Exchange 2007
The first thing to know
about Exchange 2007 is that the product is 64bit only.
This means you will need both 64bit server/s hardware
and the x64 version of Windows 2003 Server.
(There is a 32bit version
but this is designed for eval only and not supported in
a production environment)
Now this might sound like
an un-reasonable requirement but if you know Exchange
you will realise that being limited to a server with 4Gb
is no longer acceptable. With the 64bit requirement you
can stuff a lot of ram in that server and Exchange 2007
will use it. Even better, with some careful planning,
you can install Virtual
Server on the box as well and make good use of all
that RAM and processing power.
Microsoft are
"de-emphasizing" Public Folders (PF's) going forward -
and you can see this in Exchange 2007. There is no way
to administer PF's from the new Exchange Management
Console (EMC) The only way to work with PF's is using
the new Exchange Management Shell (EMS - built on
Windows Powershell) The good news is that PF admin using
the GUI returns in Exchange 2007 SP1. You can see where
the priorities lay in terms of getting the product out
the door in Jan 2007. The feeling here is that you
should be using SharePoint
folders instead of PF's - at least you should be moving
towards this goal.
Personally, I have mixed
feelings regarding the Management Shell. Microsoft are
proud of the fact that you can completely administer the
product using the shell. Indeed you can do more in the
shell than you can in EMC. I think the shell is mainly
designed for large Exchange deployments where a lot of
admin can be scripted. For smaller or single server
deployments I don't see that using a shell interface in
the year 2007 with Windows is
necessarily a step forward. Sure, go ahead and have a
powerful shell command line, but make the GUI rich
enough to perform ALL server management tasks.
Certificates - where do I
start ? I think Microsoft have made an already complex
area even more complex. To properly secure an Exchange
2007 server to provide Outlook Web Access, Outlook
Anywhere, Exchange Server ActiveSync, AutoDiscover etc
you need a certificate capable of supporting multiple
Subject Alternative Names. These aren't cheap or
widely available, yet. You can get by with a standard
server SSL certificate but you will have some issues,
certificate warnings etc.
Please contact Konnexion
to discuss your Exchange requirements.
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