Alpha Computer Group can assist you in installing, configuring, maintaining, backup, restoring, and upgrading any version of Microsoft Exchange Server. Email is a very important part of any business and we understand that very well. We have certified technicians that are experts with MS Exchange (Microsoft Exchange) for over ten years and are specialized in restoring and rebuilding lost or corrupt MS Exchange servers. With our specialized technicians we can help plan, deploy, optimize and manage a complex Microsoft Exchange solution. We can provide the expertise to help design and secure the best Microsoft Exchange solution for any sized company. Whether it’s a single server solution or a detailed integrated, multi-vendor, DAG solution, Alpha Computer Group is your Microsoft Exchange Specialist!

Microsoft Exchange Migration, Administration and Technical Support

Businesses today regard e-mail servers as mission-critical systems to operate a business, because of the need to communicate with clients and employees quickly. Equally important is the heightened demand for new Microsoft Exchange email messaging features. These factors place demands on information technology (IT) managers and system architects, who are charged with designing highly reliable and consistently available messaging systems that meet users’ needs.

Microsoft Exchange Services Technical Solutions Provides:

Microsoft Exchange Planning: Help plan and design MS Exchange Environment. Exchange is a Tier 1 application and needs proper planning before deployment is made. Planning includes required resources (hardware, software and virtual) as well as proper placement, load testing and growth analysis.

Microsoft Exchange Deployment: Hands on deployment with best practices implementation.

Microsoft Exchange Migration: Migration services from GroupWise, Domino or other mail systems to MS Exchange server.

Microsoft Exchange Administration: Day to Day MS Exchange Administration tasks. Log monitoring, health check, backups and performance tuning.

Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting and Support: Help with common and complex problems that can be experienced with MS Exchange

Microsoft Exchange Security: Help secure and protect MS Exchange by implementing best security practices and security monitoring as well as DLP services.

Deployment Services are available for new Microsoft Exchange Server Organizations. If your organization is migrating from Gmail, Linux, Hotmail, or any other third-party vendor, we can assist in building a new, robust, highly available serv

er farm environment for your organization. When users are ready to migrate to the new system, we will assist local network administrators and key personnel to ensure the transition is smooth and hassle free.

Migration and Upgrade assistance is available depending on which of the two options fits your scenario the best. A Migration occurs when an existing Exchange Server Organization is too old or not designed to support, an in-place upgrade p

rocess. Migrations occur between major Exchange server releases.

Microsoft Exchange Server Hosting and Management Support Services for MS Exchange Server offer businesses with limited network budgets and bandwidth a safe, affordable, and hassle-free option for deploying Microsoft Exchange by deliveringthe robustness of a state-of-the-art colocation facility and the skill of Alpha Computer Group Microsoft team of support engineers. Call us today for more information on how your business can reduce costs and management hassle and improve email reliability, protection, and recoverability.

Microsoft Exchange Server is calendaring software, a mail server and contact manager developed by Microsoft. It is a server program that runs on Windows Server and is part of the Microsoft Servers line of products. Windows Messaging, initially also called Microsoft Exchange, is an e-mail client that was included with Windows 95 (beginning with OSR2), 98 and Windows NT 4.0).

Exchange Server 4.0

Microsoft began a preliminary planning of the Exchange 4.0 migration in April 1993. In January 1995, 500 users were running on Exchange Beta 1, 5,000+ users running on Exchange Beta 2a in September 1995, and finally all 32,000 Microsoft mailboxes successfully migrated to Exchange and Microsoft Exchange shipped in April 1996. Microsoft IT Groupactually migrated all Microsoft employees to the Exchange platform before the product had the official Release status.

It was the original version of Exchange Server sold to the public, positioned as an upgrade to Microsoft Mail 3.5. The original version of Microsoft Mail (written by Microsoft) had been replaced, several weeks after Lotus acquired cc:Mail, by a package called Network Courier, acquired during the purchase of Consumer Software Inc. in April 1991. Exchange Server was however an entirely new X.400-based client–server mail system with a single database store that also supported X.500 directory services. The directory used by Exchange Server eventually became Microsoft’s Active Directory service, an LDAP-compliant directory server. Active Directory was integrated into Windows 2000 as the foundation of Windows Server domains.

Exchange Server 5.0

Introduced the new Exchange Administrator console, as well as opening up “integrated” access to SMTP-based networks for the first time. Unlike Microsoft Mail (which required a standalone SMTP relay), Exchange Server 5.0 could, with the help of an add-in called the Internet Mail Connector, communicate directly with servers using SMTP. Version 5.0 also introduced a new Web-based e-mail interface called Exchange Web Access, which was rebranded as Outlook Web Access in a later Service pack. Along with Exchange Server version 5.0, Microsoft released version 8.01 of Microsoft Outlook, version 5.0 of the Microsoft Exchange Client and version 7.5 of Microsoft Schedule+ to support the new features in the new version of Exchange Server.

Exchange Server 5.0 introduced a number of other new features including a new version of Outlook Web Access with Calendar support, support for IMAP4 and LDAP v3 clients and the Deleted Item Recovery feature.

Exchange Server 5.5

The last version of Exchange Server to have separate directory, SMTP and NNTP services. There was no new version of Exchange Client and Schedule+ for version 5.5, instead version 8.03 of Microsoft Outlook was released to support the new features of Exchange Server 5.5.

Was sold in two editions: Standard and Enterprise. They differ in database store size, mail transport connectors and clustering capabilities.

Standard Edition

Had the same 16GB database size limitation as earlier versions of Exchange Server. Included the Site Connector, MS Mail Connector, Internet Mail Service (previously “Internet Mail Connector”), and Internet News Service (previously “Internet News Connector”), as well as software to interoperate with cc:Mail, Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise.

Enterprise Edition

Had an increased limit of 16TB (although Microsoft’s best practices documentation recommends that the message store not exceed 100GB). Adds an X.400 connector, and interoperability software with SNADS and PROFS. Introduced two node clustering capability.

Exchange 2000 Server

Codenamed “Platinum” this version overcame many of the limitations of its predecessors. For example, it raised the maximum sizes of databases and increased the number of servers in a cluster from two to four. However, many customers were deterred from upgrading by the requirement for a full Microsoft Active Directory infrastructure to be in place, as unlike Exchange Server 5.5, Exchange 2000 Server had no built-in Directory Service, and had a dependency upon Active Directory. The migration process from Exchange Server 5.5 necessitated having the two systems online at the same time, with user-to-mailbox mapping and a temporary translation process between the two directories. Exchange 2000 Server also added support for instant messaging, but that capability was later spun off to Microsoft Office Live Communications Server.

Exchange Server 2003

Codenamed “Titanium”, this version can be run on Windows 2000 Server (only if Service Pack 4 is first installed) and 32-bit Windows Server 2003, although some new features only work with the latter. Like Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003 has many compatibility modes to allow users to slowly migrate to the new system. This is useful in large companies with distributed Exchange Server environments who cannot afford the downtime and expense that comes with a complete migration.

It made the migration from pre-2000 versions of Exchange significantly easier (although still involved the same basic steps), and many users of Exchange Server 5.5 waited for the release of Exchange Server 2003 to upgrade. The upgrade process also required upgrading a company’s servers to Windows 2000. Some customers opted to stay on a combination of Exchange Server 5.5 and Windows NT 4.0, both of which are no longer supported by Microsoft.

One of the new features in Exchange Server 2003 is enhanced disaster recoverywhich allows administrators to bring the server online more quickly. This is done by allowing the server to send and receive mail while the message stores are being recovered from backup. Some features previously available in the Microsoft Mobile Information Server 2001/2002 products have been added to the core Exchange Server product, like Outlook Mobile Access and server-side Exchange ActiveSync, while the Mobile Information Server product itself has been dropped. Better anti-virus and anti-spam protection have also been added, both by providing built-in APIs that facilitate filtering software and built-in support for the basic methods of originating IP address, SPF (“Sender ID”), and DNSBL filtering which were standard on other open source and *nix-based mail servers. Also new is the ability to drop inbound e-mail before being fully processed, thus preventing delays in the message routing system. There are also improved message and mailbox management tools, which allow administrators to execute common chores more quickly. Others, such as Instant Messaging and Exchange Conferencing Server have been extracted completely in order to form separate products. Microsoft now appears to be positioning a combination of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, Live Meeting and Sharepoint as its collaboration software of choice. Exchange Server is now to be simply e-mail and calendaring.

Exchange Server 2003 added several basic filtering methods to Exchange Server. They are not sophisticated enough to eliminate spam, but they can protect against DoS and mailbox flooding attacks. Exchange Server 2000 supported the ability to block a sender’s address, or e-mail domain by adding ‘*@domain.com’, which is still supported in Exchange Server 2003.

New features

Added filtering methods in Exchange Server 2003 are:

Connection filtering

Messages are blocked from DNS RBL listsor from manually specified IP addresses/range

Recipient filtering

Messages blocked when sent to manually specified recipients on the server (for intranet-only addresses) or to any recipients not on the server (stopping spammers from guessing addresses)

Sender ID filtering

Sender ID, a form of Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

Intelligent Message Filter

Initially a free Microsoft add-on, later, part of service pack 2, that uses heuristic message analysis to block messages or direct them to the “Junk E-Mail” folder in Microsoft Outlook clients.

It is included with both Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard and Premium editions.

Editions

Standard Edition

• Supports up to two storage groups (with one of the storage groups, called the recovery storage group, being reserved for database recovery operations) and a maximum of 2 databases per storage group.
• Each database is limited to a maximum size of 16GB.
• Beginning with the release of Service Pack 2, a maximum database size of 75GB, but only supports 16GB by default; larger sized databases have to be updated-in with a registry change.

Enterprise Edition

• Allows a 16TB maximum database size, and supports up to 4 storage groups with 5 databases per storage group for a total of 20 databases per server.

Exchange 2003 mainstream support ended on April 14, 2009. Extended support ended on April 8, 2014.

Exchange Server 2007

Released to business customers as part of Microsoft’s roll-out wave of new products. It includes new clustering options, x64 support for greater scalability, voice mail integration, better search and support for Web services, better filtering options, and a new Outlook Web Access interface. Exchange 2007 also dropped support for Exchange 5.5 migrations, routing groups, admin groups, Outlook Mobile Access, X.400, and some API interfaces, amongst other features.

Exchange Server 2007 (v8, code name E12, or with SP1 v8.1) runs only on x64 versions of Windows Server. This requirement applies to supported production environments only; a 32-bit trial version is available for download and testing. Hence, companies currently running Exchange Server on 32-bit hardware will be required to replace or migrate hardware if they wish to upgrade to the new version. Companies that are currently running Exchange Server on 64-bit capable hardware are still required to migrate from their existing Exchange 2000/2003 servers to a new 2007 server since in-place upgrades are not supported in 2007.

The first beta of Exchange Server 2007 (then named “Exchange 12” or E12) was released in December 2005 to a very limited number of beta testers. A wider beta was made available via TechNet Plus and MSDN subscriptions in March 2006 according to the Microsoft Exchange team blog. On April 25, 2006, Microsoft announced that the next version of Exchange Server would be called “Exchange Server 2007”.

Exchange Server 2007 is an integrated part of the Innovative Communications Alliance products.

New features

Protection

Anti-spam, antivirus, compliance, clustering with data replication, improved security and encryption

Improved Information Worker Access

Improved calendaring, unified messaging, improved mobility, improved web access

Improved IT Experience

64-bit performance & scalability, command-line shell & simplified GUI, improved deployment, role separation, simplified routing

Exchange Management Shell

a new command-line shell and scripting language for system administration (based on Windows PowerShell). Shell users can perform every task that can be performed in the Exchange Server graphical user interface plus additional tasks, and can program often-used or complex tasks into scripts that can be saved, shared, and re-used. The Exchange Management Shell has over 375 unique commands to manage features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

“Unified Messaging”

Lets users receive voice mail, e-mail, and faxes in their mailboxes, and lets them access their mailboxes from cell phones and other wireless devices. Voice commands can be given to control and listen to e-mail over the phone (and also send some basic messages, like “I’ll be late”)

Increased database maximum size limit

Database size is now limited to 16TB per database

Increased maximum storage groups and mail databases per server

5 each for Standard Edition (from 1 each in Exchange Server 2003 Standard), and to 50 each for Enterprise Edition (from 4 groups and 20 databases in Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise).

Configure Outlook Anywhere

Formerly known as RPC over HTTP provides external access to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for users. If you want Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 user profiles to be automatically configured to connect to Exchange 2007, configure the Autodiscover service. This also provides external URLs for Exchange services such as the Availability service and offline address book.

Editions

Standard edition

Can have 5 databases in up to 5 storage groups. Supports LCR (Local Continuous Replication) and SCR (Standby Continuous Replication).

Enterprise edition

This is extended to 50 databases in up to 50 storage groups. Supports LCR (Local Continuous Replication), SCR (Standby Continuous Replication), SCC (Single Copy Clustering), and CCR (Clustered Continuous Replication).

Exchange Server 2010

Microsoft reached the Release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone for Exchange Server 2010 on May, 2009, and it was officially launched on November 9, 2009.

New features

DAG (Database Availability Groups)

• SCC, CCR, LCR and site resiliency functionality SCR have been replaced by DAG.
• Provides database level high availability (as opposed to server level) and supports a number of copies of each database (number based on Exchange Edition) and flexible configuration (databases copies may be added / removed at will without requiring major server reconfiguration).

Client Access Server (CAS)

High availability for the Client Access Server role is provided by using Client Access Server (CAS) arrays. A CAS array can contain multiple Client Access Servers in an Active Directory site and provide a single name endpoint for client connections. CAS arrays cannot span multiple Active Directory sites.

Mailbox Server Role may be combined with the Client Access Server

In Exchange Server 2007, a clustered mailbox server could not be combined with any other roles. In Exchange Server 2010, the Mailbox Server Role may be combined with the Client Access Server and/or Hub Transport roles, regardless of whether or not the mailbox server participates in a Database Availability Group. However, since Database Availability Groups use Windows Failover Clustering, and Microsoft does not support the combination of Windows Failover Clustering and Windows Network Load Balancing on the same server, a multi-role deployment will require the use of a 3rd party load balancer to provide load balancing and fault tolerance for the Client Access Server role.

RPC Client Access

With the introduction of the RPC Client Access service, all Outlook clients access their mailbox database through the Client Access Server role. This abstraction layer allows for improved load balancing and redundancy and minimal client impact in the event of a database level *-over (“switchover” or “failover”) event.

Cost savings in required hardware

Exchange Server 2010 provides cost savings in required hardware. Storage performance requirements (measured in IOPS: Input/Output operations Per Second) have been reduced by approximately 70% over Exchange Server 2007, and by approximately 90% over Exchange Server 2003. According to a case study, Microsoft IT was able to reduce hardware costs by 75% during the migration from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Server 2010.

Personal Archive

Exchange Server 2010 extends the large mailbox support introduced in Exchange Server 2007, and also introduces a Personal Archive feature to allow messages to be retained longer without the need for a 3rd party archival system. The Personal Archive is implemented as a secondary mailbox for archive-enabled users, and in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1, the Personal Archive may be located on a different database than the primary mailbox, which may reside on a different disk if desired. Backup can be performed via multiple solutions like Handy Backup or Acronis. Acronis is by far the best #backup image software on the market – This is just Alpha Computer Group’s opinion.

Recoverable Items

The compliance and legal search features have been enhanced. What was formerly known as the “Dumpster” in previous versions of Exchange (a special storage area for messages which have been deleted from the Deleted Items folder or “permanently deleted” from a regular folder, such as the Inbox) has been evolved into the Recoverable Items folder in Exchange Server 2010. If configured appropriately, the Recoverable Items folder allows for a “tamper proof” storage area (users cannot circumvent the Recoverable Items folder to bypass legal discovery), which also provides a revision history of any modified items.

Administration delegation

Can now be performed at a granular level due to Exchange Server 2010’s implementation of Role Based Access Control (RBAC). Users and administrators can be given extremely fine grained abilities for functions provided both within the Exchange Management Console or Exchange Management Shell and in Outlook Web App. For example, a compliance officer may be given the ability to perform cross mailbox discovery searches within Outlook Web App; a help desk technician may be granted the ability to set an Out Of Office message for other employees within the company, or a branch administrator in a remote office may be granted the permission to perform specific Exchange Management Shell commands that pertain only to the Exchange server in their branch office.

Outlook Web App includes improvements

Including, for example, the ability for users to track their sent messages and printable calendar views and the “Premium” experience is now available across multiple browsers (including Safari and Firefox).

Distribution groups can now be “moderated”

Meaning that distribution groups can now be configured to allow users to join at will or only with a group moderator’s permission, and individual messages sent to distribution groups can now be approved or denied by a moderator.

“Shadow Redundancy”

Exchange Server 2010 introduces a transport concept called “Shadow Redundancy” which protects e-mail messages while they are in transit. If a Hub Transport server or an Edge Transport server fails after it has received a message for processing, but before it was able to deliver it to the next “hop” server, the server which sent the message to that transport server is now able to detect the failure and redeliver the message to a different Hub Transport or Edge Transport server for processing…

Editions

Several high-availability options have been consolidated into just one option for Exchange Server 2010 (Mailbox Resiliency), which is now offered in both the Standard and Enterprise editions. The capabilities of Local Continuous Replication, Standby Continuous Replication, and Cluster Continuous Replication are now unified into the Exchange 2010 Mailbox Resiliency capability. These capabilities enable a simplified approach to high availability and disaster recovery.

Standard Edition

• Supports up to 5 databases.
• Each database is limited to a maximum size of 16 TB.

Enterprise Edition

• This is extended to 100 databases.

Storage group is no more in Exchange 2010 and onwards.

In January 2011, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 won InfoWorld’s 2011 Technology of the Year Award for Best Mail Server.

Exchange Server 2013

Microsoft reached the RTM milestone for Exchange Server 2013 on October 11, 2012. A trial version of this product is available from Microsoft website.

New features

New features include:

Offline support in OWA

Emails and actions are automatically synced the next time connectivity is restored.

Site Mailboxes

Brings Exchange emails and SharePoint documents together.

Outlook Web App

Offers three different UI layouts optimized for desktop, slate, and phone browsers.

Ability to customize

Outlook and OWA by integrating apps from the Office marketplace. (Yes, this is a reference to the Agaves add-ins that Microsoft and partners will be making available via the new Office Store.) The new “Napa” tools and/or HTML5 are Microsoft’s

preferred ways to developers to build these.

Exchange Administrative Center (EAC)

Replacement of the Exchange Management Console by a Web-based Exchange Administrative Center (EAC).

Support for up to 8TB disks

And multiple databases per disk via Data Availability Group (DAG) management.

Built in basic anti-malware protection

Ability for administrators to configure and manage settings from inside EAC. (Note: this feature can be turned off, replaced or “paired with premium services such as Exchange Online Protection for layered protection.”).

New Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Capabilities for identifying and protecting “sensitive data.” DLP policies are based on regulatory standards, including PII and PCI. Also: new policy tips in Outlook 2013 can be set to inform users about potential policy violations.

In-Place eDiscovery

Can be run across Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync from a single interface.

Combine Roles

A reduction in the number of available roles to two: a Client Access Server and a Mailbox Server role.

FAST Search

Now integrated into Exchange 2013 managed store to provide a more consistent (across Microsoft servers) indexing and searching experience.

Inclusion of a “Managed Store”

The name of the rewritten information store processes, which are now written in C#.

Replication

Public folders are now stored in mailbox databases and can take advantage of Database Availability Groups for replication and high availability.

Data loss prevention

Capabilities that can be integrated into Transport Rules.

Clustering and high availability

Exchange Server Enterprise Edition supports clustering of up to 4 nodes when using Windows 2000 Server, and up to 8 nodes with Windows Server 2003. Exchange Server 2003 also introduced active-active clustering, but for two-node clusters only. In this setup, both servers in the cluster are allowed to be active simultaneously. This is opposed to Exchange’s more common active-passive mode in which the failover servers in any cluster node cannot be used at all while their corresponding home servers are active. They must wait, inactive, for the home servers in the node to fail. Subsequent performance issues with active-active mode have led Microsoft to recommend that it should no longer be used. In fact, support for active-active mode clustering has been discontinued with Exchange Server 2007.

Exchange’s clustering (active-active or active-passive mode) has been criticized because of its requirement for servers in the cluster nodes to share the same physical data. The clustering in Exchange Server provides redundancy for Exchange Server as an application, but not for Exchange data. In this scenario, the data can be regarded as a single point of failure, despite Microsoft’s description of this set up as a “Shared Nothing” model. This void has however been filled by ISV’s and storage manufacturers, through “site resilience” solutions, such as geo-clustering and asynchronous data replication. Exchange Server 2007 introduces new cluster terminology and configurations that address the shortcomings of the previous “shared data model”.

Exchange Server 2007 provides built-in support for asynchronous replication modeled on SQL Server’s “Log shipping” in CCR (Cluster Continuous Replication) clusters, which are built on MSCS MNS (Microsoft Cluster Service—Majority Node Set) clusters, which do not require shared storage. This type of cluster can be inexpensive and deployed in one, or “stretched” across two datacenters for protection against site-wide failures such as natural disasters. The limitation of CCR clusters is the ability to have only two nodes and the third node known as “voter node” or file share witness that prevents “split brain” scenarios, generally hosted as a file share on a Hub Transport Server. The second type of cluster is the traditional clustering that was available in previous versions, and is now being referred to as SCC (Single Copy Cluster). In Exchange Server 2007 deployment of both CCR and SCC clusters has been simplified and improved; the entire cluster install process takes place during Exchange Server installation. LCR or Local Continuous Replication has been referred to as the “poor man’s cluster”. It is designed to allow for data replication to an alternative drive attached to the same system and is intended to provide protection against local storage failures. It does not protect against the case where the server itself fails.

In November 2007, Microsoft released SP1 for Exchange Server 2007. This service pack includes an additional high-availability feature called SCR (Standby Continuous Replication). Unlike CCR which requires that both servers belong to a Windows cluster, typically residing in the same datacenter, SCR can replicate data to a non-clustered server, located in a separate datacenter.

With Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft introduced the concept of the Database Availability Group (DAG). A DAG contains Mailbox servers that become members of the DAG. Once a Mailbox server is a member of a DAG, the Mailbox Databases on that server can be copied to other members of the DAG. When you add a Mailbox server to a DAG, the Failover Clustering Windows role is installed on the server and all required clustering resources are created.

Licensing

Like Windows Server products, Exchange Server requires client access licenses, which are different from Windows CALs. Corporate license agreements, such as the Enterprise Agreement, or EA, include Exchange Server CALs. It also comes as part of the Core CAL. Just like Windows Server and other server products from Microsoft, you can choose to use User or Device CALs. Device CALs are assigned to a device (workstation, laptop or PDA). User CALs, are assigned to a user or employee (not a mailbox). User CALs allow a user to access Exchange e-mail from any device. User and Device CALs are the same price, however cannot be used interchangeably. For Service Providers looking to host Microsoft Exchange, there is an SPLA (Service Provider License Agreement) available whereby Microsoft receives a monthly service fee in the place of the traditional Client Access Licenses. Two types of Exchange CAL are available: Exchange CAL Standard and Exchange CAL Enterprise. The Enterprise CAL is an add-on license to the Standard CAL.

Exchange hosting

Microsoft Exchange Server can also be purchased as a hosted service from a number of providers. Though Exchange hosting has been around for more than 10 years, it is only recently that many providers have been marketing the service as “Cloud Computing” or Software-as-a-Service. Exchange hosting allows for Microsoft Exchange Server to be running in the Internet, also referred to as the Cloud, and managed by a “Hosted Exchange Server provider” instead of building and deploying the system in-house.

Exchange Online

Microsoft Exchange Online is an email, calendar and contacts solution delivered as a cloud service, hosted by Microsoft. It is essentially the same service offered by hosted Exchange providers and it is built on the same technologies as Microsoft Exchange Server. Exchange Online provides end users with a familiar email experience across PCs, the Web and mobile devices, while giving IT administrators or small businesses and professionals web-based tools for managing their online deployment.

Microsoft Exchange is available both as on-premises software and as a hosted service with Exchange Online. Customers can also choose to combine both on-premises and online options in a hybrid deployment.

History

Exchange Online was first provided as a hosted service in dedicated customer environments in 2005 to select pilot customers. Microsoft launched a multi-tenant version of Exchange Online as part of the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite in November 2008. In June 2011, as part of the commercial release of Microsoft Office 365, Exchange Online was updated with the capabilities of Exchange Server 2010.

Exchange Server 2010 was developed concurrently as a server product and for the Exchange Online service.

Clients

Microsoft Exchange Server uses a proprietary RPC protocol, MAPI/RPC, that was designed to be used by Microsoft Outlook. Clients capable of using the proprietary features of Exchange Server include Evolution and Microsoft Outlook. Exchange Web Services (EWS), an alternative to the MAPI protocol, is a documented SOAP based protocol introduced with Exchange Server 2007 which significantly reduces synchronization time between the server vs. WebDAV, which is used by Exchange Server 2003. Exchange Web Services is used by the latest version of Microsoft Entourage for Mac and Microsoft Outlook for Mac. Also, since the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Mac computers running OS X include some support for this technology via Apple’s Mail application. Built-in support with Mac OS X 10.6 requires the Exchange organization to be running Exchange Server 2007 SP1/SP2 or Exchange Server 2010.

E-mail hosted on an Exchange Server can also be accessed using SMTP, POP3 and IMAP4 protocols, using clients such as Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Lotus Notes. These protocols must be enabled on the server. Exchange Server mailboxes can also be accessed through a web browser, using Outlook Web App (OWA). Exchange Server 2003 also featured a version of OWA for mobile devices, called Outlook Mobile Access (OMA).
Exchange ActiveSync

Support for Exchange ActiveSync was added to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Exchange ActiveSync, in the context of Exchange Server, allows a compliant device such as a Windows Mobile device to securely synchronize mail, contacts and other data directly with an Exchange server. Since its inception, ActiveSync has become a popular mobile access standard for businesses due to cross-platform support from companies like Nokia and Apple Inc. as well as its advanced device security and compliance features.

Support for Push E-mail was added to Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2. Windows Mobile 5.0 requires the “Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP)”, later versions of the mobile operating system, such as Windows Phone 7, have the capability built in. Many other devices now support ActiveSync push e-mail, such as the iPhone and Android Phones. Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010 support the use of Exchange ActiveSync Policies. By using Exchange ActiveSync Policies, administrators can secure the devices that connect to the organization or remotely deactivate features on the devices. Administrators or users can also remotely wipe a lost mobile device.

Exchange Server 2013 supports the use of Mobile Exchange ActiveSync Policies.

Call Alpha Computer Group today for all of your Microsoft Exchange Server needs @ (877) 608 – 8647