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CHAPTER
1
Introduction to Exchange Server 2007
E
-mail communications and the messaging systems that support their transport and storage, which started as small simplistic text messages stored on electronic post offices with nominal storage capabilities and limited client functionality, have grown and changed over the last 20 years. They have evolved into complex messaging and collaboration systems with e-mail data storage architectures that can scale into terabytes and beyond, and with more client features than the average e-mail user will ever get to know. Driving this evolution has been the shift from e-mail messaging as a mere novelty to e-mail as a critical business and personal communication technology. According to the Radicati Group, there are over 1.2 billion e-mail users worldwide. Insourced messaging systems support approximately 27 percent of these users. That is still 324 million professionally supported e-mail clients. They also estimate that the number of e-mail users worldwide will grow from 1.2 billion in 2007 to 1.6 billion in 2011, at an average annual growth rate of 7 percent over the next four years. Microsoft’s first enterprise e-mail solution, Microsoft Mail (MS Mail), was a fairly average product in the messaging industry. Microsoft’s current e-mail solution, Exchange Server, is one of the most commercially successful messaging system, with over 140 million Exchange clients worldwide. From Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Mail, to MS Mail to Exchange 4.0, to Exchange 5.0/5.5 to Exchange 2000, to Exchange Server 2003 and now Exchange Server 2007, you can observe the distinctly different evolution stages in the messaging industry reflected in the e-mail products from Microsoft. Microsoft has proven with Exchange Server 5.5, which has been in some production environments for over eight years, that what they build into their messaging product has true reliability and real staying power. In a sense, Exchange Server 2007 is a window
1
Introduction to Exchange Server 2007
E
-mail communications and the messaging systems that support their transport and storage, which started as small simplistic text messages stored on electronic post offices with nominal storage capabilities and limited client functionality, have grown and changed over the last 20 years. They have evolved into complex messaging and collaboration systems with e-mail data storage architectures that can scale into terabytes and beyond, and with more client features than the average e-mail user will ever get to know. Driving this evolution has been the shift from e-mail messaging as a mere novelty to e-mail as a critical business and personal communication technology. According to the Radicati Group, there are over 1.2 billion e-mail users worldwide. Insourced messaging systems support approximately 27 percent of these users. That is still 324 million professionally supported e-mail clients. They also estimate that the number of e-mail users worldwide will grow from 1.2 billion in 2007 to 1.6 billion in 2011, at an average annual growth rate of 7 percent over the next four years. Microsoft’s first enterprise e-mail solution, Microsoft Mail (MS Mail), was a fairly average product in the messaging industry. Microsoft’s current e-mail solution, Exchange Server, is one of the most commercially successful messaging system, with over 140 million Exchange clients worldwide. From Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Mail, to MS Mail to Exchange 4.0, to Exchange 5.0/5.5 to Exchange 2000, to Exchange Server 2003 and now Exchange Server 2007, you can observe the distinctly different evolution stages in the messaging industry reflected in the e-mail products from Microsoft. Microsoft has proven with Exchange Server 5.5, which has been in some production environments for over eight years, that what they build into their messaging product has true reliability and real staying power. In a sense, Exchange Server 2007 is a window