Would you use Exchange if you were in my shoes?
I am the ITManager for a small public traded companyso SOX compliance is an issue. We have about 100 emailusers, currently we use outsourced POP/SMTP which works butwe need something better.
Wehave too many users for Small Business Server, I amnot interested in Essential Business Server, and Hosted Exchange is way too expensive. At previous job I was a Lotus Notes admin and I am not going back to that (though it has some strong points). Should I consider Exchange or something else? Exchange 2007 hardware and licenses have been approved but I am not conviced Exchange is the way we should go
Features/benefits I am looking for;
Compliance/archiving
Web mail access
Smart phone remote access (not BlackBerry style push)
Shared calendars
Central Distribution groups/lists
what ever big benefits I haven't mentioned
Just looking for opinions/experienc from those that have Exchange experience. Thanks
Mike S
January 24th, 2009 4:03am
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/topreasons.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/overview/default.mspx
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January 24th, 2009 10:31am
Thanks for the reply but I've read those pages (and many others). That is just marketing drivel/hype, nothing that helps me decide.
I amhoping for someone with "real world" experience to chime in. There are many less expensive options that may or may not better in one way or another.
January 26th, 2009 9:07pm
There are many good features in the exchange 2007, the following is several great ones:
Exchange 2007 provides non-shared storage failover cluster solution, (Cluster continuous replication) CCR, which has no single point of failure, no higher demand for hardware, can reduce the frequency of backup, can be deployed on different physical location
Also the SCR in the exchange 2007 SP1, which can replicate mailbox data cross datacenter, significantly reduce the recovery time when the primary site is down
The Autodiscover service is another great feature, it can help users to set up their mail profile automatically on the client, avoiding managing users mail profile one by one, it really saves massive time for administrator
The Outlook Anywhere, it lets users outlook connect exchange without accessing domain, they can benefit all features of outlook and exchange from anywhere on this planet
References:
Cluster Continuous Replication (Video series)
Standby Continuous Replication
Autodiscover and Exchange 2007
Overview of Outlook Anywhere
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January 27th, 2009 6:35am