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Interested in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, but don't want the risk, hassle, and expense of having your own server?
Business Value of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Published: March 2004 by Microsoft Corporation
Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Abstract: Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 helps reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your messaging environment by enhancing server scalability, reducing the need for network and Remote Access Service (RAS) infrastructure, and reducing administration. When running with Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003, Exchange Server 2003 increases information worker productivity while driving down costs through features that enhance mobility, usability, and reliability.
Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server
Built on the solid architecture of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 extends its benefits to new levels of reliability, security, and manageability, including improved mobile and client access features that enhance information worker productivity. Exchange 2003 can turn collaborative messaging into a competitive advantage for your organization and maximize the benefits for every dollar spent on your messaging infrastructure.
Upgrading to Exchange 2003 can help organizations running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, Exchange 2000, or other messaging infrastructures reduce TCO and increase return on investment (ROI).
In a recent evaluation, Nucleus Research concluded that “Microsoft Exchange 2003 delivers new features that promise to reduce server utilization, lessen administrative burdens, and facilitate remote access. The final impact of Exchange 2003 on the bottom line will depend on current support for communication and collaboration; reductions in Information Technology cost are especially likely for companies upgrading from Exchange 5.5.”
META Group recently prepared a model for comparing the operating costs for Exchange 5.5 to those for Exchange 2003. In two scenarios based on this model, organizations saved from $240,000 to $600,000 annually in operational costs by taking advantage of Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2003 features.
Some of the highest-cost elements for operating Exchange 2000 are for Help desk and Exchange Operations, which together account for 52 percent of the TCO, according to a previous META Group TCO study of Exchange 2000 deployments. Figure 1 breaks out these costs.
Figure 1: Costs to operate Exchange 2000
Successful companies usually recognize that e-mail is critical to communication, productive work, and collaboration. A Gartner Technology Adoption and Value Survey demonstrated that customers recognize that e-mail and messaging have given the best payback over intranets/enterprise portals, virtual private networks (VPN), and business intelligence.
Exchange 2003 can run in either a Windows 2000 Server or a Windows Server 2003 environment and supports Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002, and Outlook 2003 clients. But Exchange 2003, Windows Server 2003, and Outlook 2003 are designed to work together, offering productivity, infrastructure benefits, and new features, such as Volume Shadow Copy service and RPC over HTTP. For more information about Windows Server 2003, see the Windows Server 2003 home page, at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003.
This paper highlights the new and improved features in Exchange 2003 that, combined with Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, can drive down costs. Such features include new tools and resources that reduce risk, facilitate migration or upgrade, and decrease the payback period for the Exchange investment. Additionally, this paper discusses how Exchange reduces Information Technology costs and enhances user productivity. For the latest information about Exchange Server 2003, see the Exchange Server Web site, at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange. For more information about Outlook 2003 and Office 2003, see “Microsoft Office System Product Information,” at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview.
Productivity Gains
- Information workers and Information Technology administrators realize many productivity gains with Exchange 2003. Information workers can:
- Work remotely using available wireless and dial-in networks and, when working on their corporate networks, expect the same experience as when using their client software
- Work productively when no network connectivity is available
- Synchronize data with mobile devices
- Information Technology administrators reap the following benefits:
- Reduced virtual private network (VPN) administration because Outlook 2003 can access Exchange 2003 from the Internet without a VPN connection
- Increased efficiency resulting from integrated administration for directory and mobile access with the Microsoft Active Directory ® directory service
- Reduced troubleshooting time and downtime through proactive monitoring and error reporting tools that come with Exchange 2003
- Reduced security administration because Exchange 2003 supports antivirus tools, antispam tools (supports real-time safe/block lists), and integration with Active Directory
- Less time spent managing the restore process for databases and mailboxes by using Volume Shadow Copy service and the Mailbox Recovery storage group
Productivity Gains for Information Workers
Running Exchange 2003, Windows Server 2003, and Outlook 2003 together offers an infrastructure that increases productivity for information workers. Exchange supports today’s wireless technologies, such as 802.11 (Wi-Fi); campus and hotspot access to the Internet; and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), single carrier radio transmission technology (1xRTT), and next-generation 3G infrastructure. With the ubiquitous and flexible connections, mobile workers can remotely connect to Exchange, increasing productivity almost anywhere and boosting revenue opportunities in such areas as sales, service, and other customer-facing functions.
The following combinations increase productivity in different ways:
- Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003
- Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access 2003 and Exchange 2003
- Mobile devices with Exchange 2003
Benefits of Running Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003 Together
Running Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003 together can increase productivity by letting you:
- Communicate when and where you need it: With synchronization and performance enhancements and the new Cached Exchange Mode, users can increase their productivity by using Outlook 2003 over dial-up links and slow, latent, inconsistent network channels such as wireless data connections using 1xRTT and GPRS. Traveling and remote workers can now synchronize their Outlook 2003 clients over slower dial-up lines and wireless networks. These new performance and usability enhancements enable workers to use Outlook while traveling and prevents poor network speeds and connections from affecting productivity.
- Save time and reduce communication costs by using Outlook 2003 from the Internet without a VPN: Outlook running on Microsoft Windows ® XP can easily and more securely connect over the Internet to Exchange running on Windows Server 2003 without a VPN connection. This feature should increase productivity and speed communication within your organization and reduce VPN and RAS infrastructure costs and the time and cost of VPN Help desk support calls. Using this new feature also means that workers do not have to depend on VPN connections, which fail when the network connection drops. Outlook automatically re-establishes the connection when the network becomes available again.
- Greater productivity with your mailbox: Outlook 2003 also helps workers who have overloaded mailboxes. Multiple color-coded flagging enables users to better prioritize their e-mails; new search folders save time searching for filed e-mails; and new antispam features can eliminate time-wasting junk e-mail.
With these new capabilities, more secure and faster access between Outlook and Exchange is highly available, is simpler to use, saves time, costs less to support, and requires less VPN infrastructure.
Benefits of Running Outlook Web Access 2003 and Exchange 2003 Together
Outlook Web Access 2003 enables access to Exchange 2003 from almost any Internet–based browser, giving information workers the freedom to work where and when they need to. Productivity gains with Outlook Web Access 2003 and Exchange include:
- Easy and fast access: Using any computer with Internet access, information workers can check e-mail.
- Pervasive access: New features and a new user interface make the Outlook Web Access user experience similar to the full desktop Outlook. Outlook Web Access now supports tasks and has such features as a spelling checker; Search Folders; Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), which enables digitally signed and encrypted e-mail; rules editing (for processing incoming e-mails); block/accept sender lists; and automatic time-out logoff.
- Outlook Web Access offers any browser-based computer more secure Internet access to Exchange, giving information workers additional flexibility in how they connect with their organizations. Productivity increases when, for instance, information workers connect to e-mail, calendar, and contacts from airport and trade show kiosks; log on at Internet cafés; and use a computer at home or at a customer’s location. Traveling users who need only e-mail access may even decide not to carry their laptops on short business trips or customer visits. Outlook Web Access performance is also improved, enabling a productive user experience over slower network connections.
- Savings on communication costs for occasional e-mail users: Outlook Web Access on a shared computer allows even occasional e-mail workers to communicate. Many organizations now use e-mail to communicate with workers, such as factory or retail floor workers, who have traditionally not used or do not have access to e-mail. Company-wide bulletins, personnel policies, marketing, and internal messages are distributed through e-mail instead of by paper notices, enabling faster and less expensive methods of communication.
- Improved methods to migrate and extend Exchange: Outlook Web Access helps migrate Exchange to disparate desktops and supports desktops that don’t use Windows by offering browser-based e-mail access. Users who don’t use Windows–based desktops or who don’t have the Outlook 2003 client can still enjoy the enhanced Outlook experience by using Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2003. Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers support Outlook Web Access.
Note: For more information about which Outlook Web Access features are available with particular browsers, see “Introduction to Exchange Server 2003,” at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=17028.
Benefits of Running Mobile Devices and Exchange 2003 Together
Exchange 2003 supports mobile devices, helping information workers stay connected. Productivity benefits include:
- Mobile device access to Exchange: Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync ® technology saves workers time by enabling direct wireless synchronization of e-mail, calendar, and contacts with Microsoft Pocket Outlook ® in Pocket PC, Microsoft Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Microsoft Windows Mobile™ Smartphones. Mobile browser-based devices can access Exchange and support HTML, cHTML (compact HTML (Japanese market)) and XHTML (wireless application protocol (WAP 2.x)) browser-based devices. In Exchange 2000, Mobile Information Server 2002, a separate server product, enabled mobile access to Exchange. This mobile functionality is built into Exchange Server 2003, and no separate licenses are required for mobile access to Exchange.
- Pocket PC devices access to Exchange: Pocket PC devices can access Exchange mailboxes, making it easy to stay up-to-date with e-mail, calendar, and contacts while on the move. Replying to urgent e-mails and clearing your Inbox can speed up communications and collaboration. With an integrated phone in the Pocket PC Phone Edition and in Smartphones, you can also directly phone a contact simply by tapping on the stored phone number in your contact lists. Pocket PCs come with Microsoft Pocket Word and Microsoft Pocket Excel, allowing users to review attachments sent by e-mail. Applications such as a VPN, Terminal Server Client, Microsoft SQL Server™ Windows CE Edition (SQL Server CE), and others enable more secure access to the applications, files, and data.
Users have many options for Exchange access. Whether they use Outlook, Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, or synchronized data to Pocket Outlook on a Windows Mobile device, workers enjoy similar interfaces and similar experiences. Actions such as accepting meeting requests; sorting folders; sending, replying to, forwarding, or deleting e-mails; and searching the Global Address List (GAL) are all similar. Users are productive with Outlook more quickly and require less training and support. For more information about Microsoft mobile devices, mobile partner companies, and enterprise mobile computing, see the Windows Mobile home page, at http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/enterprise/.
Productivity Gains for Information Technology Administrators
Exchange operations account for as much as 20 percent of the TCO for Exchange 2000, according to the META Group study illustrated earlier, in Figure 1. Exchange 2003 drives down administrative costs by helping Information Technology staff be more productive in managing Exchange. In Exchange market research and surveys conducted by Microsoft, administrators provided feedback on which new tools would help them do their jobs more effectively and productively. The following are a few of the major features that help Information Technology staff do more with less:
Volume Shadow Copy service: Exchange 2003 with Windows Server 2003 Volume Shadow Copy service enables faster backups and restores. Administrators can take instantaneous “snapshots” of a terabyte-size database and back it up without taking the database offline. Staff continue working at full speed while an administrator backs up data. This helps organizations meet and exceed their Service Level Agreements and saves a lot of administrator time usually dedicated to backup and restore operations. Volume Shadow Copy service requires Windows Server 2003, Exchange 2003, and specific hardware and software from a partner solution.
Quick recovery of a single mailbox or e-mail: Using the Mailbox Recovery Storage Group lets administrators recover an entire mailbox storage group and retrieve all the databases (stores) or individual mailboxes on the same Exchange Server. For example, a Human Resources department or executives may want to recover an old, deleted e-mail. Previously, doing so took administrators much time; with Exchange 2003, it is an easy and fast task.
Improved error reporting: Enhanced error reporting in Exchange saves time. Upon errors, Exchange prompts administrators to decide whether to send a self-generated error report to Microsoft. Error reports are sent over HTTPS to the Microsoft Product Support Services team, speeding up support and resolution processes.
Client-side performance monitoring: With client-side performance monitoring, Outlook 2003 performance is automatically logged to Exchange for administrative monitoring and troubleshooting. This feature enables administrators to diagnose and fix issues before users call for help.
More secure messaging environment: Exchange 2003, Windows Server 2003, and Outlook 2003 secure messaging environments in multiple ways, with such features as the following:
- Default configuration settings that support security
- Support for connection and recipient filtering
- Real-time block/safe services
- Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 security improvements
- New antivirus and antispam features that enable partners to provide better, more integrated solutions
- Improved relay restriction policies
- Resources for more secure deployments by server roles (for example, front-end servers)
- Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA), which scans for missing security patches
- The Microsoft Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit
- High levels of security are not applied unless they are easy to deploy, maintain, and support.
Easier, faster administration for mobile access: For the user, making mobile access available is as simple as checking a box. Mobile access to Exchange includes Outlook Mobile Access, Exchange ActiveSync, and Outlook Web Access, all managed from the same Exchange mailbox administration screen.
Multitasking through multiple mailbox moves: A typical task for administrators is moving mailboxes from one mailbox store to another for database balancing or administrative purposes. Using the Exchange System Manager and Exchange Task wizards, multiple mailboxes can now be moved in parallel.
Reduced support costs for end users: Outlook 2003 can connect through the Internet to Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003 without a VPN—saving time, bandwidth, and support costs usually associated with VPN deployment and support.
Reduced costs to administer network, Exchange users, and resources: Active Directory directory service, required for Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2000, offers integrated administration for both the network operating system and Exchange. Single, secure sign-on for network and Exchange messaging increases user productivity and reduces the costs of resetting passwords.
Less expensive to support and deploy: Outlook Web Access requires less training and support for deployments because no desktop installation (except for browser software) is necessary. Outlook Web Access is also faster to deploy to any computer with a browser and Internet access. With Outlook Web Access, Exchange user benefits can be achieved almost instantly.
Exchange has many other new or enhanced administrative features to help your Information Technology staff be more productive and effective in their day-to-day administrative duties.
Infrastructure Benefits with Exchange 2003
Exchange enables organizations to save on infrastructure costs through its features, tools, and scalability offerings. The Radicati Group, Inc. calculates that the three-year average messaging and collaboration TCO of Exchange is 29 percent less than the TCO of IBM Lotus Software Notes/Domino 6. Organizations realize the business value of Exchange through:
- Reduced number of Exchange servers because of increased user and server capacity, resulting in lower hardware, software, and administration costs
- Reduced downtime and troubleshooting costs because of high performance and availability
- Additional capabilities for antivirus and antispam third-party tool integration, including junk-mail filtering that comes with Outlook 2003
- Reduced deployment time because deployment tools, documentation, and availability of partners assist with deployment
- Flexible licensing options that allow organizations to optimize their software costs
Infrastructure Cost Savings with Exchange
With Exchange, your organization can save on infrastructure through reduced messaging infrastructure costs. Costs also drop for hardware, software licenses, hardware maintenance, administrative tasks, security, spare hardware, physical space, and electricity. With less downtime when using Exchange, information workers and administrators are more productive, which translates into savings. Exchange provides such benefits as:
Multiple database architecture: Database management is vastly improved with Exchange 2003 (and Exchange 2000). Up to four storage groups and five stores per storage group combine to make 20 databases available per Exchange server. Multiple databases enable greater flexibility in spreading out mailboxes for performance load balancing, higher availability, and faster and easier backup and restore.
Consider a scenario in which an individual database or even one mailbox needs to be recovered. An Exchange 5.5 installation would have to recover one very large database just to access the mailbox. With Exchange 2003, only one database and mailbox need to be recovered, making the process quick and easy, with no downtime for other Exchange users. Each Exchange 5.5 server was limited to one main mailbox database. If the database grew too large, it was too time consuming and unproductive to administer, back up, and restore. Consequently, many organizations limited the number of user mailboxes and the size limits associated with each Exchange 5.5 server.
Reduced hardware, software, and administration costs: Exchange Server 2003 deployments require fewer servers than do Exchange 5.5 deployments. Exchange 2003 can accommodate more users per server than can Exchange 5.5. Exchange 5.5 customers typically have about 1,000 to 2,000 users per server, depending upon factors such as user profiles, messages per day, and mailbox size limits. Exchange 2003 supports up to 20 databases per server because of its enhanced performance and multiple database design. This advance helps increase capacity to 3,500 or more users per server, depending upon the same factors listed earlier. Costs savings with server reduction include:
- Reduced labor costs for the base hardware and operating system
- Reduced annual maintenance contract on the hardware
- Credit for hardware depreciation
- Less time and money associated with implementing patches and service packs specific to Exchange
- Fewer backup servers and spares, less physical space, less electricity, and diminished insurance
Increased mailbox sizes and e-mail capacity: With the flexibility of multiple databases, Information Technology departments can provide larger mailboxes. A typical example is expanding 50-MB mailboxes in Exchange 5.5 to 100-MB mailboxes in Exchange 2003.
Reduced costs for remote sites: With proper capacity, network, and server planning, remote or branch office Exchange mailbox servers may be consolidated to central or regional Exchange sites. In a recent paper, META Group data shows that when implemented with Outlook 2003, Exchange 2003 enables an efficiency gain of greater than 30 percent by using across-the-wire data compression and local caching techniques. This improvement means that remote sites with 100 or more people can potentially consolidate into central Exchange mail servers, based on available bandwidth. Consolidating can reduce the administration, software, and hardware costs at these remote servers. Some of these savings would be offset by the possible expense of increasing network capacity, which depends upon usage patterns.
Diminished cost of VPN resources: The infrastructure costs associated with deploying, supporting, and maintaining a VPN may be reduced by using the RPC over HTTP between Outlook and Exchange.
High Availability, Reliability, and Scalability of the Exchange Infrastructure
Many factors affect the availability of an Exchange infrastructure: resources, including hardware, software, and network availability, tools, and education; attacks from the outside (and sometimes from the inside as well); and operator error. Exchange, Windows, and Outlook, along with other Microsoft product groups and partners, work together both to make highly reliable products and to provide the support resources that help maintain a highly available infrastructure. The following features improve availability:
- Enhanced virtual memory management: Improved virtual memory management (also available for Exchange 2000 Service Pack 3) provides greater robustness and requires fewer stops and starts of the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. Also, Exchange 2003 can use the 3-GB memory switch on Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition.
- Windows Server 2003 IIS 6.0: To provide high availability for Exchange services, Exchange 2003 uses IIS 6.0 improvements with applications such as Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, and Exchange ActiveSync. IIS 6.0 isolates Web applications, which helps prevent one application from disrupting others running under IIS 6.0. The result is increased availability of Exchange applications and reduced time administrators spend managing these applications.
- Microsoft Operations Manager Exchange 2003 Management Pack: This combination can help your organization reach high Service Level Agreements, allow Information Technology staff to proactively monitor issues, and most importantly, provide high Exchange availability without a large investment in additional staffing. The Microsoft Operations Manager Exchange Management Pack automatically monitors the health of your environment and warns of any pending issues, based upon a built-in knowledgebase of known issues, thus increasing Exchange and Windows availability and increasing productivity and effectiveness for administrators.
- Eight-node clustering support: Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition supports up to eight-node clustering in Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, increasing scalability. (In Exchange 2000, Windows 2000 Advanced Server supported up to four-node clustering.)
Improved Security Administration
Security administration is part of the TCO of Exchange. For Exchange 2003, administrators informed Microsoft about what new tools and enhancements would help them to do their jobs more effectively. Following are a few of the major features that help make Exchange security technologies easier to deploy and manage:
- Virus Scanning Application Programming Interface 2.5: Exchange has Virus Scanning Application Programming Interface (VSAPI 2.5), which helps eliminate viruses sent by e-mail before they reach the Exchange store or end users. This translates to higher availability and less administrator time spent clearing viruses.
- Improved antispam capabilities: Exchange and Outlook have enhanced antispam capabilities and new integration points for antispam solution providers, thereby reducing the amount of spam reaching Information Technology resources and end users. Exchange supports real-time safe/block lists, global allow/block lists, antispam filtering in Outlook, and several other features to help keep out unwanted e-mail. Ferris Research estimates that the total cost of junk-email to U.S. corporations in 2002 was $8.9 billion. This number includes infrastructure for network resources, Help desk support, and end-user productivity.
- Integration with IIS 6.0 security: Exchange Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, Outlook RPC over HTTP, and Exchange ActiveSync use IIS 6.0 security improvements such as locked-down defaults, improved authentication, and authorization processes, thereby minimizing network exposures.
- Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server Feature Pack 1: ISA Server Feature Pack 1 (ISA Server FP1) helps secure Exchange access from the Internet and contains powerful tools to defend against attacks against servers running Exchange and Windows. ISA Server FP1 makes it easy to secure Exchange with Outlook or with Outlook Web Access by using such features as RPC and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) filtering, the Outlook Web Access Setup Wizard, and RSA SecurID Authentication Support.
- Kerberos authentication from Outlook: Outlook 2003, Windows Server 2003, and Exchange 2003 running together support the highest true degree of encryption for user credentials.
- S/MIME support in Outlook Web Access: Outlook has always been able to digitally sign and encrypt e-mail, but now S/MIME support is available in Outlook Web Access as well.
- Forms-based authentication (timed log-off): If a user forgets to log off from an Outlook Web Access session on a public computer, Outlook Web Access automatically logs off, clears the cache, and closes the session after a specified amount of inactivity.
- MBSA: MBSA is a tool that can run on Windows–based and Exchange–based servers and that reports missing security patches and their descriptions.
- Prescriptive guidance: Guides discuss how to deploy Exchange more securely based upon server roles and best practices for clients, servers, and Windows. Security resources from Microsoft include virus and security alerts, security training and certification, Prescriptive Architectural Guidance documents on security, and IIS Lockdown and URLscan tools for minimizing the risk from attacks.
For more information about security resources, see the security and privacy home page, at http://www.microsoft.com/security .
Better Exchange Migration Resources and Tools
Customer feedback and lessons learned from migrations to Exchange 2000 are incorporated in Exchange 2003 migration and deployment resources and tools, making migrations flexible, fast, and more foolproof. Windows Active Directory also has enhanced the Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT 2.0), which makes deploying Active Directory easier.
For many large customers, migrations also mean coexistence between new and old infrastructure, especially when budgets, departmental upgrade cycles, and regulations dictate migration schedules. Combinations are as follows:
- Exchange 2003 can coexist with Exchange 2000 and Exchange 5.5.
- Windows Server 2003 can coexist with Windows 2000 and Windows NT ® 4.0.
- Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002, and, of course, Outlook 2003 can all operate with Exchange 2003.
- All combinations can coexist within the same topology during a migration. Even earlier versions may work, but they are not officially supported. (Microsoft Product Support Services supports earlier versions with best efforts.) In addition, desktops with browsers that are not running Windows—for example, UNIX—can use Outlook Web Access with Exchange.
- The following resources and tools help with Exchange deployment:
- New prescriptive guidance that walks customers through upgrading from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003
- Premigration verification and reporting on existing Windows NT and Exchange 5.5 infrastructures
- ADMT 2.0, which helps automate the migration of Windows NT accounts to Active Directory
- Verification of Active Directory extensions and replication traffic before Exchange is installed
- Active Directory Connector (ADC) Wizard reduces the complexity of setting up the ADC connection agreements
- New tools that help quickly troubleshoot DNS issues, such as incorrect DNS resolution
- Support for multiple clients, including Outlook 2003, 2002, and 2000, and Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers (for Outlook Web Access) on a variety of desktop platforms
- The Exchange product team also works closely with industry partners to ensure that existing or new solutions can be upgraded to Exchange 2003.
More Available Third-Party Support
The availability of third-party support and solutions for Exchange is unparalleled by other messaging systems. Information is available for system integration service providers and for partners in hardware, antivirus software, antispam software, training, technical education, archiving, and storage. In addition, the following other resources are available:
- Microsoft Resource Kit: This kit contains additional resources needed to provide a messaging infrastructure. For example, Web–based Automatic Distribution List Management (AutoDL) enables users to join or quit distribution lists by themselves.
- Microsoft TechNet and security resources: These resources help educate Information Technology staff to manage and troubleshoot the messaging environment more productively.
- Availablecertified personnel: With more than 800,000 people certified and trained in Microsoft technologies such as Windows, Exchange, and Office and more than 1,800 Microsoft Certified System Engineers and Administrators, skilled personnel and education resources are widely available.
- A complete list of resources and third-party products is available on the partner section of the Microsoft Exchange home page, at www.microsoft.com/exchange.
Flexible Licensing Options
Organizations have choices and flexibility in how they license Exchange:
Windows Server 2003 Client Access Licenses (CALs) are licensed Per User or Per Device, as follows:
- Per User licensing: Each worker can access Exchange through numerous methods—for example, through Outlook client, Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, and Pocket Outlook. This type of CAL is appropriate for most information workers and heavy e-mail users.
- Per Device licensing: An unlimited number of users can share a single designated computer. In this scenario, several occasional e-mail users share a computer. Per User CALs would be more expensive for this scenario.
The licensing costs are the same for both.
Exchange can now use Outlook Web Access Standard Edition. In Exchange 2000, Outlook Web Access front-end servers were required to use the Enterprise Edition. In addition, Outlook Web Access front-end servers support front-end functionality for Outlook Mobile Access, Exchange ActiveSync, and RPC over HTTPS access from Outlook 2003 clients.
Support for up to eight-node clustering for Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition requires only Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.
Summary
Exchange Server 2003 is a dependable messaging infrastructure that is built on the solid base of Exchange 2000. Exchange 2003 saves your organization money by reducing both productivity and infrastructure costs. By providing its workforce with the latest tools to communicate and collaborate whenever and wherever they need to, your organization is in the best possible position to compete.
Nucleus Research “ROI Evaluation Report: Microsoft Exchange 2003,” 2003, at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/roi/default.asp
META Group, “Exchange 5.5 Migration to Exchange 2003: Cost-Savings Scenarios,” August 2003, at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/ExchangeScenarios.asp
META Group, “ E-Mail: At What Cost , ” parts 1 and 2, Matt Cain, 17 Jan 2002, at http://www.metagroup.com/cgi-bin/inetcgi/jsp/displayArticle.do?oid=28863 and http://www.metagroup.com/us/displayArticle.do?oid=28864
Gartner Group, “E-Mail/PIM Is Still No. 1,” Ken Dulaney and William Clark, 20 Nov 2002
If you use versions of Outlook earlier than Outlook 2000 with Exchange 2003, Microsoft Product Support Services provides you with best effort support.
The Radicati Group, Inc., “Microsoft Exchange 2003 Total Cost of Ownership,” November 2003
META Group, “Exchange 5.5 Migration to Exchange 2003: Cost Saving Scenarios,” Matt Cain and Brian Golumbeck, August 2003
Ferris Research, “Spam Control: Problems and Opportunities,” January 2003
Exchange 2003 supports Outlook 2003, 2002, and 2000. Earlier versions of Outlook may work with Exchange 2003, but they are “best support effort” from Microsoft Product Support Services.
This is a preliminary document and may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release of the software described herein.
The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
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