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Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: A Business-friendly Messaging Solution
Microsoft's Exchange Server 2010 offers significant improvements over previous versions of Exchange by introducing features such as native support for fault-tolerant clustering and continuous backup, support for commodity disk drives to slash the cost of large inboxes, a more powerful web client compatible with all popular browsers, advanced voice mail capability including voice-to-text conversion, and a wealth of tools for enhancing security and compliance.

These improvements in Exchange 2010 lower expenses for administration, support, equipment, and services while at the same time creating a dependable, collaborative environment that promotes better business outcomes. Microsoft estimates that if carefully deployed, Exchange 2010 can reduce messaging costs by 50-80% compared to previous releases of Exchange. In a nutshell, Exchange 2010 is business friendly.

Although Exchange Server 2010 remains a popular messaging platform, newer versions of Exchange are available to lower ownership costs even further and to provide enhancements in the areas of cloud integration, simplicity of deployment and management, security and compliance, availability, performance, collaboration support, and cross-platform integration with mobile devices. Progent's Microsoft-certified Exchange consultants can assist your organization to evaluate the business advantage of maintaining your existing Exchange Server 2010 solution or help you to plan and implement an efficient Exchange Server 2016 migration or an Exchange Server 2013 upgrade.

Progent's Affordable and Effective Remote Consulting Services for Exchange 2010
Progent's seasoned engineering team specializes in delivering remote consulting and technical support in order to provide enterprise-class network IT services at a price small businesses can afford. Remote support eliminates travel costs and improves business productivity by resolving problems quickly. Progent has been perfecting online support techniques for more than two decades and has delivered successful results to businesses in every state in the U.S. (Check out Progent's nationwide customer testimonials.)

Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants offer a wide selection of Exchange integration and troubleshooting skills. Services available from Progent to help you maintain Exchange 2010 include:

• Enhance your Exchange 2010 deployment by improving its availability and security or expanding its capacity
• Integrate Exchange 2010 with cloud with services such as Office 365 integration support
• Provide the expertise of Cisco-certified CCIE engineers to help you build a robust network infrastructure to support Exchange 2010
• Offer iPhone and iPad integration, Android phone and tablet consulting, and RIM BlackBerry expertise to provide your mobile users with access to Exchange 2010's rich feature set
• Help you develop a business continuity plan so you can quickly restore Exchange 2010 services in case of a catastrophic failure
• Deliver affordable and responsive online and onsite technical support
• Configure Exchange 2010 and Active Directory to enforce your security policies
• Provide CISA and GIAC certified IT security experts to help you achieve or validate compliance with government and industry security standards
• Produce comprehensive documentation of integration services for your Exchange 2010 environment
• Train your network support team and your messaging clients so that Exchange 2010 begins improving business outcomes immediately
• Provide ongoing support including remote Help Desk services

New Exchange 2010 Architecture Increases System Uptime and Lowers Costs
Exchange Server 2010 introduces the concept of Database Availability Groups (DAGs) to provide native support for fault-tolerant clustering and continuous backup. A Database Availability Group is a set of mailbox servers that automatically replicate databases and that can recover quickly from server or storage system breakdowns. A DAG allows you to set up as many as 16 mailbox servers with automatic failover capability that takes less than half a minute. Another feature that contributes to continuous uptime is the ability of managers to move mailboxes to different servers without disrupting Exchange 2010 operation.

Exchange 2010 makes it possible to set up redundant server configurations without having to hassle with external clustering software, simplifying management and reducing licensing costs. Exchange 2010 allows you to implement a redundant server configuration with only two servers. In comparison, Exchange 2007 requires four severs for full redundancy. To achieve enterprise-class fault tolerance, Exchange 2010 now has built-in support for site failover between geographically separated datacenters. For easier and more affordable management, Exchange 2010 lets you administer Database Availability Groups remotely and from within the Exchange environment.

Exchange 2010 Now Supports Commodity Disk Drives
Exchange 2010 has added support for consumer-class Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives, which are included in most personal computers shipping today. By supporting storage area networks, direct attached SAS drives, and ultra-affordable SATA disks, Exchange protects your existing IT investments while dramatically lowering the cost of expanding your storage capacity.

Made possible because of Exchange 2010's faster I/O architecture, support for low-cost disks offers advantages that extend beyond merely saving 80% of the cost of disk storage. Inexpensive disk storage allows businesses to ease the restrictions commonly placed on the size of their workers' mailboxes. Bigger mailboxes free system managers from the burden of continually pestering their clients to tidy up their mailboxes or fielding requests for more generous policies on attachment sizes. Workers lose less productivity cleaning out their mailboxes or dividing business-critical attachments among multiple messages. Customers and partners are less likely to experience the irritation of trying to contact an employee whose mailbox is full.

Best Ever Outlook Web Access Plus BlackBerry and iPhone Synchronization
Exchange 2010 supports Office Outlook 2010 and is backwards compatible with previous versions of Outlook client software, although these older editions of Office Outlook do not allow users to access all the new features introduced by Exchange 2010. However, this new rich feature set for Exchange 2010 clients is available via any popular web browser thanks to the dramatically improved version of Outlook Web App (formerly called Outlook Web Access). The latest incarnation of OWA now works with Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari and includes synchronization support for virtually all smartphones including the RIM BlackBerry and Apple iPhone.

Another new productivity enhancer supported by OWA is Exchange 2010's Conversation View, which automatically groups the messages within a thread for easy retrieval and management. With Conversation View, users can immediately find the most recent message in a complex thread and can manage entire threads as though they were messages. Conversations can be instantly filed, erased, moved, and archived, even when the messages within a thread are in multiple folders. OWA also supports advanced searches, shared calendars, and simplified message filtering. When combined with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 integration, OWA also supports presence awareness, allowing users to determine quickly the best way to contact someone.

For more details about Exchange 2010's enhancements to OWA, see Improved Outlook Web Access and Smart Phone Synchronization.

Advanced Voice Mail Features
Exchange 2010's enhanced support for voice mail makes it possible to replace outdated PBX equipment and voice mail services with Microsoft's software-driven alternative. This can save money (up to 40%, according to Microsoft's estimates) and improve productivity by making it easier to retrieve and manage voice messages.

The powerful Speech to Text Preview feature introduced by Exchange 2010 automatically translates voice mail messages into text so that users can quickly scan all their message in the same centralized inbox. This saves the time required to play audio files and the frustration of listening to junk voice mail. Speech to Text Preview also prevents urgent voice messages from being lost in the shuffle by busy users who can't always take the time to plow through all their voice messages.

Other enhancements to voice mail introduced by Exchange 2010 include programmable attendants that allow users to create custom menus to greet callers and help them navigate the voice mail system. Users can also specify rules for automatically responding to calls and routing them based on Caller ID or other contact data. To deal with missed calls, users can configure Exchange 2010 to send text messages to alert users that new voice mail is available. In the area of voice mail security, Exchange 2010 works with Active Directory Rights Management Service. This allows businesses to prevent sensitive voice messages from being forwarded to unauthorized recipients.

Enhanced Security and Compliance
Exchange 2010 offers a variety of new tools that make it easier to define and enforce security policies that align closely with the special needs of your business. Exchange 2010 provides fine granularity for determining the severity of security controls applied to messages based on the source, destination, and contents of each message. These new features of Exchange help businesses safeguard sensitive information, protect individual privacy, and comply with government regulations or industry standards.

Exchange 2010 allows you to automate whether messages will be passed untouched, blocked, held pending approval, routed to additional or fewer recipients, or encrypted. You can control message flow based on the sender, individual recipients or distribution lists, or the contents of the message or attachments. For monitoring content, you can specify keywords and patterns, like social security or credit card numbers, that will trigger a control option. To mitigate liability issues, Exchange 2010 can also automatically append headers or disclaimers to messages that meet specified conditions.

For easier compliance, Exchange 2010 enables managers and individual users to establish retention policies for email messages and folders. Exchange 2010 allows you to specify items for retention and to set expiration dates in order to automate archiving policies. To help comply with auditing requirements and to lower the costs of legal discovery, Exchange 2010 provides a versatile web-based search capability that supports searches across mailboxes.

Contact Progent for Help with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
For consulting services and technical support with Exchange Server 2010, call 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.