Microsoft Exchange 2010 Beta: Well Balanced

In addition, this interface can take advantage of new roles capabilities in Exchange Server 2010 to let administrators delegate capabilities to end users. Most interesting of these is the ability to quickly enable multiple mailbox searches, letting, for example, an HR or compliance officer quickly search for information across several mailboxes. Almost any capability accessed through the Exchange Control Panel can be turned on and off for specific users through the use of these roles.

On the administration side, like previous versions, Exchange Server 2010 still uses a standard Microsoft Management Console interface for the majority of management tasks. However, there is a greater use of tools such as wizards to ease the configuration of many common Exchange settings.

The Exchange Federation Gateway feature makes it possible for organisations to share Exchange data easily across their implementations or through a hosted Exchange Online system. For example, administrators can share live calendars across two different partner companies to smooth meeting scheduling.

Moving user mailboxes has been greatly streamlined and, in tests, user mailboxes could be moved quickly with limited disruption to end-user access.

With the Database Availability groups feature, I was able to easily configure database replication services to multiple servers, including off-site servers. In basic tests after bringing down a database server, the server seamlessly automatically recovered with no loss of messages.

Using the Transport Protection Rules, it was possible within the administration interface to create customised rules to control how specific messages could be routed within an organisation – for example, applying “no forwarding” rules to specific messages. This feature could also be tied to Windows Rights Management Services to provide deeper DRM-style controls over some messages.

The beta of Exchange Server 2010 also has a number of under-the-covers changes that increase the stability of Exchange and make it easier to use in a variety of organisations. These include the ability to work better with non-SAN storage infrastructures that utilise standard direct-attached disks.

Conclusion

Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2010, tested in its Beta 1 incarnation, takes on its cloud-based e-mail rivals with a new Outlook Web Access interface that adds both richness and interoperability with non-Microsoft browsers such as Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari. At the same time, Microsoft has bolstered the management capabilities relied upon by Exchange’s core enterprise audience.