Exchange 2010 is being migrated to or implemented at so many businesses. Exchange Server 2010 is available now and we can help with your installation, migration and support if needed.

Daryl is a Business Systems Engineer with San Diego-based Bravura Networks, Inc.

Contact Daryl Jennings at djennings@bravuranetworks.com