Making the Move to Exchange Server 2003
by Edward Wu
June 2003 Issue
 |
|
| Edward Wu |
By now you've probably read about the exciting new features in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. With breakthrough advances in security, performance, and stability, along with information worker productivity gains and reductions in the total cost of ownership, Microsoft really believes this is the release that will inspire all Exchange customers to upgrade. Microsoft has also made a significant investment in resources to ensure the upgrade and migration to Exchange 2003 goes smoothly, with minimal disruption.
Today's business climate is more challenging then ever. Economic conditions call for careful spending and a sharp eye toward improving operational efficiency. Yet, at the same time, IT administrators are required to do more with less, do it dependably and securely, and enable more efficient ways for information workers to collaborate. E-mail is currently the most widely used collaborative technology; 115 million Exchange users can attest to that. In a December 2002 Gartner Group survey, 90 percent of its clientele said e-mail/messaging provided the best payback of technologies deployed in the last three years.
To help companies meet today's challenges, Microsoft is committed to making Exchange 2003 the most reliable messaging server available. Following up on our commitment to Trustworthy Computing, the Exchange team is delivering a product that's developed to be secure by design, by default, and by deployment. Exchange 2003 will also be more dependable with increased cluster support, better memory management, and more effective tools to manage business continuity through disaster recovery planning. At the same time, Exchange 2003 promises to help information workers collaborate more productively by delivering a consistent user experience and making mobile and remote access to Exchange easier than ever before. You can combine Exchange 2003 with Windows Server 2003 to provide users with a wide range of flexible and security-enhanced ways to access their mailboxes, including Outlook 2003, Outlook Web Access (OWA), and mobile access through Outlook Mobile Access and Exchange Server ActiveSync. All this new functionality will empower organizations, enabling them to communicate more efficiently and become more competitive and agile.
Microsoft's Operations Technology Group (OTG) is the first customer that's 100-percent deployed on Exchange 2003 and is the best case study for you to see the return on investment you can achieve by upgrading to Exchange 2003. By mid-2003, OTG will consolidate 75 server sites to 50 or less—that's a 33 percent reduction in a short amount of time. Ultimately, OTG wants just a handful of sites, and the ability to make that happen currently is gated only by finding the time to get the work done.
New mobility enhancements and the integration of wireless access functionality formerly available from Mobile Information Server allowed OTG to further reduce costs, collapse a separate mobile infrastructure, provide greater security, and streamline operations. Employees are raving about the new OWA and Outlook Mobile Access clients because the look and feel is practically identical to the Outlook client; this reduces the learning curve and supports costs.
We've also improved performance in this version of Exchange, with bytes-over-the-wire savings from the new compression possible with Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2003 and a better end-user experience using Outlook over slow connections. Because virtual private networks (VPNs) and remote access services (RAS) are among the most costly to deploy and support, OTG is enabling Outlook users to connect securely over the Internet through HTTP directly to their Exchange server.
Since Microsoft launched Exchange 2000 in October 2000, we've collected a wide range of customer feedback and conducted extensive market research in an effort to better understand what's needed to ease the migration to Exchange 2003. We heard loud and clear that you want more and better resources to make the move from Exchange 5.5 error proof, as well as tools to validate that every step of the migration process is executed correctly. You also asked for greater guidance to navigate the process of setting up the Active Directory service and the Active Directory Connector. So, in Exchange 2003, we've delivered new prescriptive guidance, setup wizards, and verification tools. The Windows and Exchange product teams worked together to develop these new tools to ensure the upgrade and migration to Windows 2003 Active Directory and Exchange 2003 is less disruptive to the existing messaging infrastructure and to give IT administrators confidence and peace of mind.
A lot of you have asked us whether Exchange 5.5 and 2000 can coexist with Exchange 2003 during the migration process. Rest assured that Microsoft has thought through all these scenarios and provides new tools and wizards to guide you through the process. Exchange 5.5 customers can migrate directly to Exchange 2003, and customers in the middle of their Exchange 5.5 to 2000 migrations have the option of including Exchange 2003 in their topologies. For customers operating Exchange 2000, a simple in-place upgrade to Exchange 2003 is available. You can start by reviewing and testing Exchange 2003 and the migration tools in a lab environment and begin experiencing the benefits first hand.
The Microsoft Exchange team has devoted a great deal of effort, not only in Exchange 2003, but also in the infrastructure required to deploy and maintain it. With these new tools, you can migrate faster, easier, and with less disruption. You can now have confidence that Exchange is set up and operating correctly and can reduce the amount of support you'll need. For more information and resources on Exchange 2003, please visit www.microsoft.com/exchange.
About the Author
Edward Wu has been a product manager on the Exchange Server team at Microsoft for more than three years. Prior to that, Wu worked in the Microsoft Mobile division, focusing on Mobile Information Server and Mobile Device Access. Before joining Microsoft, Wu worked at Motorola and IBM in product development and marketing. Wu received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Washington.
|