Nationwide Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server Consulting
Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server Consultants
Consulting Services for Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server
Enterprise – Mid-Size – Small Business Server Networks

Enterprise organizations, small business owners, and independent consultants will appreciate the new changes introduced in Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server. Building on top of the earlier release of Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server, Exchange Server 2010 provides Enterprise Class Solutions to meet any network environment, from single-server Exchange Organizations to multi-site, cross-forest, cross-domain and highly redundant network configurations. For small and mid-size business networks, Exchange 2010 Server provides an easy to use interface that allows individual business owners to make changes to their network without the need for a network administrator to intervene.

Built on a Solid Foundation - Microsoft’s Initiatives for Success

Building on top of previous releases and based on customer feedback, Microsoft Exchange 2010 takes the best of Exchange 2003 Server and Exchange 2007 Server technologies.

Exchange 2010 Server carries forward the flexibility and reliability to build or expand upon existing Exchange Organizations from small business to enterprise-class networks. Exchange 2010 borrows earlier Exchange 2007 database technologies and elevates these technologies to even greater heights.

Exchange 2010 Server maintains the original Exchange 2003 Server goal for “Anytime, Anywhere” connectivity by improving upon Exchange Server clients such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Windows Mobile devices. The new “Outlook Web Access (OWA)” feature is no longer bound strictly to the Internet Explorer browser, allowing Firefox and Safari browsers to access and use OWA without the need to use a different browser.

For protection and regulatory or legal compliance, Microsoft 2010 server introduces additional features in both the “Edge Transport Server” and the “Hub Server” roles, allowing for administrators and in many cases end-users to manage and archive e-mail messages received within the organization. Advanced security and anti-spam features offered by Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange protect the network messaging environment more efficiently and effectively while maintaining an almost invisible presence during the process.

Exiis Corporation Microsoft Certified Exchange Professionals understand each of the initiatives Microsoft Corporation has set out to achieve and can assist your organization in remaining aligned with these goals. For enterprise clients with older Exchange organizations, the path to follow will be unique and challenging, especially if the Exchange organization is based on older Exchange 4.0 or 5.5 technologies. Even later technologies such as Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 will present many upgrade and migration challenges especially with users who have large mailboxes or who have developed customized Exchange development solutions. Small business and mid-size business organizations will encounter similar but perhaps additional challenges that are unique for their business or industry needed a firm that specializes in Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server to assist them with their proposed changes. By working closely with your organization, Exiis Corporation project managers and systems administrators can design a path that’s appropriate for your unique environment and assist you in achieving your goals.

Exchange 2010 Database Improvements:
High Availability, Increased Reliability, Lower Costs and a Higher Return on Investment

Microsoft Exchange 2010 has made vast improvements in its database design, completely revamping the older Microsoft Jet-based Exchange database structure.

Microsoft has made great strides in lowering the high costs associated with managing and maintaining a Microsoft Exchange Organization. Previous Jet-based database technologies in which Microsoft Exchange is built upon oftentimes were subject to a high rate of failure, particularly when database stores became too large or hit pre-defined limits. The cost to repair these databases, the time lost during an outage, and the lack of a quick recovery time was a huge disadvantage to the Microsoft Exchange Organization. Microsoft Exchange 2007 databases were completely revamped to introduce new capabilities that allows the Exchange Organization to run multiple copies of their Exchange databases concurrently, which means if the production database becomes corrupted, a local or remote copy of the database can be brought on-line quickly and easily, picking up where the previous database had failed, with very little down-time.

New to Microsoft Exchange 2010 is the concept of “Database Availability Groups” which eliminate the older “Storage Groups” concept and places databases into groups. Database Availability Groups, or “DAGs” for short, provide the capability to run multiple redundant mail stores with continuous replication at all times. DAGs allow for network and Exchange administrators to create live copies of the mailbox store with the added benefit of automatic database-level failover, providing instantaneous recovery without end-users being greatly affected. As part of the Exchange 2010 Server beta team, Exiis Corporation has extensively tested this new feature and can report its functionality is second to none. From the end-user perspective, there’s a quick “blip” that occurs on their screen during the fail-over process, hardly noticeable and certainly nothing that would prompt the user to call the help desk for assistance--a benefit we can all appreciate.

While database enhancements benefit larger enterprise class networks, owners of Microsoft Small Business Server and Windows Essentials Servers will also reap the rewards of these improved database designs. Smaller organizations find investments in RAID 5 technologies are expensive and are sometimes “over-kill” for the size of their networks. Microsoft Exchange 2010 databases have improved and optimized I/O response times and demands, which means for the small business owner and mid-size organization, less expensive SATA hard drives can be utilized to save costs while still delivering high performance to their end-users.

Anytime, Anywhere Access – Exchange 2010 Mobility Features
Exchange 2010 Server Support for Windows Mobile, iPhones, Blackberry’s, Firefox and Safari Web Browsers

One of the greatest breakthroughs accomplished by Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server is native compatibility with Firefox 3 and Safari 3 web browsers. In the past, Outlook Web Access, the web-based client for Exchange, provided compatibility only with Microsoft Internet Explorer web browsers which required users of Firefox and Safari to either switch between browsers to check their e-mail or to install a virtual machine running Microsoft Windows to use Internet Explorer. Exchange 2010 Server breaks this barrier by providing support for the latest releases of Firefox3 and Safari 3 web-browsers, completely eliminating the need for inconvenient work around solutions. The improvement in web-browser compatibility means users who primarily rely on the Apple Macintosh Operating System or whose network is served by Apple MAC OS X servers can now enjoy the benefits of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook capabilities without the need for clumsy third-party add-on solutions.

Exchange 2010 Mobility Features also include additional advanced support and compatibility by leveraging Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technologies. ActiveSync allows for mobile enabled devices such as Windows Mobile, Macintosh iPhones, and Blackberry devices to send and receive e-mails in real time, the ability to update their calendar and tasks, and the ability to synchronize those changes with their Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server. Users are no longer limited to choosing a particular wireless carrier or forced to choose a mobile phone they don’t like simply because of the limitations once imposed by earlier versions of Microsoft Exchange Server. Cost, which was once a barrier and a major consideration when purchasing smart phones and mobile enabled devices is no longer a concern. Major wireless carriers now offer data plans that are comparable to one another, supporting all three major technologies which leave the choice of the mobile device to the consumer based on features rather than connectivity.

Rounding out mobility features are users of the Microsoft Outlook Client, whose capabilities were once limited to being within the corporate network or connecting via Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions. “Outlook Anywhere” which was released via a service pack upgrade for Exchange 2000 Server (known as “RPC over HTTPS”) and then enhanced significantly with Exchange 2003 Server, has made great strides in ease of deployment and configuration in the Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 Organization. Both enterprise and small business Exchange Organizations can now rapidly deploy the Microsoft Outlook client to laptop users and those who work from home without the complex and time consuming steps needed with earlier versions to have users call the Help Desk for instructions. The “Auto Discover” feature introduced with Exchange 2007 Server and carried over to Exchange 2010 Server provides new Outlook users with auto configuration—the ability to have Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 desktop clients retrieve their settings from a Microsoft Exchange Server automatically by entering their e-mail address and password. Outlook Anywhere clients connect to the corporate Exchange server using secure Internet protocols over port 443 secured by encryption technologies and certificate registration for verification over public networks. Port 443 is a commonly used port which is available in most corporate network environments supporting secure web site communications. Corporate and Small Business Server environments can add additional security and protection to Outlook connected clients by utilizing Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange or by leveraging legacy Microsoft ISA Server technologies.

Additional Information

Exiis Corporation offers experienced consultants with in-depth consulting experience to businesses and organizations of all shapes, sizes, and requirements. Our Exchange 2010 Server consultants bring real-world experience and complete solutions based on many years of working with both enterprise and small business Exchange Organizations. No matter where your organization is with Microsoft Exchange Products and Technologies, from a single messaging environment to complex multi-site, cross-domain and cross-forest requirements, Exiis Corporation can assist by providing clear explanations of new concepts, assisting with Exchange upgrades and migrations, to complete project management and deployment.