19 seconds ago 2009-12-08T20:15:02-08:00
Microsoft formally introduced Exchange Server 2010 Monday at the company's Tech-Ed Europe 2009 conference in Germany. According to Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop, customers already using the new e-mail platform are reporting significant cost savings, thanks in part to new support for low-cost attached-storage options.
"For example, the U.K. office of NEC Philips expects to increase their e-mail storage capacity by a factor of eight, and at the same time they expect to cut costs by a full 75 percent by using Exchange 2010," Elop said. "Exchange 2010 helps you save money through integrated e-mail archiving as well."
A Universal Inbox
Among other things, Exchange 2010's integrated e-mail archive makes it easier to store and query e-mail across the organization. "Customers are expected to see productivity gains of more than 20 percent with a universal inbox that delivers e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and text messaging consistently across virtually any device," Elop said.
What's more, the new platform is designed to simplify the way organizations provide always-on communications and disaster recovery, with the goal of helping IT administrators spend less time managing their e-mail systems. And when deployed in combination with Microsoft Outlook 2010, Exchange 2010 promises to give workers more control over their communications through the addition of new features such as MailTips and Voice Mail Preview.
MailTips warn users before making a mistake like sending email to large distribution groups -- either within the company or outside. Voice Mail Preview enables workers to see text previews of their voice mail directly in Outlook.
More than 45,000 Microsoft partners are already trained on Exchange Server 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Elop said. A new Forester Research study commissioned by Microsoft indicates that a customer can see a payback period of less than six months when upgrading to either product, he added.
On Monday, Microsoft also unleashed Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, which integrates multiple anti-malware engines and anti-spyware scanning, together with support for Exchange 2010, Windows PowerShell, and Hyper-V. Forefront provides for 38 times faster detection of malware than single-engine solutions and also offers 99 percent guaranteed spam protection, with only one in 250,000 spam false positives, the software giant said.
In the Cloud or On-Premises
Rivals such as IBM and Google, which have been attempting to coax large enterprises to move their e-mail systems into the cloud, have their work cut out for them now that Microsoft has introduced its first platform designed to run equally well in both on-premises and cloud-based environments.
"The real threat with enterprise web-based e-mail is Microsoft," noted Ted Schadler, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Therefore, the software giant's rivals will need to "compete aggressively," Schadler noted in an e-mail.
Exchange 2010 will make it easier for a large enterprise to split a domain and run a single managed environment across on-premises and cloud-based implementations. The bottom line is that any Fortune-class company will be able to "keep its high-volume mailboxes on-premises while taking advantage of the higher degree of automation, direct-attached storage, and new functionality," Schadler explained.
What's more, large businesses will be able to move "occasional users that can get by with a small mailbox and web e-mail client -- which they are probably using at home anyway -- to a cloud provider," Schadler observed. Though larger enterprises always have the option of moving all their mailboxes into the cloud, Exchange 2010 means they won't have "to take that leap in order to get the benefits of cloud economics," Schadler said.
